I love me some People's Bank. We have been at People's for 11 years, since moving to the Pioneer Valley. I mostly use the Hadley branch (the yellow building in front of Manny's) but I also use the downtown Amherst branch. They are open for longer hours in Hadley which often works a lot better for me and I don't have to fight downtown traffic; but sometimes when I'm downtown, I park in the lot, bank, hop across the street to return some books to the Jones, grab a GoBerry....you get the picture--very homey, very downtown, very city. The downtown branch gets way too hot in the summer months because of the expansive overhead windows. The light is nice, but I bet the guy who designed the bank probably never had to stand on his feet politely serving the public for 8 hours a day. I don't like the fake plants, just get rid of them, every business, all over the world. NOW. They did recently sell our mortgage to a larger institution and that is my only complaint. I love the women who work here and especially at the Hadley branch. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Thanks, People's Bank read more

Was trying to use mobile banking, but some features weren't displaying on the screen as a choice. Called the Peoples Bank for assistance. I was on hold initially for 15 MINUTES (with one song on a loop--bedtime music). After speaking with one person who didn't listen to my question and told me unrelated answers, she transferred my call to an "extension." I waited another 14 MINUTES for my call to "be answered in the order in which it was received." (No, clearly my call went back to the beginning of the queue; the system doesn't seem to know if the call is transferred internally.) Another Customer Service Rep answered. He could not help me as he was not sure what the problem could be. He tried to get a hold of the Customer Solutions Department but couldn't. By this time, I had been on the phone with Peoples Bank for 43 MINUTES. He transferred me to "option 2, Mobile Banking." More waiting on hold. Someone new answered. After a number of checks with my account and the mobile app, he suggested I uninstall and reinstall the app, which I did and that worked. Wish I had done that myself an hour ago. By this point, I had been on the phone for 1 HOUR 2 SECONDS in the middle of a business day afternoon. While I now realize I could have solved the problem myself, this episode was another example of why I'll be moving my Business account to another bank: 1. Poor response time, i.e., my time is not valuable, 2. Employees' lack of knowledge and ability or permission to take productive initiative, plus 3. The Bill Pay's limited number of companies with which "Activate eBill" can be done successfully, 4. Limited list of "Payees" (companies) to which they can send payments electronically rather than mailing a check, which takes 6-13 days to arrive, and 5. The need to wait 4-7 days to receive money transferred between Peoples Bank and other banks, even across town. READER: Use another bank. read more

I went to cash a check here once and had a pretty crappy experience. First of all, it was one of their checks. So, one would figure is as long as you provide the proper ID, cashing it shouldn't be an issue. After all, it isn't at every other bank in town right. Wrong. When I placed the check in the bank transfer can, they informed me that I had to provide them with a clearance form which included my SS #. I must admit I did give them a hard time but I only did so to the manager. The reason for the hard time was she when I said I would take my business elsewhere, she would not give me the check back. At this point there were 5 cars behind me and I already felt like I was holding everyone else up so I just filled it out. They claim this form is required by the Homeland Security act but no other bank in town has ever asked me to fill out a form. I have been back once since and the service is so slow, I try and avoid it when possible. read more