On Bank Transfer Day, Saturday 11/7. I strolled into PNC bank to pull my funds. I was greeted very pleasantly by someone I went to school with, and admittedly I had some doubt regarding my action. Luckily for my convictions, friendly tellers can't close accounts, only customer service officers can, and so I went into an office on the side. I informed the woman behind the desk that I was trying to close my accounts. She very fairly asked what was prompting me too, and I explained that I had a couple reasons. When I first offered that among other things it was political, she cut me off and ask what I meant. I was halfway between irritated and amused at the feign of ignorance, and when I asked her if she knew that it was a national movement for people to move out of big banks that day, she growled that she had indeed heard about that. Following that, I explained to her that two weeks ago and I'd lost my wallet, of all the cards I had to cancel and replace, PNC was THE ONLY bank that charged me a fee for it, and she just sat and stared at me like I was an idiot; I honestly half-expected her to ask me, "Who cares?"
Following my explanation she asked where I was going to be moving accounts to. I told her that minute I wasn't 100% sure and was considering several, but was strongly considering The Columbia Bank, since it was relatively small and locally minded, but still had branches in both the city I live in and the city I work in. She immediately, and with a lot of hostility, assessed that "it wasn't even local." I ended up choosing the credit union Comstar anyways, which is the residents of the City of Frederick's credit union. Overall though, I was blown away by the awful retention attempt by this person, if that's even what this was. My decision to leave PNC in regards to its poor customer service to me personally was absolutely solidified. read more