“CHASE IS NO LONGER COURTEOUS”
When I lived in NY I banked at Banker’s Trust, which eventually was taken over by Manny Hanny (Manufacturer Hanover), then Chemical and after that Chase. With each subsequent takeover, the gap between my original personal relationship with the bank kept widening, despite the increasing dollars that were being proffered by my business into its coffers. After I retired and moved California, I closed my account, as there was no longer a need to have a business relationship with a large institution. Now, being a senior, I was lured into the attractive offers made by Washington Mutual to open a free personal checking account including free checks. Faced with a choice of what my new personal checks should look like, I opted for the duplicate checks they offered. Since the bank, no longer sends cancelled checks with their monthly statements it is as an easy way to check my bank statement against the carbon copy of each of the few checks I now write. I have been doing this for the last 5 years. On occasion when I renewed my order for additional checks a debit would appear on my bank statement charging me for checks. I would go into my WaMu branch and point out that free checks were included in my type of account. Each time, a teller would acknowledge this and credit my account for the amount charged. That was until yesterday.
I went into the Solano branch of the now Chase bank, which has taken over WaMu. When I first learned of this takeover, I mused, “Chase is chasing me.” I went over to the teller and showed him my latest bank statement debiting my account for $25 for the recent order of checks. He looked thru my records and saw that I had never been charged for checks previously. He went over to one of the assistant managers (Mitra), who came over and informed me that while checks are usually free, the duplicate checks I had ordered are not free. I told her these were the same type of checks I always used since opening the account and I never had to pay for them before. She replied that not being charged was an error on the bank’s part each time I was credited. When I replied that maybe it was because the bank valued me as a customer and extended this waiver as a customer courtesy and asked that Chase do the same. Her reply, “Chase is no longer courteous.” My anger turned to laughter as I guffawed and announced out loud to the other waiting patrons, “Did you hear what she just said, “Chase is no longer courteous.”
Embarrassed by my out loud pronouncement, she offered to “rescind” this charge this one last time. I responded that in that case I may just “rescind” my account at Chase. She then withdrew her offer and said I would have to consult with her manager.
After waiting 8 minutes for her manager, I told her manager that I was no longer angry as I have a headline for a column that I was going to write entitled: "Chase is no longer courteous” The manager was very polite, but again would only let the no check charge be reversed this one last time. She asked me, ‘Please don’t write about this.” My response, “Are you kidding?”
