Bank of America

This bank is absolutely ridiculous. Every time I come here l stand in line with 3+ more people ahead, which is understandable. But when their is 4 employees present and I’ve been standing in line for over 10 – 15 minutes EVERYTIME, there is an issue.

I have been a loyal B of A customer since 1977. MARIA Cortes, who now is going by SARA Cortes, has worked at the La Costa branch on El Camino Real for many decades. Now she is at the La Costa Town Center location, as a SENIOR PERSONAL BANKER. I came in to have something notarized and had no idea it was such a big deal. She was rude, abrasive, and said I needed an appointment because she was too busy. She went into her office and placed a call to the branch that referred me and I could here her yelling at that poor person on the other line. She was so unprofessional and mean spirited. This isn’t the first time I have encountered this woman who doesn’t care about the customer. I went to the Encinitas branch and spoke to there notary who was equally busy but made time to be polite and helpful, with a smile on her face. She represented B of A in a professional manner. I have never encountered such a negative experience as I did today with Ms. Cortes, who goes by two first names.

I know big banks get a bad rap, and I’ve comment win that regard myself. I’ve been banking at a small credit union for years because there is a real family feel to how they do business. However I may have to change that view point after my first visit to this branch.
I needed to cash a check and it was just after 5. Good luck on most days trying to make that happen. My financial institution tends to close at 5. However, the bank that the account was drawn on, Bank of America, was open till 6. I’ll see what could be done here since I was a signer on the account, but don’t have a personal account there.
I walked in and there was a line of three customers. The teller was amazed since the branch just recently opened and she rarely had a line of more than one! The manager, Grady, came over to see if he could help out with easy deposits. The customers in front of me all had other needs and wanted to speak with the teller. I went ahead and took his offer as he mentioned the cash back wouldn’t be a problem.
He guided me over to an ATM machine that had direct video connection to a person, ATM assist. It’s a relatively new concept at this bank so that if someone has a slightly more difficult transaction than what the regular ATM could do, there is direct access to the live person. Pretty cool.
I went ahead and started the process and the screen lit up with a pleasant face. The live teller was Chelsee. She guided me through some steps, but was unable to find my name on the list of signers on the account. By this time, the line in the branch had actually gone through. Grady, then looked at me in confusion since it had been quite some time that Chelsee had been on with me, but couldn’t help out. The process was meant to streamline the process, not increase wait time. Chelsee was going to charge me the processing fee since she couldn’t locate my name on the account.
Grady then intervened and said he would put me back up to the teller in the branch and waive the fee for me since it was taking a bit too long to process this transaction. While I greatly appreciated Grady’s attempt to help me expedite the process, I even more so appreciate him taking care of a customer who really wasn’t a regular customer of the branch. I think that may be the general sentiment around regarding big banks these days.
Anyway, I hadn’t planned on using BofA for my regular banking needs, but this visit may have changed my mind. The teller assist ATM is probably a good thing as long as there is a pretty straight forward process and not a screwy non-​customer situation like mine.
Keep on Unilocal’n!