I switched to Brookline Bank from a mega bank years ago. I had been very satisfied with both their brick & mortar and online services, but a year ago they switched online providers. Since then I dread having to bank online; I find the new online service to be too complex, lacking expected features, sloppy and frustrating.
It starts with the login, where the single click login process was replaced with a multi-screen login process. With the old service I was never locked out over 10 years, but with the new service I get locked out every few months.
Instead of logging into Brookline Bank with service provided by Intuit, I now login to Jack Henry at netteller.com. I never feel comfortable, always feeling like it's a phishing redirect. Frequently it pops up additional security questions, making me more anxious and more annoyed.
Every page displays the time zone differently, usually with an incorrect time zone label. You might think that would be an easy fix and unimportant, but to me it's a sign of a poorly designed website with poorly implemented code.
Perhaps the most frustrating is the new service's balance alerts which have never worked properly. I set up balance alerts for my Checking account. Every day I receive an alert that my Checking balance is above my maximum threshold, even when my balance is below my minimum threshold. After 9 months of being told "we are looking into it", I was finally told "too bad, that's the way it works". Instead of reporting on how much I have in Checking, it reports on total of Checking & Savings. Perhaps they are trying to tell me that I have too much money saved at their bank?
I no longer feel like a valued customer and feel like the bank is more interested in outsourcing to a low-cost provider than providing quality service to their customers. Time to look for a new bank. Maybe it's time to give the mega banks another try? read more