I opened a Performance chequing account in January, 2022 in the branch at 1875 Dilworth Drive,…read moreKelowna. The card I was issued contained the the Interac and MasterCard logos, and should be accepted by retailers such as Apple and Amazon, it was not. When attempting to add my account as a payment method with Apple in January 2022, the card came up declined. I attempted at a few other retailers on the list, including Amazon, and those declined as well. I went into the branch to resolve the issue and was told their system showed that it should be working, so there was nothing they could do. So I called the Customer Service line as shown on the back of the card. The answer I got from them was the same as what I received in the branch: the card is set up and should be working, so just try again.
Over the next 28 months, I enquired about this issue each and every time I visited the branch, and I called the Customer Service line at least once a month. Every day, in fact, in the early days, but slowing to once a month over the years, as it was obviously a waste of my time: every time I called or enquired at the branch, I was given the same answer as before. Then, about a year ago, the answer changed: they said that there was a restriction on the card, so they removed the restriction and assured me that now it should be working. However, it still declined, and when I called back, I would receive the same answer again: that there was a restriction on the account, so they removed the restriction, and it should now work. Even after I was assured by several different employees on several different days that they had removed the restriction, each time it was reapplied, perhaps automatically as an indicator of an underlying problem.
Then, in April 2024 when I called again, I was told that this time there was a note on my account to see the branch. She also noted there was a restriction on the account which she cleared, so now it should work. When it didn't, I went in to the branch. I try to avoid this whenever possible, as the lines are long, and the staff short. Finally, when my turn came, the teller had no knowledge of the note on my account, had no knowledge why the bank needed to see me, and had no knowledge of my ongoing issue. The branch was closing at that time, and a woman stepped out of the office and told the teller in a quick, dismissive tone, to just issue me a new card as that is all they can do. When that failed to resolve the issue, I called the Customer Support line for the second time that day and, by this point thoroughly exhasperated, pleaded with the representative on the phone to take my issue seriously, look into it, and help me. I regret that I did not catch her name, as she was great. Like her colleagues before her, she could see no obvious reason why this problem should exist, but kept digging until she went all the way back to when the account was first opened, and she discovered that it had not been registered with the MasterCard network at that time. She told me that would explain this problem, but unfortunately only the branch had the ability to resolve it. So, she placed a note on my account leaving instructions for the branch to understand and resolve the problem.
When I returned to the branch, I again explained my problem and informed the teller that there was a note on my file that would explain more. She could see the note, but claimed that it did not make any sense. I asked if there was somebody she could ask for clarification or guidance and she responded curtly that she would figure it out. Ultimately, without seeking guidance from another member of the team, such as the manager, despite my repeated enquiries as to whether there was somebody else I could speak to, as she made clear she did not understand the problem, she issued me yet another new card: the third in as many days. This new card, in addition to being declined online as was the one before it, was also not set up for online banking, and I had to call the Customer Support line yet again to resolve that issue. Moreover, once I did get into my online banking, I found I had to reregister with Interac for e-transfers, resulting in the loss of all my contacts and history. As of this writing, the original issue is still not resolved and I am becoming increasingly frustrated at my branch's inability to resolve the problem even after the Customer Support line has identified it.