TD Bank Sucks.

I had mentioned in a previous post that I went to a friends house a week ago. He was kind enough to loan me some money. He gave me a check that I deposited in my bank on Sunday. The only good thing that I can say about TD bank is that they are open late, and on the weekend.

Trying to make a long story short, my friend's checking account, due to an oversight, had been closed by his bank. When I had gone to purchase some breakfast on Tuesday, which was the day that the check was to clear, my debit card did not work. I immediately called my bank and found out that the check was written from a closed account. After some time on the phone things seemed cleared up and that my payroll deposit would clear the next day.

Needless to say that did not happen the next day or I would not have much of a story to tell. The fraud/loss prevention department of TD bank froze my payroll deposit, and placed my account on a "limited" status. Basically it is a status where nothing goes in and nothing goes out, or a euphamism for a frozen account.

After many phone calls, and walking over to the branch in which I opened the account I was told that the "limited" status could be lifted if I provide a letter from my friends bank stipulating that the checking account was closed due to an error and that there was not fraud involved. By the middle of the afternoon the letter was faxed over to the branch manager at TD bank and the "limmited" status was lifted, and everything was fine.

Or so I thought. I took my lunch latter than usual because of this mess, and went to an ATM to take out cash for lunch and to pay the deli near my office that was kind enough to make me breakfast. The debit card did not work. I called the bank and they insisted that the card should work. I told them that it did not work, and that I felt that it was probably due to the "limited" status not being fully lifted. They told me that this was impossible and they could not explain why the card was not working.

In the end I had to trek over to the bank to take out cash for lunch. I tried to speak to a customer service agent about the card, but I was placed on a very long line despite the fact that I told them that I was dealing with this problem for the better part of a day and a half. I do not get angry quickly. In fact I rarely do, and I lose my temper even less frequently. However, this experience pushed me over the edge and I lit into the greeter at the bank door. I called him, and the bank every four letter word I knew. Since then I have apologized to the man as I was not angry at him, but at the bank he represents, and it was unfortunate that he had to endure the barrage of insults.I would up buying lunch and eating it at my desk as I worked as I was already late returning to work. Luckily, no one even said a peep about my being late.

After work I went over to the bank as my ATM card was still not working. In the end it turned out that since my card was blocked due to a suspicion of fraud it could not be unblocked in the same way a card can not be unblocked if you declare it lost or stolen. In fact that is what the fraud department did. They put my card in the lost/stolen category. I had to be issued a new card, and now every thing I have set for automatic payment has to be reprogrammed. What a pain in the a$# that will be!

Everything seems to be OK now, but it was long two days of aggravation to get to that point.

If I did not need a method to collect my direct deposit, and a way to purchase things online I would not bank with TD bank. They treated me like a criminal when in the end the whole mess was due to a simple mistake. Even if there was some sort of fraud involved it would have been on the part of the person who issued the check and not myslef. If anything I would have been the victim of fraud and not the guilty party. However, I was treated as if I was the guilty party, and that I did not take kindly to.

I hope they do not do this to other customers of theirs who unwittingly present a bad check.

I strongly advise people to bank elsewhere.