I have been a member of the credit union since I turned 16. I'm not a big bank guy, I prefer to use a local place where I feel the benefits and customer service (and rate of economy-crashing scandals) are lower.
A big part of that is when I call, I like to speak with a human who actually knows what is happening.
Over the last 14 years, I have maintained my account, I can say that my experience is consistently worse now on the phone than when I started.
I was trying to call to set up an appointment for my fiancée and I to speak about a mortgage pre-qualification. We were looking to set up a joint account at the same meeting. Because we work slightly different hours, we essentially need to be sitting down on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. Since these hours have the potential to be busy, I called trying to set up an appointment so we would be expected.
First call is to the main line phone number. The rep answered that she could absolutely help out, just to hold one moment. After 5 minutes (of random classical Muzak interspersed with commercials for GreenState) she came back and asked me to call the location nearest to me directly.
I asked if the number was the one listed on Google, apparently it was not. (How does a bank have the wrong number listed on Google? Neither she nor I knew)
I call that bank- it is now about 9:30 on a Monday. After ringing 4 times it goes to voicemail. The whole bank being busy I get, that happens- but what happened to "press 1 for a call back?"
So I called the Financial Center- it's the big headquarters, so I assume someone in it can answer a phone call. I got a rep- Laura, who apologized and said she would find me the right person. I happily said I would hold for a second.
15 minutes of hold time ensued. (Including a weird period where the recording was interrupted while the robot told me the line was being recorded, then that it was wasn't, then that it was) and I popped up in the mortgage office. I reverified the information about myself (that wasn't given, it looks like Laura just cold transferred me after 15 minutes). After confirming that two mortgage people were out of office, this person said I should probably check in and book an appointment online.
I tried to do this online- and this went badly. There is not an appointment tool that I could find, but there was a widget to start the application online. I don't want to do this online- I would much rather speak with a human who can answer questions. Not possible I guess.
I called backbone final time, and got Linda. Linda did not verify if there was an appointment scheduling tool, but instead tried to walk me through the website. I got to the Mortgage page on the bank, where it asked me to log in. I attempt to do this, and it does not work.
I asked Linda at this point if the mortgage portal was part of a different app/entiry/company that GreenState worked with...she did not know ( I'm not a boomer, but I'll willingly sound like one to yell "someone at a company should know when a customer is actually working with the company while on the phone").
I then said that my login info was not working, to which she responded that "I can't find anything on you online". After a moment of concern to verify that GreenState still had my account (a low bar, but the phone calls today have lowered that bar until it's on the ground) Linda confirmed that yes, I had an account, but no, I didn't appear to have online access.
This was concerning- not only did I have online access, I have had that access since the day I made the bank account. As a matter of fact (another boomer-esque complaint incoming) I have had online banking with GreenState longer than GreenState has been named GreenState. Linda also seems perturbed at this. When I asked again if the mortgage portal was a different app or company, Linda told me that I could either enter my sensitive financial information on the portal, or "you should call and ask".
.....I AM CALLING AND ASKING. When I pointed out that Linda was in fact the person who I was calling and asking, there was a long silence. I then asked her to check because I wasn't going to potentially give my info to a third party sight unseen- she put me on hold. After a few more minutes, she came back on and said that it was the same company, she had found my online banking, and I could just email the first person on the mortgage directory to set up an appointment.
I am still working to get an appointment as I wrote this.
If I had the decade-plus of history at another financial institution, I would go to them. As things are, I worry that am stuck with Greenstate; assuming they find my account next time I call.
If you are looking to start an account here- I would recommend going with a big bank or another credit union. A big bank might be terrible and treat you as a faceless cog in a machine- but at least they would care enough to find you in the system, or be able to set an appointment. read more