If you have a customer who has been banking with you for over 16 years who has a category in his accounting software called "Wells Motherfucking Fargo", and when "Wells Motherfucking Fargo" is selected, that program autofills a memo that says "Eat shit and die you cocksucking, motherfucking bastards," you may need to look at your business practices.
If I've learned one thing over the last several years, it's to never do business with one of the big mega banks. A small local bank or credit union is always going to be the better choice. The employees at small local banks are actually encouraged to use their brains and make you happy. The flip-side are the employees at the mega banks which are unable to use common sense and are actually prevented from helping you by volumes and volumes of corporate policy and a labyrinth of various departments that very well may be on another coast. I have several accounts at several banks for reasons which are nunya, and I've had the pleasure of watching one bank start out local and grow into a semi-regional powerhouse. There's been a corresponding increase in bureaucracy and a decrease in actual thought at the branch level each time they grow.
I've been with them since they were "First Alabama Bank." The story as relayed to me by my local bank's president several years ago: They bought a small bank that did business in Georgia and Tennessee. Nobody in GA or TN wanted to do business with "First Alabama" so they changed the name to Regions. Even Regions is hit or miss, I've found. If you can find an old Regions, and you can tell by the building's architecture, you'll probably have a good experience. But, like all the other major banks, Regions has taken to building cookie-cutter small local branches. These new banks don't remember the "good old days" and aren't staffed by personnel that have been with the bank for 20+ years. I've found that, without fail, I do not get good service at these banks.
Our local credit union blows. You have to all but sell your first-born child to get any credit increases, or even to up your ATM limit After the bank wouldn't up her AMT withdraw limit from 100 measly dollars when she got a lump sum of 10,000 fucking dollars, she finally said "fuck this," came to Wells Fargo and never looked back. Aside from getting the run-around when I needed an ATM card replaced and I thought it never came,the business service I've had there has been pretty decent.
My family has been doing business with Regions for a long time now and we've never had any customer service issues. In fact, if you go in in the mornings during the week, you'll see them calmly and patiently dealing with the little old ladies who have nothing better to do....seriously.
