Jack McMullen
Some Thoughts on the way Citizens Bank Handled a Recent Branch Incident in December 2022
I banked with Citizens (and its predecessor banks) in Burlington, Vermont and Cambridge, Massachusetts, the former for 27 years and the latter for over 40 years. For all of that time I had cordial relations at both locations and with the managers and tellers resident in the two branches I used in each city.
Burlington branch is terrific.
Central Square Cambridge has become another story. For most of my 40 years of patronage the branch served me well. I was a satisfied customer. Then late in 2022 the management and many of the tellers in that branch were changed over wholesale. They do not know their customer and apparently don't care to.
They changed long standing practices which led to a heated dustup with one of the new tellers transferred from elsewhere (my fault for losing my temper with her and her fault for total inflexibility in insisting on rejecting a deposit containing a check deposited the old way for more than a decade).
Ironically, after I left the branch I walked to the Portland Street branch nearby and deposited the rejected check (so resisted by that new teller) without incident.
Then instead of asking for a meeting about the incident, the bank simply sent a pre-emptive letter closing my seven accounts, corporate and personal, blowing up my ability to operate and receive direct deposits (SSN check and other links).
The letter said the decision was final, do not contact the bank.
The letter gave 30 days grace but was sent to my Vermont office so only 10 days remained when I returned there from Cambridge.
Needless to say when an action like this is taken the bank knows full well the disruptive effect it will have and doubtless intended that. It has taken hours upon hours to restore my ability to operate my business and personal accounts.
Despite over four decades of fairly good experience with Citizens (and its predecessor banks) I cannot recommend a bank that acts in such a summarial manner and potential customers reading this report should not take the risk of banking there either.
Sincerely, Jack McMullen read more