(I sent this letter to Grow’s CEO Robert Fisher and it was ignored. The “proof” that I had for him (I mentioned in this letter) was an email that I sent to Courtney Poole. I asked her about the fee I was charged and she responded she “had no idea” what it was about and that she would get back to me. She never did.)
June 3, 2011
Robert Fisher CEO
9927 Delaney Lake Dr.
Tampa FL 33619
Mr. Robert Fisher,
I am in receipt of a letter written by a Kenneth Donahue on May 19th 2011. In his letter he invites me to, “feel free to call or write if we can be of further assistance.” I am accepting that invitation and responding to the letter, thank you.
In the letter written to me there are inconsistencies in regards to what actually transpired:
1) Kenneth Donahue writes, “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. Only after my initial complaint was it ever mentioned to me. And when the manager at the Saint Pete branch finally mentioned it to me, (days later) she said it had been in effect for “at least five years now.” I see from the business Account Fee Schedule, that Mr. Donahue enclosed that it has actually only been in effect since March 1st 2011. Be it 5 years or a couple of months, it was never made known to me prior to my transaction or during the transaction itself. As a valued (?) member of your bank since 1986, I don’t think its asking too much to be made aware of any fees that were going to be incurred prior to my withdraw, do you? Like yourself, I am also a businessman and surely would have not followed through with this withdraw if I had been made aware there was going to be such a large fee ($885.00) for withdrawing my own money. I understand you are running a business there now and not as much a member owned/oriented credit union as you once were. But for your employee(s) to not inform me prior to or sometime during the transaction itself, and then go into my checking account to withdraw this “withdraw fee” after the fact, and TO STILL not advise me at any time; is indisputably unethical. At the very, very least- you would think that the receipt I was given would have shown the withdraw fee. Better yet, the withdraw fee should have been taken out of the amount I was withdrawing, not done at a later time when I was completely unaware of it. Had my checks started bouncing this could have become an even much worse situation for me.
2) Kenneth Donahue writes, “The opportunity for a fee-free transaction was made available and declined by you.” This is simply not true! At no time was this ever discussed or mentioned to me. I was actually very surprised the manager never even bothered to inquire or speak with me at all about the transaction, or why I was withdrawing the money and if there was anything she could do to help. What kind of customer service is that? The only person I spoke to at all about this was Courtney Poole. There was also a teller (who later joined me and Courtney) and counted out the money for me in a back office as Courtney witnessed. You are not getting all the facts and are obviously being lied to by your employees, and I can prove it! Would this make any difference to you if I were actually able to prove that I was never given this so called “opportunity for a fee-free transaction”…? I look forward to having an actual opportunity to prove to you that I was not given this “opportunity for a fee-free transaction” as it seems to be what you are hinging your reasoning on. This is very important, are you willing to do the right thing and return my money if I can?
As businessmen we are intelligent enough to know that by alienating our customers it ultimately only serves to shoot ourselves in our own foot. Had this not happened, another $10-$20K would have already been deposited into your bank for you to use as needed. The amount that I had withdrawn had already been sitting in that money market account for years, virtually for you to use for free.
Based on the totality of this situation, I am confident that you are more then aware this was not handled appropriately and I should not have to even be writing this letter(s) in the first place. I have been trying to resolve this judiciously with you before seeking legal advice from my attorney, and taking it to the community through various public news venues that will only serve to embarrass you and tarnish the credit unions name. I have many more important things to do but I can assure you that I will tenaciously continue to pursue this matter as far as I can. If I am victorious, there will be legal fees that will also need to also be paid back to me. It just doesn’t make any sense to take that road. All I want is to be made whole Robert, and to put this nonsense to rest; this has gone too far already.
I look forward to your timely response, thank you.
Robert Johnson