To: Bill Nelson, Attn: Dolly
225 E. Robinson St Ste. 410
Orlando FL 32801
From: Robert Johnson
***
Saint Petersburg FL 33704
Mr. Nelson,
I want to inform you of a situation I had happen to me recently with the banking institution that I have been doing business with since 1986, Grow Federal Credit Union, formerly MacDill Federal Credit Union. I hope you can read this when you have the chance, I know you are very busy and thank you in advance for looking at this. What follows are the facts of what transpired with Grow Federal Credit Union.
1) I started thinking about possibly purchasing another home and went to Grow for a pre-approval back in April. After dealing with their unbelievably bad customer service and being completely ignored by their staff I decided to cash out my money market account to get their attention.
2) I went to the bank on a Tuesday and was informed by the manager that they wouldn’t have the cash funds until that Friday. I wanted to make sure they knew why I was withdrawing my funds and told the teller that I wanted this to go on record that the reason I was cashing out my money market account was because of their inferior customer service. I didn’t want this to happen to another member and thought I was doing them a favor by making sure they knew why I was dissatisfied. In hindsight, it’s been nothing but an aggravation and what appears to be a huge mistake on my part.
3) On Friday I went back to the credit union to get my cash. We went into a back office and my withdraw was counted out to me. I never had to show identification or never signed anything. I asked if I needed to sign something and the teller said no, even though she was holding paperwork in her hand. I was given a receipt showing a cash withdraw from my money market account for the entire amount in that account. There was no fee mentioned.
4) On Saturday I went online to check my account and noticed there was an $885.00 “cash withdraw fee” for the money market withdraw. At no time was it ever mentioned to me that there would be a fee accessed for this withdraw.
5) After several days of trying to resolve what I thought surely must be a mistake, I was informed that they had a fee for cash withdraws over $3500.00 per day. I informed them that I never knew about this policy, was never advised of this policy and that since 1986 was never given any fee structure (hardcopy or digitally) informing me of this. They said it was listed on the website. So I went on the website and searched for this information. I eventually had to click through two different links before coming to an Adobe file that needed to be downloaded to gain access to this mysterious fee list. Disbelieving that they expected their members to go through this process of having to download a file with fees, I contacted the branch manger to further dispute the matter. She informed me that if I thought she was going to waive the fee, that “I was wasting my time”. Then she chuckled, “I knew you would be angry when you found out.” It was then that I realized they had purposely withheld this information about a fee from me. They were spitefully withholding this information from me simply because I was cashing out MY money and causing a stink over of the terrible customer service I had received from them.
To date, I have been unable to get any help from the NCUA, or any of the consumers help agencies. Since Grow Credit Union is a federal credit union, none of the Florida regulators can help. NCUA is the only regulator and all they did is send Grow a letter informing them of a complaint that had been lodged against them and requiring them to respond. When they did finally respond, it was with lies. They had the nerve to lie to the NCUA and tell them that they had informed me of the fee, and had given me the choice. I replied that I have tangible proof that I was never informed of a fee, or was ever given the option to decline the transaction because there would be fees involved. Neither the NCUA or Grow credit union has responded to this fact.
It’s frightening that this could happen, that a banking institution could hide their fees and then take your money after a transaction took place without the customer’s knowledge. If I did something like this I’m certain I would be arrested and charged with a felony. I have completely lost my trust in banks.
Respectfully,
Robert Johnson