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01/15/2005 Archived Entry: "Wachovia Hits the Skids"

Well Wachovia has managed to endear itself to my shit list.

I have an interesting relationship with Wachovia. They are where I bank. They are also one of my clients. I have been there since it was Florida National Bank. It hasn't been an easy relationship. I am not the best at keeping a positive balance and they are awful on their deposit policy. The deposit policy has been a bigger culprit than my trying to keep track of my balance.

The issue of them putting five and seven day holds on local checks has been my biggest problem especially when they do it and don't tell me. I love it when it is my payroll check they do it to. Now I have to be fair. My last employer made a habit of causing my paycheck to bounce, however I that issue caused me to switch companies. The new company has bounced no paychecks. I was recently given a check to compensate me for some travel expenses I have coming up. I would use the money to buy tickets, hotel, and materials and turn in the receipts. I deposited the check which is from the same company that I receive my payroll from. I did that on Tuesday. Since it was after 2pm it would go on Wednesday's business. No problem, the funds would become available by Thursday morning and I would purchase my tickets and my materials starting on Friday. I also has some of my money from my normal payroll still left in my account. I was using that to pay a few bills. One of which was a parking ticket. I would pay for that on Friday also, I still had enough funds left over from my original paycheck to cover that. Friday arrives and I start my row of purchases and pay for my parking ticket. I go to work and I have lunch at a oriental restaurant. I pay for it with my debit card. It comes back declined. I was a bit miffed, my deposits should be clear by now. I had my regular credit card and paid for lunch and went and call my bank. I was overdrawn. I was wondering why. They decided to hold my reimbursement check for 7 days. I wasn't told that when I went to the teller and made the deposit. Also some of those purchases I had made this morning had gone through. However since there wasn't enough funds they approved them and then charged me for each one of them.

So now I am looking at $300 in nsf charges. I might as well just give the back my paycheck and say here keep it. I call the bank and asked them about it. The response was we decided to hold the check until Wednesday the 19th. I flipped. I wasn't nice. They tried to call the local bank the check was drawn on the same one my paychecks are drawn on and get verification on the check going through. The local bank wouldn't give over the phone verification. So my bank tells me to contact my employer and verify that the check has gone through. It is Friday at 5:30 pm there is no one in my office and I shouldn't have to contact them.

Here is the other problem I am out of town, hell outta of state, and my pending airline and hotel charges that haven't gone through yet are also going to bounce. And my ass is going to end up stranded because the bank wants to be a prick. I was not happy.

I said I want them to release the funds and refund the current charges. They said no. I hung up. I called back a couple of hours later and figured I would try again with a different operator, maybe I would have better luck. I call and basically went through the same thing. I said is there a way I could get a partial release of funds until Wednesday. After much being on hold and my explaining my plight they agreed to release $300 dollars but they would have to charge me $30 to do so. I wanted to scream. They aren't going to refund the already incurred charges and they want to charge me again for placing the money in my account.

Well here is what is going to happen. I am going to let them so that I can try to minimize the damage that is happening. I am going to return home somehow someway (probably bug my wife) and then I am going to the bank speak to the manager get my refunds and pull my safe deposit box which really has nothing of value in it except my birth certificate and other such paperwork. leave .01 in my checking account and take my business across the street to Washington Mutual where my wife has been banking for a few years and where they won't hold my paychecks for 7 days.

The interesting thing about this is that over the years I have done over a million dollars worth of work for Wachovia as a vendor. I didn't get the million the company did and that is probably the gross total before expenses. However, I do very good work for them. I work for a different division than their banking so I am not tied in with those people directly, but I always liked that I put my paycheck back in where some of my money came from even if it was in a indirect manner. I feel even better now that they will not be getting any of it back at all now. I really am quite discouraged that they would do this and treat me like this. I can file a complaint with the banking regulators but it won't do much.

So almost 20 years of buisness 2 succesful and completly paid off loans and thousands of dollars in monthly fees are at an end. I am sure they won't even mourn.