banks suck

This is a letter I just sent to BB&T, a bank we had been approached by at our retail store. A woman from one of the branches down here gave us her card and said 'If we can do anything, let us know!'

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Hello. My name is John Painz. My family business, Soapier, applied for a line of credit at your Tampa Road, Palm Harbor branch just over a month ago. We were helped by the branch manager who was very nice and kind while in our application phase. We had gone with BB&T after meeting one of the branch's worker, at our retail store. We went with BB&T because we had been treated poorly at Wachovia, and were hoping that a smaller bank would have better customer service.

We were wrong.

After applying, and telling the branch manager about our experience with Wachovia, we asked that they just let us know whether we got our line of credit or not, in a timely fashion, and to not make us wait (or not hear from the bank) if we did not receive the line of credit.

She assured us they would not make us wait, and would be in touch personally. After a week, I left repeated messages for the bank manager, which were not returned by her. When they were returned, they were returned by someone else, giving us the run-a-round. It took over two weeks to finally get an answer, and when we did get the answer that we were not approved of the credit line, we weren't told by the branch manager who helped us, we were told by someone else. Not only that, but we found out the branch manager had known for an entire week we were not getting approved.

She decided that instead of letting us know about our denial of credit, she went on vacation. We had opened up a business account with BB&T. We were also going to open up 3 additional personal checking AND savings accounts with your company. That will not be happening now.

I cannot tell you how, after explaining to the branch manager, how poorly we were treated, in the exact same manner, by Wachovia, how disappointed I am in your bank.

Is it policy to have your managers go out of their way to help customers apply for credit, but then ignore them when we call?

Is it policy to just disregard people who don't make the credit line grade at BB&T?

BB&T had better get their branch managers up to speed on what is responsible and acceptable behavior from prospective clients whose future financial situation will improve. You've lost not only a business account, but a number of personal accounts.

I'm seriously disgusted. - John Painz - Soapier

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Hey! Neil Diamond's on the muzak!

I love Neil Diamond.