Let me say first of all that it is a pathetic shame that you people at Grow are comfortable with lying about this case to cheat a member of your credit union since 1986. So much for loyalty. And don’t forget what led up to my decision to withdraw these funds from your bank in the first place, (which has all been documented in earlier correspondence). Due to your wretched customer service in that matter, I felt I had no recourse but to withdraw MY money (check OR CASH) to get some attention, since I was being totally ignored in that case. After repeated telephone calls and emails to your senior loan officer, Sandra Underwood that went unanswered in the mortgage loan application (I am referring to) I decided to withdraw my funds from my money market account we are now dealing with. So whose fault is that Grow?
1) “Thank you for your recent communication on behalf of our member, Mr. Robert Johnson. Grow Financial Federal Credit Union (”Grow”) appreciates feedback from its members and takes their complaints very seriously.”- Is that why my last correspondence to you has gone unanswered? I sent a letter (on June 3rd) to bank president- Robert Fisher in response to a May 19th letter that mentioned, “feel free to call or write if we can be of further assistance.” Well, I did write and you have ignored me.
In that letter you sent me it states, “The fee, imposed on April 8th 2011 was appropriate and fully disclosed in our fee schedule issued prior to transaction.”- This fee was never disclosed to me prior to the transaction, or anytime during the transaction. And you write this, “The opportunity for a fee-free transaction was made available and declined by you.” This is simply not true, you NEVER mentioned a fee at all- in fact you purposely hid it!
2) “Mr. Johnson and Grow have already vetted this matter with Grow’s federal regulator, the National Credit Union Administration, but to properly address the issue(s) here, we have again reviewed Mr. Johnson’s account, this time with Grow’s legal department.”- The only thing that has been done here is I sent a letter of complaint to the NCUA that you HAD to respond to by law. Nothing was resolved and I never heard anything else back from the NCUA after I informed them that your response to them/me was unsatisfactory and filled with inaccuracies, to which I have proof of otherwise.
3) “Our teller recommended that, for safety purposes, he take the withdrawal via an Official Check, but Mr. Johnson adamantly declined, and on April 8, 2011, made the cash withdrawal.”- This was a Tuesday; I had to come back on that Friday to get the cash. At no time was there mention of a fee involved if I wanted cash instead of a check. You are correct, I was offered a check. I needed cash, and it is MY money isn’t it!? You virtually used my money for free for many years while it sat in this account, now that I want it, you sock me with a hidden fee of $885.00 for withdrawing MY money. I see how you “appreciate your members”.
4) “On April 9, Mr. Johnson called Grow’s Member Contact Center to discuss the fee, but hung up before the branch manager could assist him.”- I hung up because I was put on hold for about 25 minutes and hung up out of frustration after realizing I wasn’t going to get anyone on the other end.
5) “On April 11, the branch manager reached out to him and left a message on his voice mail/recorder, but Mr. Johnson never returned the call.”- WRONG. I returned her message and we DID talk. The branch manager said to me about the fee, “I knew you would be angry when you found out.” Then she had the gall to chuckle. She also said, “If I was expecting her to return the fee, I was wasting my time.” I did hang up on her after that comment!
6) “Finally, on April 12, Grow’s regional executive called Mr. Johnson to discuss the fee, but Mr. Johnson hung up on her.”- WRONG. I talked to this lady twice. She was very kind and promised she would look into the matter the following day, (as it was near the end of the day). We then talked the next day and she said she had more information on the case and needed to have a meeting about it. Then she called back the next day while I wasn’t home and left a message for me informing me that they decided the fee could not be waived. It ended there; I never hung up on her.
7) “Grow levies a fee of 1% of bulk cash ordered in excess of $3,500 and that fee is clearly disclosed on Grow’s fee schedule which is distributed at the time of account opening, and again whenever updates/amendments are made.”- This supposed “clearly” fee schedule is only located on the website, after clicking through two links and downloading an Adobe file. Is that “clear”!? And do you expect your members to consult with an Internet located “fee schedule” to make a withdraw??? My account was opened in 1986 and your “fee schedule” was only updated with this info on “March 1st 2011” according to the information that your Kenneth Donahue sent to me in his response to my complaint letter. I NEVER received an “update or amendment” prior to this.
8) “Verbal disclosure at the time of each and every transaction performed at a branch is neither required nor reasonable as a result of the amount of activity/volume. Had Mr. Johnson chosen to take his withdrawal via Official Check the fee would not have applied.”- You had from Tuesday to Friday to politely inform me of a fee. This fee was purposely withheld from me, even as the money was being counted for me. The fee was hidden (never mentioned) on the bank receipt and it wasn’t subtracted from the 92K withdraw (which is how it should have been done- at the same time). Since I never had to sign anything for these funds, (even after my asking to) it is clear to me that I was intentionally withheld this information so you could go into a different account (my checking) to take it. There was NEVER any mention of a fee and I only found out (luckily before checks started bouncing) by going online to check my account activity. I can understand time does not allow to “verbally explain each and every transaction” but I am certain that you don’t deal with 92K withdraws everyday either, or you wouldn’t have had to order the cash. This was one time you should have made an exception to explain any fees that might incur. Your reasoning to NOT do so is obvious to anyone looking at this case. The new bank that is now getting my business (Wells Fargo) was “horrified” that you can be practicing business like this after I explained what you did to me. My trust in banking institutions has been forever changed, and I will make sure to let everyone I know why.
9) “Grow maintains its position that the fee was proper, appropriately disclosed, and will not be refunded to Mr. Johnson. It represents the cost of acquiring the bulk cash for his transaction and it was rightly passed through, as Grow should not have to expend member assets to bear the cost on his behalf.”- I guess you are comfortable to “expend member assets” for your lawyer(s) to represent you in a court case that will ultimately cost you much more then the $885.00 that you literally pilfered from me.
Bottom line is you handled this entire situation appallingly from the very beginning. Had your customer service been what it should be, this would have never happened. Your branch management obviously got upset with the waves I was making due to their inferior service and retaliated by hitting me with this extraordinarily unreasonable fee that was kept hidden from me until the very end. Your responses to date have been childishly defensive, ludicrous and filled with self-accommodating fallacies.
Robert Johnson
Better Business Bureau Complaint Case# 67201324 (Ref#1-20159-67201324-3-300)
Dear Ms. Baker,
Thank you for your recent communication on behalf of our member, Mr. Robert Johnson. Grow Financial Federal Credit Union (”Grow”) appreciates feedback from its members and takes their complaints very seriously.
Mr. Johnson and Grow have already vetted this matter with Grow’s federal regulator, the National Credit Union Administration, but to properly address the issue(s) here, we have again reviewed Mr. Johnson’s account, this time with Grow’s legal department. I would like to take the opportunity to share our findings with you.
In early April, Mr. Johnson visited Grow’s St. Petersburg branch and requested a cash withdrawal of $92,000. Our teller recommended that, for safety purposes, he take the withdrawal via an Official Check, but Mr. Johnson adamantly declined, and on April 8, 2011, made the cash withdrawal.
On April 9, Mr. Johnson called Grow’s Member Contact Center to discuss the fee, but hung up before the branch manager could assist him. On April 11, the branch manager reached out to him and left a message on his voice mail/recorder, but Mr. Johnson never returned the call. Finally, on April 12, Grow’s regional executive called Mr. Johnson to discuss the fee, but Mr. Johnson hung up on her.
Grow levies a fee of 1% of bulk cash ordered in excess of $3,500 and that fee is clearly disclosed on Grow’s fee schedule which is distributed at the time of account opening, and again whenever updates/amendments are made. Verbal disclosure at the time of each and every transaction performed at a branch is neither required nor reasonable as a result of the amount of activity/volume. Had Mr. Johnson chosen to take his withdrawal via Official Check the fee would not have applied.
Grow maintains its position that the fee was proper, appropriately disclosed, and will not be refunded to Mr. Johnson. It represents the cost of acquiring the bulk cash for his transaction and it was rightly passed through, as Grow should not have to expend member assets to bear the cost on his behalf. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.
Regards,
Marsha Falkenburg