HAPPY FATHERS DAY: BANK RANT
At first, I thought my Father’s Day gift had been a giveaway. Turns out it wasn’t.
Maybe it SHOULD have been. This is where my banking rant begins.
I have been a lifelong customer of Toronto Dominion Bank. When I was 16, I opened up my first account with them. Over the years, the service I received from individuals kept me as their client. When I was concerned about service fees, my favourite teller showed me how to do all my banking electronically, and saved me a bundle of dough at the time.
When I needed financial planning, mortgages, credit lines and the like, Wade was there to fix me up. He was terrific. Great service, and he seemed to know what I would need before I knew I needed to ask him.
Wade was so good, he was promoted. He was no longer my advisor. Then came the merge with Canada Trust. You know how these things go.. the bank ups my service fees to match the higher fees of Canada Trust, but they claim that they now have expanded hours! As an electronic customer, I don’t go in branches. Why would I care if you have longer hours!? You just have the same hours as Canada Trust did, so you don’t peeve off the CT customers.
When I renegotiated my mortgage, the new advisor I had was more concerned about herself than about my business. She did no work to assist me in my needs, to the point that she told me I would need my parents to co-sign for a mortgage that I already had, but would now be paying less per month with no debt. The reason? I couldn’t prove my income.
However, without being able to prove I could make any payments, it was perfectly OK to continue paying the mortgage and debt load that was going to cost $500 more per month. To save $500 per month, I had to prove that I could pay the money. To pay an extra $500 a month, I didn’t. Ludicrousness.
It was then that I sat down and started meeting with other banks. I had had enough. But before I switched my business, I spoke to the branch manager and told her the problems. She made amends for the employee’s inappropriate service, and I decided that I would continue with TD Canada Trust. However, after that little incident, (the employee was a former Canada Trust-er) I felt a lot less “Trust” in the company.
It would have been simple and less expensive to move my accounts, but I’m a loyal type of guy. I want to be rewarded for my loyalty. I want to keep going to the same place so they get to know you, and they begin to really appreciate your business.
This latest promotion though burns my butt. After ostracizing a great number of customers, TD Canada Trust now is promoting their “EasySwitch” program and rewarding customers with an iPod Shuffle. In all their print ads, mailers, on-line banking, ATM machines, all I read is, “Get a Free iPod Shuffle when you switch your main personal or small business chequing account.”
What about ME? What about the guy that PUT UP with all this crap? Call me selfish, but what do I get for being a loyal customer, other than higher banking fees and poorer service?
Apparently nothing. I called my local branch, to give them the chance to do me a “Thank You”. I explained my concerns with the rep there. She looked at my portfolio and even the branch manager acknowledged that I was indeed a long-time customer. However, the branch manager only said, “I’m a long-time customer too, and I can’t get one.”
That’s not what I wanted to hear. Manager, if you want an iPod, you go and ask for one. I’m sure you can figure out a loophole. Besides, I’m pretty sure that employees are not allowed to participate in any promotions. Stop trying to change MY tune into “OUR” tune.
Instead, there will be no tunes… At least no FREE iPod Shuffle Tunes…
Although I may still “switch my main personal chequing account” to another bank.
Wouldn't that be ironic? A promotion intended to bring in new customers, actually causes customers to leave. Go figure...
posted by JODSTER @ 11:11 AM
13 comments
13 Comments:
That promotion and others like it tick me off too. It's as though you get punished for already being a customer. I may close out my account tomorrow and start a new one later in the day just to get my free stuff..
Banks are evil. Pure and simple. They have had their way with em for years. I felt like I had been slipped financial rufies and passed around like joint at a rave.
I got the last laugh though. In these days of more service charges than interest I keep all my money in my mattress.
I only wish I was a little more wealthy. With all those rolls of coins I feel a little like the Princess and the Pea than the avenged banking guy.
I use three different banks, the worst one is the one that I've banked at for the longest! Don't know why I stay loyal to them and just don't use the other two exclusively.
Leave and come back. Will that work?
What the heck is an IPOD Shuffle...sounds like a dance.
I hate banks. They are nothing but loan sharks and theives. grrrrrrrrrrr
Any company that attempts to seduce new customers with gifts, but withholds the gifts from current customers, is broadcasting:
"We entice you to join us, then we take you for granted."
Why can't the bank send the promo to current customers, and give them the option to appear in the bank and request the iPod?
Not every customer will want one, others will not know what one is, still others will not wish to make an appearance at the bank, asking for a free hand-out, since their dignity and cash position would cause them to appear ridiculous.
But the current customers will feel appreciated and not inferior to new customers.
Current customers generate word of mouth, which new customers generally do not, unless they're very excited about some crazy deal they got.
You get the same thing when you go to renew your magazine subscription. They offer you a cheap rate your first year, then double the price when you renew. But... one year I wrote a peeved-sounding letter to one of these magazines about this, and guess what? They gave me the new-subscriber rate. While I'm not surprised a bank doesn't want to give every one of existing its customers an iPod Shuffle, when the stakes are lower you can sometimes be successful getting the deal new customers get.
You should totally leave. Tell them you're gone for good unless you get an iPod.
Or leave then switch back. It's just such a pain to have to switch all your banking info.
I bank with CIBC and they haven't been too big a pain in my rear. I think, lately, they've been trying harder to give good service. Of course, I have to do some fancy footwork to avoid the service charges they try to nick you with for EVERYTHING.
I wrote a similar piece on my blog, and while I had happier results (they gave me 6 months of no service charges), Im still annoyed. The woman I spoke to also pulled the "I cant get one either" comment, which I thought was highly inappropriate as I am her customer, not her coworker.
I would love to leave TD behind, but I worry that I'll just be shooting myself in the foot, as I don't trust the other banks in the least. Damn these mergers! All they do is benefit the banks, and not the customers.
The way you feel about banks is the way I feel about my music CD buying. Because of so many people who don't buy CDs and just steal them off the internet, some CDs now have built in copy protection. This means if I bought them legitimately and wished to make a mix because half the tracks on the disc were mediocre, I couldn't because of the copy protection. However, if I'd stolen the song in the first place then I could make a mix no problem.
I have bought music for a long time and own maybe 1000 CDs. It might be time for me to start stealing songs now though. I tell ya JPTH, this problem of "ours" really blows!
I don't know if this is changed, but for the last month at least I've seen that logo as I logged in to EasyWeb...
It says "Whether you're a current TD Canada Trust customer or someone looking for a more comfortable banking experience, switch your main chequing account to TD Canada Trust by August 12, 2005 and we'll give you a FREE iPod shuffle¹ - Apple's smallest MP3 player yet."
I called the toll free number and asked how I could qualify for this... it's easy; I use the EasySwitch feature to close another bank account somewhere else, and voila; iPod. The big catch is that you should not use the online form to initiate the process; call the toll free number or go to your bank. Tell them that you're an existing TD customer and you're sick of your secondary chequing account that you setup 10 minutes earlier at the bank across the street and that you'd like to use EasySwitch to move that other account...
Then all you need to do is setup those auto-payment things.
That's it.
It's 10 minutes of leg work, and you have an iPod shuffle.
That only works if you have an account to switch to TD. If, as a loyal customer, you have ALL your accounts already with the bank (the BEST kind of customer), you get nothing.
Hi, I like your blog. I should say that it is not a problem to find a mortgage or Loan Company at the present time; however, it is quite an issue to find a good and trustworthy one. From this great site www.pissedconsumer.com I learned about TD Canada Trust. TD Canada Trust is a financial services company that specializes in mortgage finance. The company originates purchases and provides a diverse range of loans.
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