Okay, the title is extreme, but I needed to get your attention.
However, I am frustrated with PNC Bank at the moment for how they operate their business.
Every bank has pros and cons.
[as a note, I still believe you should have multiple types of financial accounts for different purposes].
Here’s a pro of PNC Bank.
PNC is a philanthropic bank and a large sponsor for an event I’m involved with in my city.
But here’s a con.
It’s a huge business with an archaic structure that, at times, makes no sense.
Smaller, savvier banks can steal their share of the market by not doing these things.
Here’s my story.
I have multiple accounts with PNC — 3 business accounts and two personal ones.
This example involves my son’s account.
It’s a simple $24 transaction.
That’s right – $24.
[on a note, the issue below would be the same whether it was $24 or $24,000 – it’s frustrating all the same – I’m tracking the situation for the principle of the thing].
Here’s what happened.
My son deposits two checks.
Check A is $54
Check B is $24
Check B gets deposited as $2,400
I’m not sure how this happens, but it does.
Bank teller error.
Our son doesn’t see the error until he is at home (Lesson #1) and asks us about it.
My wife drives him back to the bank.
They say they corrected it.
His account is ‘paused’ while we wait.
A few days later, the $2,400 is reversed.
Well, where’s the $24?
I reached out to customer support.
They see the issue and then try to correct it by reversing $2,376 (as a way to leave the $24 there).
I mentioned the $2,400 reversal already, but they didn’t realize this.
So now my son’s account is negative.
It’s on hold.
He can’t use it.
Customer service again.
They have to escalate it.
I connected with the rep.
He calls me (nice guy).
Over 30 minutes, we discussed the entire situation and what happened.
I just want my son’s $24 and maybe even something extra for all of our invested (wasted?) time, inability to use money, etc.
Here’s what we were unaware of and how it happened.
The moment the teller incorrectly keyed in $2,400, the check went through the Federal Reserve’s clearing process and pinged that account for $2,400.
The kid who wrote my son a check didn’t have it, so the bank returned the money.
So PNC doesn’t ‘have’ the $24.
So they can’t just make it right.
My son would now have to go back to the kid and get a brand new check for $24.
All from a mistake of the PNC bank teller in the first place!
Does this sound fair?
I didn’t think so.
The rep said that he’d have the local bank manager call me.
To their credit, they did call me on the same day.
I missed the call.
I’ve tried to call back twice — as of now, I haven’t been able to get anyone to answer the phone…
In most other business situations, this gets rectified immediately.
Think of any business example.
Let’s say a restaurant.
If you get an incorrect order or something is wrong, at a minimum, you’ll get your order corrected.
There’s a good chance the manager will be happy to pay for your meal.
Heck, there’s even a possibility if the situation is extreme enough that they decide to take care of your entire bill.
But this doesn’t seem to be the case in the banking industry – at least not with PNC.
PNC Bank didn’t apologize.
They didn’t take responsibility.
And they’re sure not trying to rectify the issue.
In fact, they’re requiring us to do more work (my son just decided to ‘not worry about it’ since the money is from a friend he was helping and just doesn’t want to bother).
Do with this info what you will.
While I do suggest having at least one account with a large banking institution, it can definitely come with its issues.
So, do I really hate PNC Bank?
Not really — not enough to move my business from them.
But I don’t agree with how they handled this.
Wishing you luck!
Brooks
