- Report: #995521
Complaint Review: Citizens Bank - pittsfield Massachusetts
Reported By:
Benjamin -
pittsfield, Massachusetts, United States of America
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Confirmed
Why?
Citizens Bank
600 Merrill Road pittsfield, 01201 Massachusetts, United States of America
Phone:
(413) 442-0136
Web:
www.citizensbank.com
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
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Citizens Bank purposely gave me the wrong direct deposit account number, then over drafted me! pittsfield, Massachusetts
some time ago I had two accounts with citizen's bank,(personal and D.B.A.). the problem started when I decided to switch from classic paper paychecks to direct deposit.
I went into the branch I had been using regularly and asked the teller to help me fill out a Direct deposit slip my employer had given me. my instructions were simple, i told the teller that i had two accounts and needed the funds to be deposited into the business account i had with them and not the personal. the teller filled out my slip and i returned it to my employer.
some time later i got notices from several companies (to which i had automated withdrawals set up) that my account had returned insufficient funds notices when money was requested. this made no sense because, I kept close attention to how much was deposited based on my weekly pay-stubs.
when i confronted the bank, it was demanded that i pay a ridiculous amount for overdraft fees. when i explained that there should have been enough money in the account, (showed them the amounts listed on my pay-stubs and comparing them to the amounts to be withdrawn, they showed clearly in the positive.
when i asked them to pull up my other account the money was all there. the teller then stated, "well of course i gave you that account number because it made no sense to me to have your personal income deposited into your business account"
so the teller openly admitted to fraudulently filling out the document i handed him, ignoring my instructions. further more the bank has reported my account as "Checking Fraud" making me out to be the bad guy. so now i cannot even open another bank account.
it is my hope that someone reading this can help me out of this situation, or advise me on any legal actions i can take on this bank.
I went into the branch I had been using regularly and asked the teller to help me fill out a Direct deposit slip my employer had given me. my instructions were simple, i told the teller that i had two accounts and needed the funds to be deposited into the business account i had with them and not the personal. the teller filled out my slip and i returned it to my employer.
some time later i got notices from several companies (to which i had automated withdrawals set up) that my account had returned insufficient funds notices when money was requested. this made no sense because, I kept close attention to how much was deposited based on my weekly pay-stubs.
when i confronted the bank, it was demanded that i pay a ridiculous amount for overdraft fees. when i explained that there should have been enough money in the account, (showed them the amounts listed on my pay-stubs and comparing them to the amounts to be withdrawn, they showed clearly in the positive.
when i asked them to pull up my other account the money was all there. the teller then stated, "well of course i gave you that account number because it made no sense to me to have your personal income deposited into your business account"
so the teller openly admitted to fraudulently filling out the document i handed him, ignoring my instructions. further more the bank has reported my account as "Checking Fraud" making me out to be the bad guy. so now i cannot even open another bank account.
it is my hope that someone reading this can help me out of this situation, or advise me on any legal actions i can take on this bank.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Golden Meadow,United States of America
Jim
Orlando,Florida,
USA
Forget The Teller
#3Consumer Comment
Sat, January 12, 2013
Forget dealing with tellers. They have zero decision making power. Go to the branch manager and if need be, do some internet reserch to find out the people higher than that. In the future, always double check the account number placed on documents. Don't ever reply on a human to get it correct. Double check as a form of checks and balances.
Robert
Irvine,California,
U.S.A.
Business Account?
#4Consumer Comment
Sat, January 12, 2013
You are running a business? If so you may have some major issues and misconceptions.
First of all before you talk about what legal action you should take against the bank, you probably should be more worried about what legal action the IRS may take against you. Mixing "Business" and "Personal" accounts is perhaps the number one thing the IRS looks for in deciding if they want to do an audit, and you better have meticulous records if that happens. Since I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advise..your first call on Monday morning should be to a Tax Attorney if you don't believe what I am saying. At the very least you should put terms such as "IRS Mixing Business and Personal accounts" for some interesting reading. Oh and if you come back and say that you did talk to an attorney and they are the ones who told you to do this...you either are not telling the entire story, are outright lying, or have a very good lawsuit against that lawyer.
Anyways back to the teller. IF the teller clearly heard that you wanted to put it in the business account and just put down your personal account without letting you know..that is a customer service issue and yes they probably should have told you in the beginning. But this issue is hardly one that negates your responsibility in this. If you even monitored your accounts at all you would have realized that the account number on the DD slip was your personal account. Also, YOU are still responsible for the overdraft fees because YOU are responsible for monitoring your accounts, which you do not do. Your statement shows this just as well as anything else.
(showed them the amounts listed on my pay-stubs and comparing them to the amounts to be withdrawn, they showed clearly in the positive. when i asked them to pull up my other account the money was all there
- So not only do you not know how to fill out a DD slip, you apparently never look at your account on your own. As not once in this report did you ever say you looked at a single statement. You didn't even look at your on-line banking. Where if you had since you have stubs(plural) you would have had plenty of time to catch it before you got hit with the OD Fees.
One final thing. Many banks will actually deny direct deposits of paychecks to a business account because of the possible IRS issues. So good luck in what ever your business is but it doesn't look like you are starting off too well.
