I spoke with Jennifer at the Monona, Wisconsin BMO Harris Bank today to discuss making a deposit to my HSA account for 2018. I wanted to make the transaction easier by calling in advance and having the forms ready for me to complete when I arrived at the branch. Jennifer wasn't willing to do that until I arrived to make the transaction face to face. She said she didn't know what I wanted to do, or how much I wanted to deposit, in spite of me telling her exactly what and how much. I asked to speak with the HSA specialist. She told me I could call the main BMO Harris number. I asked her for the number. She told me it was on the BMO Harris website, so I asked her again if she could please give it to me. Before I ended my call with Jennifer I asked once more if she could please have the forms ready for me to make the deposit to my HSA account. She declined. I called the main number to BMO Harris, and was told I would be able to make the deposit in person, or by mail, but that in person would probably be easiest because they could print out the forms for me at the branch. While running my errands I saw that there was a BMO Harris bank in Madison on Fish Hatchery Rd., and hoped that someone there might be more helpful. I went to Justin, a teller, who said he could help me make a deposit to my HSA account and designate it for 2018. He took my check and made the deposit. I asked him how I could be sure it was designated for 2018. He said he had no idea, and referred me to Aaleyah, the banker at the desk. She was not sure how to designate the deposit for 2018, either. I mentioned that I spoke with someone on the phone and that there was a form to complete. She called the help desk phone number and searched a website at the same time, looking for this form. She could not give me an estimate about how long it would take her to find the information or forms. I asked if she could talk to someone else at the branch, who might be able to help her. She said the manager had left for the day and the HSA specialist was on vacation this week. Her colleague, Rebekah, came over and together they found the form online and downloaded it for me to complete. They did not know how long it would take for the form to be processed, but said that I had until April 15 to get it done. This is true, provided I wait until then to file my tax return. I am ready to file my tax return now, and waiting until April 15 is not acceptable. When I arrived home I called to confirm that the deposit was made into my account and designated for 2018. The person who answered the phone was not familiar with how that worked. I had to ask her to call the HSA specialist to get this information. She did, and came back to tell me that once the form I completed at the branch was received and processed, they would re-designate the funds for 2018 as indicated on my form. She wasn't sure how long it would take for it to be processed, but suggested I call back in a week. Because I want to know where and how my HSA funds are being invested, I thought it would be wise to get signed up for online banking. I was transferred to that department and waited on hold for 20 minutes before I decided it wasn't worth my time to wait any longer. I am disappointed by the series of unfortunate interactions I've had with BMO Harris today. Frankly, my first experience with Joanne at the Monona branch when I opened the account in November was not any different. I am surprised by how totally uneducated the bankers are regarding these accounts. I have not had one person who had any reasonable knowledge about, at very least, how to do transactions for HSA accounts. I have educated myself about how they work and what are the maximum contributions, along with any potential tax benefits now and in the future. I expect the bankers to have some basic knowledge of the product they are selling, and the BMO Harris bankers I came in contact with today have nearly none. Now that I know how easy it would have been for Jennifer at Monona to have the form printed out for me, I am even more disappointed with the lack of customer service she provided. I felt I was putting her out by asking her to have these forms printed in advance, and if she would have agreed I would not have gone to another branch hoping to find friendlier service. I hope this message can be used as a teaching point for the bankers in the Madison and Monona, Wisconsin area. I would not hire any of the BMO Harris employees I came into contact with today. Sadly, I tried to submit this message directly via the BMO Harris website and I got an error message: Please do not include any special characters including '[] {} \ (symbols for greater than and less than, not allowed in yelp reviews) & *_'. I do not see any of those special characters in this review. But it is poetic that the one last interaction I attempted to have with BMO Harris today also failed. read more
