Let's be forthright here, all banks are institutions founded on the questionable premise of making a profit from holding onto customers' funds, possibly for a fee, and allowing them to transmit or safely store them, possibly for more fees, and so on. Firstbank is a bank just like the rest, so there's no surprise there.
What is surprising is the awkward and poor service at this location. There are about six slots for tellers, but only one has access to a computer. So if you need to access your account, you walk up to the counter, tell the teller what you want to do, and they wander off to wait in line for the single terminal available to pull up your account. There is no hustle or hurry in their step, and not so much as a smile on their robotic faces as they shuffle meaninglessly around behind the counter that is far longer than it is efficient.
Came in here with my brother, and signed my paycheck over to him to cash, which we have done before at multiple other locations. They were unwilling to cash it here, however, we were told, because he didn't have sufficient funds available in his checking account to cover it in case of problems. This I could understand, if he hadn't been banking there for about a decade. And if he didn't have more than ample funds in his LINKED savings account. And if we had NEVER done this exact action at other locations multiple times.
Maybe the vapid doofus behind the counter was tired of walking to their singular terminal, or maybe they are just obtusely old-fashioned about their personally getting to know regular customers even though they have plastered their walls with signage suggesting that electronic check deposit is the way to go. I don't know. If they actually had good service, the old-fashioned way of doing things might fly here. But with the situation as it is, we'll just stick with cashing checks anywhere else. Wal-Mart has better service. read more