I had an experience recently. I rented a car from Avis. When I rented it, there is an automatic hold of a certain amount of money put on my debit card. OK - that was fine with me. Even though it was more than the cost of the rental, I knew it would be returned to me when I got back (or so I thought).
When I returned from my trip the hold had been released against my debit card. I knew that my car rental cost X amount, so I went to the store to get groceries for the week and paid a few bills with my debit card. These amounts did not exceed what I had in the bank less what I owed Avis.
About 4 days later, I see a charge from Avis that was WAY higher than it should have been. What PNC bank in Elizabethtown KY did was put that Avis charge through BEFORE the bills and the groceries charges. This caused my account to go into overdraft from the Avis charge, therefore causing me FIVE $36 overdraft fees for the other items.
Here’s where it gets sticky.
I called the PNC Bank branch manager who, in turn, basically called me a liar and an idiot by telling me that I should know how my debit card works and I can’t spend money I don’t have. I tried to explain that the Avis charge was way more than it should have been and had it not been for that, the money for the other charges WOULD have been there. I asked if he could reorder the order in which he pays them until I can get it figured out. Pay the smaller ones first and then the Avis one - this way I have ONE $36 fee and can get it straightened out with Avis. He refused. He did offer to call Avis and see what they say.
Well…Surprise, surprise - Avis says “We can’t discuss this with you, we have to discuss it with Mrs. Green”. At that point, both the PNC bank manager and the manager at Avis thought that I was wrong.
The PNC bank manager calls me to say they won’t discuss it with him and I have to call them.
So I call the manager at Avis who (after me refreshing her memory with a confirmation number) realizes that she screwed up big time. She was very apologetic and nice. She offered to call the PNC bank manager to explain the mix up and explain why my account should not be overdrawn due to her mistake.
She then calls the PNC bank manager and calls me back almost in tears. The bank manager said - YUP you guessed it - “I can’t discuss it with you, Mrs. Green has to call”. The Avis manager is very upset at this point because her mix up caused me a lot of trouble and the bank manager won’t fix it. I tell the Avis manager that I understand mistakes - everyone is human and humans occasionally make mistakes. I attempted to talk with the PNC bank manager about it and he says “there’s nothing I can do”.
At this point the PNC bank manager is just doing this out of spite. He realized that if he listened to the Avis manager, he would owe me an apology for the things he said to me, so it was easier for him to tell her he can’t discuss my account with her and tell me that he can’t take MY word for the fact that Avis messed up.
So the PNC bank manager charges five $36 fees to my account. By the time the partial credit from Avis showed up in my account, the bank had been charging an additional $6 for every day the account was overdrawn in addition to the five $36 fees.
Needless to say, I immediately requested that my PNC bank account be closed. I was amazed that any company would do this. This is the way customer service is all over today.
Customer service is dead.
~Roxanne Green~
**Editor’s note: I received a message from PNC bank saying they can’t close an account with a negative balance. This is their way of getting MORE $6 per day fees.**
