Bank of the West Reviews

This bank should not do loans on vehicles or boats if they do not know what to do or how to release the title once it is paid off. I paid this boat off in Sept 2016 and today is Dec 2016 no title yet and still excuses. This is horrible!! I can't get thru to any manager, they keep saying they will send an urgent email to them, and still not one call to follow up or to let me know. Now I have a boat paid off, and no title and not a bit of help from the loan dept regarding this... What do you do???

We proceed to open my account and I ask him what do I need to do to add my husband? He says to go to the dmv and bring the itemized copy, a copy of our rental agreement, his social security card, his credit cards and his paycheck stubs and we can add him. My husband takes Monday off and goes to the dmv. We go into the same branch and ask to add my husband. We get told by another banker that no we cannot add him.

I ask for the manager that had helped me prior. He says the manager is not there but the supervisor is and he will bring her to me. Well she never comes over. I finally walk over to her and ask her and tell her "Miguel said he would add my husband." He answer was "I don't care what he said, he's not here and I said no." This little girl is maybe 20 if that. I'm not going to take this disrespect from a little kid that I am giving my business and money to. I tell her she needs to close my account and she REFUSES. I tell her she cannot refuse legally to close my account and she could lose her job. Then she closes my account. It takes a lot longer than I've ever had to wait at any bank. But I wait.

Finally she's done and before giving me my cash says "you better never come back in here or I will call the cops." "Excuse me?!" I tell her, "really you won't give me my cash until you get the chance to threaten me? How professional." She tells me she's off soon and I can wait in the parking lot. I am flabbergasted. She's at work threatening me!!! She's still holding onto my cash and I tell her "you know what, call the cops. I will tell them that you threatened me and refused to give me my cash." Of course now she gives me my cash and my husband tells me to just let it go and we start to walk out and I hear her making comments. I have never been so disgusted by a bank. All because some teenage girl wants to prove she's "in charge." Well good for you being in charge because you lost a customer.

A few days later after I've calmed down I decided to give this bank, different location, a second chance. They are nicer but it takes them about 15 minutes to even acknowledge me in the bank. I explain to her my issue with the last location and she promises me that it won't be the case there. That was true, my experience at this branch was much more pleasant.

However, I am still unhappy. They don't have automatic transfer from checking to savings which bothers me. They don't provide you with an atm card while you wait for your debit card to get mailed. The mobile banking app only lets you deposit a check of up to $500.00 which sucks because my checks are well over that, so if I want to deposit my check (my company doesn't offer direct deposit) I have to go to an atm or in the bank. Then they hold my checks for 5 days. I ask when this will change and they say "after two months." That's ridiculous.

I get paid every week. So I don't get my money until a day or two before I get paid again? Lastly when my husband gets his id, we go in and I'm told we will automatically be charged to have him on my account every month because he has bad credit. I tell her this must be a mistake because regular banks don't care about credit scores for a regular account. There was no issue with my credit when I opened it originally and he has better credit than I do. And we have an account at a credit union and they DO care about credit scores. So if he can have an account at a credit union, how can we possibly have to pay for him to have an account here at botw? Overall just not a good bank. Very difficult to deal with. Poor customer service and outdated. I don't recommend. We ended up just keeping the one account we have at the credit union.

I have been trying to get answers from the bank for more than a year. The local branch manager has stonewalled me and the helpline is even worse. There is no accountability. I can't change the terms, I can't pay a larger amount to get rid of this usurious interest, and I can't cancel this account. I feel I have been misled about what this was in the first place; they call it a "loan". I now believe this bank is engaging in the same practices as Wells Fargo, and that I have been a victim. How can I get recompense?

With the great recession cast upon and regular credit drying up and/or shrinking, my company used the line of credit. My company paid all interest and never missed an interest payment. In 2014 Bank of the West did a call on the loan (which they were entitled to do). I could not make the call and they forwarded it to a collection company "Mountain States Commercial Collections Inc" who made threatening claims against us. In 2015 I was served a summons to answer and for the first time. I saw paperwork for Personal Guarantees on the loans. I saw paperwork that was fabricated and altered from the paperwork we signed.

This is my story of how Bank of the West defrauded me, my son and my business. It illustrates how Bank of the West used Mountain States Commercial Collections Inc., dba Mountain States Commercial Credit Management and their attorneys Miller Cohen Peterson and Young P.C. to DENY me my day in court. This fraud was orchestrated from the beginning, from the inception of the loan to the amount of the loan, to when it was called, to how they surprised us with fabricated documentation, to how they keep it from going to court and how they beat people into submission.

I will not be quiet nor beat into submission. I plan on exposing the actions of Bank of the West and exposing the story of how Miller Cohen Peterson and Young P.C. helped perpetuate the fraud when they knew the fraud existed. Bank of the West and Miller Cohen Peterson and Young P.C. manipulated me through the whole system where they had control. This is not an isolated incident; this is a practice. There are others out there who were targeted and manipulated as I was.

Here in the social media world, I will post my story with the public documents available at the Arapahoe County Courthouse with the case number ** presented by Miller Cohen Peterson and Young P.C. supposedly submitted to them from Bank of the West. I have redacted my name to protect my family from being exposed. I will leave the court case number un-redacted as to give access to anyone who questions the authenticity of my claims. I do not personally know who fabricated the documents, but I do know that it was between the closing and when I was served. I leave the reader to make up their minds.

What this is: This is an attempt to reach out to others of this FRAUD to contact me so we can PROVE this fraud is a practice. I want my day in court, where I can further expose the fraud perpetrated upon me, where I will have a chance to post the transcripts of the trial here on this site to expose to the public how this scheme works (worked). What this is not: An attempt to identify or accuse any individual as to personal responsibility for the fraud. I will be identifying individuals I had contact with and individuals I am going to attempt to have contact with and this in no way accuses them of perpetrating fraud although their response or lack of a response may show they condone the fraud.

I will now be late on my mortgage payment which will incur a large late fee and a ding on my mortgage payment being late. I have been a BOW customer since they opened. What is hard to comprehend is when "I" tried to make a purchase to buy a laptop, they shut my account down, (WITHOUT NOTIFYING ME) and I only learned about it when I was out shopping with my granddaughter, being totally embarrassed! Once I get this matter cleared up, I am done with BOW. Their customer service has gone downhill and I need a bank that I feel my accounts are secure and helps their customers rather than allowing hackers to overtake your account and leave you with no ability to access your funds and treat you like you're the thief. Frustrated beyond belief!!!

I called the 800 number again today and was told "sorry ma'am, we don't know why the lady on the phone yesterday would tell you that your hold expires at the end of night, it actually won't be released until Tuesday." I then asked to speak to a supervisor and this supervisor lady was EXTREMELY rude and has zero compassion to my situation. She said the only way that they can release my hold is if the merchant (Southwest) faxes them over a hold release form. I said "they DID fax this over yesterday to the branch and the branch told me to call the 800 number." She said "sorry but I can't do anything since the branch is closed today." ARE YOU KIDDING??? I told her that I even have a copy of the hold release form that came straight from the merchant. I told her I could email it to her and she said they don't have the ability to receive email (yeah right). I hung up extremely frustrated and in tears.

I was promised my funds would be back to me today and now I have to sit all Memorial Day weekend with my account being overdrawn??? I can't even wait to dispute my overdraft fees!! Shame on the 84th and Giles branch for not just taking care of this themselves and shame on the customer service people for providing me incorrect information and no willingness to help. I just got married last weekend and my husband and I were going to open a joint account here. After this experience, I will be closing my account and going to bank that actually cares about their customers. This is absolutely insane. Update - it is now May 31st (a BUSINESS day) and my situation is not resolved. This has been going on since 5/27.

They told me they did not see where a work order had been submitted for my request. The CSR said she would submit it and request an expedited decision to call back in 3 days. I waited 4 days plus 2 weekend days to call. Nothing. "Sorry ma'am no work order has been submitted." I requested to speak to a manager and he informed me that no work order had been submitted but insured me that he would do it right then and for me to call back in 4 business days.

Finally after 20 days of waiting I get the answer that they will only remove 1 fee. WHATEVER!! I accept that I was late I will pay up... Tried to pay my balance and they won't take pay off amounts over the phone. I have to wire transfer it from my bank (pay a bank fee to do so) and then set up a FedEx account for them to bill for sending me my title (I requested overnight because during this time I have sold the RV). I have never been so frustrated with a bank in my entire life. No one is friendly and really no one seems to care what you have to say nor are they willing to work with you to come to an agreement. I will say that one day they are going to be sued because I went back and looked at my original loan documents and NOWHERE in the documents does it state that fees accumulate. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THEM AT ALL!!! You're better off contacting your local bank or credit union.

The icing on the cake was when I (fairly recently) received a letter from BoW advising I must now submit to mandatory arbitration in the event of a dispute. This denies the client any private right and the right to a trial by jury regardless of the how negligent BoW might be or the degree of damage their wrongdoing causes to customers. This underscores BoW's growing reputation as an inferior financial institution and it's well documented, detestable treatment of its clients. BTW, "arbitrators" are not required to have any training and not required to follow the law, and the mandatory arbitration clause allows the bank only to choose the arbitrator, and their "chosen" arbitrators are generally on contract with the bank. It's win-win for BoW and lose-lose for its clients.

My money isn't safe, and my interests are of no concern at BoW. They don't respect me or value my business so I won't wait for their inevitable, irreparable destruction of my finances - they're history. I won't bore you with BoW's characteristically-reprehensible treatment regarding today's ('just another') BoW-caused **-up. And rather than waste another minute on them, I'm transferring and closing all of my accounts at BoW. They can take their "mandatory arbitration" letter, fold it at all 4 corners and stick it up...well, you know. Bank of the West is simply not worth the less-than-inferior caliber of their 'services'.

Called bank, they canceled and sent new one. 10 days later received pin.. No bank card. Called bank and they claim they had wrong address. This is a lie because I received pin numbers and bank statements. Called again and was told they would do a rush and I could pick up at Littleton bank. Went to bank after a week. They were so uninterested and no card. It is now February 10th and still no card. I've been with this bank longer than the employees that work there. It was community first. It's been over 20 years and as soon as my income tax clears I'm done with them.

I can understand not cashing it if I didn't have any accounts at that bank, or if the amount was greater than $20. Does my year-long association with them not count toward anything? I mean it's $20 bucks for God's sake! Instead of sending me and my measly $20 check away, he should have tried to sell me on opening a checking or savings account with Bank of the West. Because of this poor customer service from the Branch Manager, I will cash out some stocks in order to pay off my loan account so I no longer have to do business with this bank.

This time my husbands card was declined for an online purchase, but mine worked. I called in AGAIN and was told the card was fine and I must have entered the card incorrectly. After pushing the issue, she noticed the card was in fact deactivated. When I asked why they stayed they were issuing out all customers a new debit card with a chip, which we didn't want, and they "accidentally" deactivated his card. When I asked them to reactivate the card they said they couldn't. Then when I explained he works nights and isn't available during their business hours to go to a branch to see if they can help, I asked for their supervisor. He magically deactivated the card, but now it has a new expiration date and cvv code. They gave me the new expiration date, but couldn't give me the CVV code. So he can no longer use the card online, on the phone, or anywhere that they need to confirm the CVV code.

They said the card was shipped out on 11/3 and would be here in the next week. Its now 11/13 and still no card. We are moving and my husband is leaving the state permanently to set up a job and house and now can't make hotel reservations for any plans ahead of time 'cause of lack of card. I called in again this morning to explain our unique situation and again all I get is an "I'm sorry there is nothing we can do." So my husband has to make a choice, to stay and wait and lose money everyday we have to wait, or risk leaving CA and not having access to our account while traveling 1600 miles across country.

This isn't a one time thing people. It happened twice to 1 family within a couple months. If anyone reads these, PLEASE USE ANOTHER BANK! My local branch staff is amazing, but their hands are tied because corporate won't allow them to do anything in the branch other than change a pin which now you can do over the phone. The branch personnel is almost worth staying for, but when they can't help with serious issue and corporate refuses, that it. I hope no one else has to go through the frustration I have with BANK OF THE WEST!!! Just say NO!

I've been to this one at least three times, and was introduced to him by the manager, and he tells me, "I see hundreds of people, I don't recognize you." We've had it, and will be moving all three of our accounts OUT. There's a Chase Bank much closer to us, and whenever we go in there for any reason (we don't have accounts there, but for change, or new bills, or to pay Chase Credit Card), everyone is so welcoming and nice. Don't need Bank of the West anymore!

As a example we received a email very late in the day informing us more documentation was need. Since we receive this email after business hours that left us 2 days. The following day we called the person who send us this email just to find out that she was out of the office for the day which now left us one day with questions we needed answered. We obtained what we believed was the information she request and sent it to her in a email with the understanding that if more was needed to let us know as soon as possible.

At the end of the day we received a email telling us that what we had sent her was not enough and that we also had to have a pest inspector look at the house. This is after we had a home inspector and a VA assessor go thru the house weeks ago. The Bank of the West should be ashamed how they treat their customers and veterans.

I asked for paper statements. The reply? You have to go online to change to paper statements. Can't get online? You have to go to a branch. So I called the branch. I was told to come in or go online. What the bleep can they do for me there that they cannot do on the phone??? In this day and age you should be able to remote bank. Heck I have a bank in a location I haven't lived within 800 miles of in 10 years and there have been no issues. How can a bank possibly deny you access to your account and the information about your account? Absolutely ridiculous!!

At this point, I now had 5 of my credit card payments and house payment returned to maker marked 'no such account', total fees late, and notices my accounts were either over 30 days. (Interest, penalties, notice to credit bureaus on June 2nd.) On June 3rd, all attempts to speak to them now were ignored because another employee told me all accounts had 9 #s, not 8 #s. I called all direct deposit issuers, added 0 to beginning of acct #. I received my $3000 direct deposit that should have been in account on June 1st on the 10th. With fees from my creditors, $325 plus fees from checks, I had written bank fees - $385. Ms. **, in emails, left messages to supervisors, were told by me I needed resolution.

I received no emails, letters, or phone calls until July 5th letter. Please call this #. They want to make arrangements to have meeting with regional manager who was 149 miles from location. Arranged to meet August local office. I agreed but told the RM OK, but to treat me fairly, as I didn't like attorney involvement in an obvious case that should be a simple case of giving me my fees. And for them to write letters to my creditors, stating they had banking errors. Ms ** then said I was making a threat. I politely told her it wasn't a threat nor was possibility of contacting media a threat. I would not handled like I was ignorant of the facts. I only wanted fair resolution and I had documentation to back my claims including call times, dates, and 3 instruments written by Ms. ** to prove the inept actions of Ms. **.

We, on 7 Aug, she offered $70 compensation. I said goodbye. She then started saying I was threatening her and company. Then I said no threats... I recorded everything and pointed to my smart phone on desk. She got really upset. I left, she then went to police dept. They immediately contacted me and determined that Ms. ** was attempting to make me act or say something which would cover the banks foul up.

I am 100% combat-action disabled (PTSD) and they knew it also that in my past, I was prone to action. Also knew MY wife dying and that I had attempted to kill myself over my survivor guilt and had been committed 3 times at veterans' hospitals in last 14 years; that I had lost my 10-mo. old granddaughter 3rd of July 1 yr before; and that I had a fellow Marine use my flak jacket in 17 June, was killed with my name stenciled in jacket; that my sister-in-law had embezzled from me and that is why I changed banks.

I believe as does 2 police officers that I was being set up to save bank's reputation and possible legal action by me. All above is documented with both written and recorded verification. The officers told me bank was canceling my account and would probably do it about time for my next direct deposit to be returned because account closed. One know an attorney who wants to get his hands dirty. Going to U.S. Attorney this Friday and they say they may be able to help because of the statements/actions are attempts to defraud me, a banking customer.

Yesterday I had the misfortune to deal with who was possibly the most astonishingly impolite man I've encountered in my years of banking. His name is Clemente ** and he is titled as the Assistant Vice President/Branch Manager, though how he has been entrusted to manage anything is a mystery, especially in a customer service position. The extremely kind Bank Teller called him over to the window. He looked at the computer screen and handed me the check, coldly remarking "I cannot process this check." I explained to him the usual procedure regarding this issue, to which he replied "Then I'll talk to the other manager. She shouldn't be doing it either." Then he turned and walked away from me. That was it. Not another word. I felt dismissed.

I left to return to my car, but Clemente **'s arrogance and total rudeness drove me to return to let him know my feelings and get his business card. I filed a formal verbal complaint to the Bank of the West headquarters regarding this incident. I will follow it up with a written complaint. I'm not a lot of money to them, but if I have to deal with this kind of behavior from someone that is supposed to be a professional, I will look for another bank. Clemente ** does not conduct himself as a professional. He is more like a bully. He is a horrible representative for this business. Everyone else at this branch has always been so kind to me. This was shocking. P.S. - I put the check in the atm- it cleared with no problems last night.

This is beyond ridiculous, considering that THEIR machine took my money, and it is also almost the weekend so I won't get my money until Tuesday. What if I really needed that money? I would be totally screwed. The manager was also very short with me and not sympathetic at all. Customer service was basically nonexistent.

I printed copies of my bank transactions every day sometimes more than once and the items that show up and the order things on each one are different each time. Also when I started questioning their policies and charges in person to a bank supervisor, all the sudden I had incurred another 11-$35 charges for items they returned that varied from $.53 to $5.05, all 11 totaled $21 & some odd cents. They wouldn't add my 2 cash deposits I made in the machine right outside their bank for 2 days so that they could put fees on. $385.00 + the first $70 they charged before I knew there was any charge & it did not even show up when they began to charge me the first 4 of the charges. I tried to ask what it would take to stop these fees & they couldn't tell me. All they said was they couldn't charge more than $140.00 a day in fees. The man didn't talk to me in private, but did it in main lobby beside tellers at front tellers' windows.

And even worse the second item they claimed to have returned and charge me $35 for has records showing transaction was completed 1 day before the bank claims to have seen it. But they claim that is an error even when I provided them with a copy of the completed transaction. Very Frustrated, I have been at this bank since before it was Bank of the West & had way too many uncalled for fees. And doesn't 24 hour online banking have to be accurate or give you the same balance as the drive up? I think they need to be accounted for. If you have a fee it should state for what online & on your statement, & they should not be allowed to change the order in which transactions take place or change them from day to day, or put their fees in front of other items to cause more fees. This is immoral.

I reduced the balance amount of my account with the bank to ~$50.00 to "buy time" while I would seek a reasonable resolution with the bank. Their response was to charge my account for the $200.00 anyway, creating a negative balance, to which they add a 735% (that's right, seven-hundred, thirty-five percent) interest penalty every day, apparently until I fund the negative balance! Obviously, Bank of the West is a greedy blight on the public they claim they serve, with absolutely no regard for their customers or for doing the right thing. Coupled with other recent well-publicized offenses large banks, in general, have obviously become odious rogues that need to be curbed and/or dissolved! With my age and extensive experience, I assure you that banking has not always been this bad in America.

When transfer was done, $25 missing, no letter, no explanation, nothing. Finally got branch to initiate query, because no other information was forthcoming. Now they say it went directly to wire-transfer dept and they found it outside of CD renewal period, so they claimed the $25 for themselves. Doesn't matter was was noted on the account. So work with them, doesn't matter. They are going to claim fees regardless of what you do. Stay away from this business.

I wanted to pay off the credit card debt, destroy the cards and be able to just make one payment at a lower interest rate to get the debt paid off sooner, and also to be able to use the interest charged as a tax deduction. The underwriter 1st declined the loan because I had too much credit card debt. He then asked for additional info to prove I had sufficient income, so I provided him with tax returns, and K-1's for two years showing dividend income, receipts from a 401K with another 50K that was recently deposited into my checking account.

This person had access to all my accounts, could see there was plenty of cash being deposited in all the accounts each month, had everything he needed to prove where the cash comes from, and then goes through all the trouble to build some type of spreadsheet to show why he is denying it again, and the person doesn't even put my 2014 dividend income into the equation.

I have no doubt that this underwriter was just TRYING to find something wrong with my application, because he had to mess with the numbers to get my DTI higher than it should have been. Maybe he doesn't like women??? Maybe Italians??? There was definitely something he didn't like. So don't waste your time trying to get a loan with Bank of the West. Their underwriters are idiots.

I went to the bank, and asked them there was some kind of program for seniors to help me out. I had applied for a personal loan and was denied, so told the rude idiot that I was talking to that my credit has had a time because of identity theft and I needed to get some records straightened out with the Experian, and the others, and that could have been the reason for the denial. They didn't even call me with questions or anything. I also told her that I had filled out the form there in the Bank and felt like I was in a hurry and that maybe I should reapply for the loan. She said No. There wasn't anything they could do for me, very smugly I might add.

I said, "What ever happened to banks working with their customers, and helping them?" She said "Well you have to realize that banks have been hit hard too." I got really mad and responded, "Well if all of you banks hadn't been so pompous and giving out all of the large loans with the enormous balloon payments, to make fast money, to people that couldn't afford these loans, and then having to deal with foreclosures from people having to lose everything they had and walk away from the homes they loved. All of you banks have no one to blame but yourselves. So you jack up your fees to ridiculous levels that can really hurt us that don't have much."

I am in the process of moving my account someplace else. I am not going to stay at a bank that won't even deposit your money from the ATM machine until after closing the following day just so they can charge overdraft fees. To get your money transacted immediately you have to use the drive up window and if you are overdrawn the evening before, like if you went to the grocery store, and you are there to deposit money the very first thing in the morning when they open, they still charge a $35.00 fee each and amount overdrawn. They won't even consider not charging the fee because the transaction was after closing. I am moving to a credit union. This bank is cheating people out of a lot of money in my opinion. They are nothing but a bunch of self righteous snobs. I am out of there... I have lost way more money than I should have in their terrible fees and banking practices.

Refused to reimburse me after a merchant began making unauthorized withdrawals from my account, following a purchase. A Regional manager advised me to file a form that (he claimed) would prevent one particular creditor from accessing my account at will and allow me to pay only according to the terms of our agreement. This resulted in putting a stop on all my payments to all creditors and having causing my on-line account to be suspended thus preventing me from making timely payments to creditors.

Following the stop payment/suspension debacle, I spent countless hours over a 3 day period resolving the mess that occurred because of the ignorance of a regional bank manager. It took 3 days because a BoW employee (who misrepresented himself as a branch manager) assumed me numerous times that he'd resolved the situation when indeed it wasn't. During that time I tried (unsuccessfully) to pay my bills each time. I was told that the matter had been resolved. During this time I couldn't access my own money and appeared to my creditors that I was negligent in paying my bills when they were due.

The last straw was after I recently received a notice advising me that BoW was suddenly imposing forced arbitration upon its customers in the event of a dispute. Technically this is a deprivation of our constitutionally guaranteed right to Due Process according to laws that have prevailed since the ratification of the US Constitution. Arbitration is used by banks and corporations to Immunize themselves from liability to those they harm by their negligent and/or criminal actions. It's known fact that 'arbitration' is and always has been biased to favor and serve the same.

I won't give my business to any an institution that presumes it can usurp the supreme law of the land and deny to me my lawful right to due process. It's a "win-win" for banks. They 'do you the favor' of profiting from the money you keep in your accounts and remain (or think they do) unaccountable for any and all harm to consumers that results from their Intentional and unintentional 'mistakes' and unsavory activities.

So Bank of the West has finally distinguished itself as a bonafide member of the big boys club; free to deceive and abuse customers and the laws and then be rewarded for it with taxpayer bailouts. Finally, BoW is owned by Barclay Bank -a huge, global financial institution who has begun to do business with many of the most notoriously corrupt and reprehensible 'corporations' on the planet. The latter are the loan 'servicers', mortgage lenders, junk debt buyers and banks (most of whom are worth trillions) who orchestrated, perpetuate and continue to benefit from the sub-prime/foreclosure/bailout holocaust. These include "non-banking financial institutions" such as Owen (just type the name in for hours-worth of horror stories), Midland and a myriad of 'corporations' who incorporated for the sole purpose of enriching themselves at the expense of the millions of Americans whose lives were destroyed as a direct result these bottom feeding vultures.

How long do you think it will be before these bottom feeders' tentacles reach and begin to manipulate banks, their subsidiaries and affiliates to ultimately get their hands on your accounts. How long will it be before Bank of the West sells your mortgage or other loans to (sued countless times -successfully, for fraud, illegal foreclosure, violations under RICO and on and on). Bank of the West is affiliated with this scum and others just like it because it's owned by Barclay Bank. Garbage in, garbage out. Educate yourself well regarding who really has access to your money and the potential risk that implies. I say 2 thumbs down for BoW. They've ** me more than a donkey with 2 ** and I say, **. They ain't the only game in town.

In a twist of irony, another rep from the other state said that she couldn't help me at all, and would have a rep from my state contact me. No one has contacted me and they wouldn't give a contact name or phone number. I spent 3 months trying to track down that other state rep because she only works one day a week. Goodness, wouldn't want customer needs to interfere with her leisure time!

If Bank of the West were a fast food burger chain, the analogy would go something like this: One location would sell only French fries, and charge a potato surcharge; another, you could have anything on the menu as long as you go into the kitchen and cook it yourself; another would sell only breakfast and you need exact change; another is open only one day per week with only one employee; another would make you drive round and round the take-out, then refuse to take your order; another would take and cook your order, but you have to come back in a month to pick it up. So you end up leaving hungry and angry every time! So I would advise anyone invested at Bank of the West to do your beneficiaries and next-of-kin a huge favor, save them a lot of further grief and frustration. Move your money to a more friendly and customer service oriented bank, NOW!

We totally regret using this bank.. If anything I recommend ANYONE OR EVERYONE TO GO TO WELLS FARGO BECAUSE EVERYTHING I MENTIONED in HERE, WELLS FARGO GIVES you your card on that same day and they deposit your check faster than 9 ** days. BANK OF THE WEST SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN!!!! I can't believe how so much better you feel about letting everyone know about this bank!

Bank of the West continues to fail to complete the process or keep us in the loop of what's happening. Once we get the title and get the car registered in our state I will seriously look at options to pay off the loan with Bank of the West and change to different bank because of our poor experience. This is the worst experience we have ever had.

Bank of the West continues to fail to complete the process or keep us in the loop of what's happening. Once we get the title and get the car registered in our state I will seriously look at options to pay off the loan with Bank of the West and change to different bank because of our poor experience.

When trying to get the payoff figure, I was informed that the sums had finally been received and that they would apply them right away. Not so. I had to call back three days later and was told, “No, no money had been received.” It took several phone calls and an additional three days to apply the sums, which were already there! When finally I called and got the correct payoff figure, I requested that I be faxed a payoff letter to pay this loan off. I WAS TOLD IT TOOK UP TO THREE DAYS TO GET A PAYOFF LETTER FAXED!! And it did indeed take 3 days to do that. This is the worst, the worst bank to deal with. Anyone who deals with these people do so at their own risk! I have never been so frustrated and angry in my life.

At this point, I asked to see the payoff letter they received from Bank of the West. It was a very legal binding document from Bank of the West, stating the payoff amount of $238.76 was valid through a certain day. The written payoff amount was my monthly payment, not the amount due. This caused a huge issue and I took the liberty of stopping the process and pleading that the amount was incorrect. The credit union said they could only use what was in writing and could not proceed. The potential buyer's quoted APR was only valid through that day and he had someone prearranged to pickup the boat.

After several hours and management approval from different offices (mind you I had two young kids with me), we used the call-in payoff amount from Bank of the West. This was the correct amount. In the end, I should've taken the large check and then handed my lawyer the written payoff statement and said have fun. In doing the right thing, Bank of the West customer service says "Sorry for the mistake." Really? Because of their reaction and lack of concern, I might take them to court anyway. Buyer beware. A bunch of rookie bankers who won't be around much longer with these types of major mistakes.

After completing the validation I explained to her that the address associated with the account was incorrect and had never been my address. She said, "did your address change". Again, I said, "no, it was never my address". I mentioned that I gave her my correct address during the validation and that she said nothing. She said, "well, I have that address too" and read it back to me incorrectly! At the point I had enough and just told her to get rid of the other address and hung up.

It's not that anything she was trying to communicate was wrong. Her interpersonal skills were just atrocious! I am a VP of Sales for a manufacturing company and have CSR that report to me. If any of them ever spoke to a customer the way she talked to me they would be fired on the spot! If she a CSR, I'm an astronaut! They really need to train their people better. I am probably going to move my loan because of this interaction. Having her working at BW is going to cost them more money than just her salary.

After consulting with another employee she told me that the ATM hadn't been working and that I could get it back after 4:30. This angered me for its stupidity: Why hadn't anyone put a sign on it to warn customers? I have previously 'yelped' my disapproval of this branch earlier this year and I avoid dealing with it at all costs. Out of convenience, I thought I could use its ATM without incident. This evening I used the same card to make an online purchase. It was declined. This complaint is urgent and requires immediate action. If it is true it is a new low.

He then called me and said the premium interest would not apply to a new account in the first month. I read the deposit account disclosure documents several times and found no mention of this first month exception anywhere. I happened to know another branch manager so I called her also. I was told that the bank would pay me at the announced interest rate retroactively in my second full month statement. That was not true. My December statement shows the interest paid for that month only.

They have not typed any notes on my account letting the other customer service representatives know what is going on so I have to keep repeating the same long story each time I call. The latest I have heard is they typed and faxed the letter, but they did not save it. Of course DMV has not received the letter correcting their mistake, so I'm back at square one. On a scale of 1-10, I give their customer service department a -1. The managers are not helpful either. They're rude. It seems like NOBODY is accountable there.

My loan was a no-penalty if early pay-off.... This is BS.... deceptive and dishonest. I will report this to the Attorney General's office. NEXT... I paid off my note a few years early in Dec 2013. I was told by Paula (Loan Dept. BOW) if I wired pay-off, my title would be sent in 3-5 days. Three days after my note was paid off, Tilynn ** (Document Release Dept BOW) sent me a letter saying my title would be sent separately. It has now been 8 weeks since my pay-off was received by BOW. I have e-mailed, faxed, called BOW many times. Everyone there has his head up his you-know-what. No one in any level of Customer Service seems to be able to pick up a phone and call around to find out where my title is....

I finally called ESSEX CREDIT this morning and was told by Harry that there was no account for me and that he would have to transfer me to another department. Next thing I know... I'm talking to BANK OF THE WEST... and their heads are still up their you-know-whats. I've financed homes, boats, RVs, vehicles, toys, you name it... I have never seen such a screwed up mess as this group. STAY CLEAR OF BANK OF THE WEST!!!!!

Indeed every bank charges fees. Our new credit union charges a flat $25 fee. If we have over two digits in our account all of a sudden fees pop up. Magically we have several $35 fees and several $3 fees. Absolutely terrible. No concept of customer service. They basically find legal ways to steal money. Just awful.

As of Tuesday, 7pm EST, no title. I contacted James ** at 877-795-9819 regarding this, I also contacted Mr. Michael Shepard CEO - office 415-399-8212. I spoke with Darlene, his assistant, who immediately sent me to Julianne **. These people were "professional" but still got the same run around from them over the next 24 hours regarding a "3-day processing"; I'm sure not too many people send them thousands of dollars daily to payoff motorhomes, etc. Our son was stationed in California for 6 years. Mail takes 3 days from coast to coast, east to west and vice versa.

Our buyer is ticked to the max. His hands are tied since he has no title. Ten (10) days and counting… should not have paid for wired funds. I should have taken time to go to bank and wire pay off. Mr. ** and Ms. ** both said today "you should have your title by Friday." Hmm 10-15 days. They have refused to immediately hand over a title on property that is no longer theirs as of Monday April 22, 2013 as of 2:00pm EST, they had received payoff 11:00am their time. It was no longer theirs.

We still do not have title, but with this intentional act of withholding property, this story will be spread far and wide with all the details by both buyer and seller. We also have other avenues we are exploring. I was told today that it was mailed last Thursday, 25th. Hmm, story keeps changing. They said Friday, I can't wait to see postmark. By the way, title was mailed general delivery and not certified, how sweet. I should have overnighted it to us. Buyer paid thousands and is still waiting on BOW/Essex to release his property to him. Not Good!

Anyway, while we're thinking everything had been taken care of, both my daughter and I receive a notice that our first payment is late. We thought The Bank of the West had simply made a mistake and we called them. The first person we spoke with in collections said there was no record of a check being sent to the bank. I called the insurance company again and they assured me that a check had been sent on the 10th of January. We then called the bank again and finally, after speaking with about three people, we found out that they did have the payoff check but wouldn't apply the payoff payment to the account. They again told me they wouldn't do it until they had a perfected title.

I finally found the vehicle's paperwork at our County Clerk's office that processes the paperwork to get the new title. But they couldn't start the two-month process until they had a VIN inspection on the car. This requires that a police officer physically look at the car and confirm the VIN number. I didn't even know where the vehicle was and The Bank of the West continues to press us for the payments, even though they were holding a check that would pay off the car. Long story short, I have just found the vehicle and I am about to arrange for a New Mexico State Trooper to do the VIN inspection. I need to send the information to the Colorado State Patrol and then they can issue a VIN inspection to the County Clerk, who will then begin the process of getting the title changed. I was told by the clerk that this could take three to six weeks.

In the meantime, The Bank of the West still won't apply the payoff check to my account and they demand that I make the payments on a car. This would mean that I could make as many as three payments before they receive the title. I believe they could apply the payoff but won't do so just to make the extra money from our payments. I've promised them that I would get them the title as soon as possible if they would just apply the payoff. No is their persistent answer. Boy, am I frustrated.

Two things I've learned from this whole mess. First, don't finance a car through The Bank of the West. Second, when and if you do buy a new car, be sure to get "GAP" insurance. This insurance covers the total coverage of a new vehicle because a new vehicle depreciates substantially when you sign the papers and drive the car off the lot. The GAP insurance is very cheap considering the money a person stands to lose if a new vehicle is wrecked.

A lot of people say their bank fights the fraudulent charges and replaces those funds asap. I have cancelled all automatic payments and will discontinue using my card for online purchases. That's for sure. So if I'm out $800 and will not be able to get it back, from what bank can I take out a loan to replace the money stolen from me (lol)? After talking to the representative, he told me to "have a much better day than what I was having..." Thanks. Normally, the staff and everything else is good, but I just cannot risk my safety.

A few hours later, I called to check my deposit and my checks I dropped off were not deposited. And when I called to speak with someone to ask why it wasn’t deposited, they always either say "we are shorthanded today" (which I hear a lot) or "we make our deposits right at 10am and it should have been deposited". I realize most people working at a bank are not the sharpest tools in the shed. But when 2 lazy women employees watch me place money in the drop box a half hour before the bank is open and still can get it deposited the same day is pretty pathetic.

I hope this does not happen to anyone else. If only Bank of the West had some hard working people who actually cared about their job. Not these young tramp-looking girls whose only worry is about where they are going to party that night. I should be used to the laziness and ignorance in this town by now but it’s something that will never understand.

This has been going on for well over a year and a half now and so we have stopped trying to get any information out of the bank as we know that such attempts will be met with harassment by this crazy debt collector who has also resorted to spreading absurd, false accusations. With no other options available, we intend to seek assistance through consumer protection agencies or via legal channels in order to bring an end to the abuse by the bank and their rabid pitbull who they refuse to send to the animal shelter - where she belongs!

Well, not 30 seconds into the conversation with the supervisor, she told me to calm down. I was not yelling, calling her names, anything. I was simply rather upset like any human being would be upon learning this information. Well, I asked what had been causing the overdraft. They informed me it was NetFlix. I knew I had purchased that, so I called Netflix. After 4 different people and 3 different phone calls going from Netflix to my bank then back again (the records of attempted withdrawals Netflix had did not match my bank's), I found out someone had opened another Netflix account under my name, card number, but my other email.

So I thought back wondering if I could have opened a Netflix account and had not remembered, but I didn't. So after canceling both Netflix accounts, I called customer service at my bank once again. After being transferred, upon request, to a supervisor due to the attitude and behavior of the first person I was talking to, I began to tell her the story. This is what I was told over a one-hour period and I believe 4 or 5 different people. My account had been overdrafted since May 11. It was now June 19. I remembered in May I had I believe $2.50 in my account.

I live 25 miles from my bank, having kept my account when I moved back to my parents, so I could work and go to college at the same time. Going to my bank daily and even sometimes even making it over there once a week is difficult for me. So I sometimes only make it into the Bank of the West branch twice a month. Unfortunately, I was unable to make it over there since about the beginning of May. My bank allowed Netflix to overdraft the $7.99 leaving me with just over $5 in overdraft. It was not paid within 24 hours so they charged me the $35 overdraft fee, and according to them sent me a letter (which was never received). The letter was to come from I believe Connecticut.

After three days, they begin to charge you $5 a day until the overdraft is paid off and honestly a letter sent through regular mail is not going to make it from Connecticut to small town Oklahoma in three days. Well, the letter never arrived so I did not realize my account was overdrawn. Well skip forward to June 12 and June 14. Netflix tried to take another $7.99 out for my original account with them and an additional $7.99 for the other account I was not aware of. This incurred two additional fees of $35, totaling now $105 in overdraft. I had only received two small white note cards stating they had overdrafted and I had a fee of $35. The second note card had the total of $70 owed to them.

Remembering I had only received these note cards one and two weeks prior to this phone call and having other bills I had to pay, I wasn't able to pay it the two Fridays earlier. So my plan was to drive to my bank on the afternoon of Friday, June 22 to deposit my paycheck to cover what I thought was only $75. Well, after discussing everything with the supervisor (probably could have in a nicer way, she being the 5th person and 2nd supervisor I had talked to, and the phone calls to both customer service and Netflix now totaling over an hour, I was very upset by this point), she tried with an attitude to tell me that it is up to the actual branch to call me and inform me that I have three overdraft charges and a month and a half of daily fees. The white note cards were backdated though they had the current date on them. They should have been sent weeks before they were and the other three letters they sent not arriving was not their fault. I needed to take that up with the postal service (which in any way shape or form would have been a losing battle).

So, I told her I would gladly pay the first overdraft fee of $35 but I will not pay the other two overdraft charges or the $5 a day that had been added. She told me that I would be going into collections because I was very close to the 46 days that I'm allowed to be in overdraft, though I found out I was in overdraft at 37 days in. So I asked, "Well, can I close the account with the balance still there so I can stop the $5 fees and I'll be in Friday to pay it?" She said no. I asked if I could at least freeze it until Friday, now that I was aware of this and was going to take care of it as soon as I got paid. She once again said no. According to her, if an account is in overdraft, it cannot be closed or frozen until it is back in the positive and I will continue to receive the $5 fees until it's completely paid, and I wasn't allowed to make payments on it and that I would have to pay it off in full. They just, for lack of a better phrase, pissed me off, so I hung up.

I waited a few moments and called the branch back where I opened the account and spoke to one of the ladies there. She was the nicest person and completely understood, forwarding my phone call on to one of the new managers. Once again, the woman was very nice and understanding, and told me that that branch had just had a turn over due in part to jobs not being done correctly. They are supposed to have a weekly print out of all those accounts in overdraft and are in one way or another supposed to inform those account holders before an amount like mine was allowed to accumulate. She had also made it come across like I was not the only person who had experienced this problem recently from that branch. Being that this is a branch by branch choice whether to inform those in overdraft once they have gone over $100, not every one of them does.

Well, I spoke to her for about 15 min. and she told me she completely understood why I was upset, that this was allowed to accumulate so much before. I was informed over the phone not by a piece of paper in the mail. She waived one of the $35 fees and three of the $5 fees. I had already set up what I needed to dispute the second Netflix charge from June stating that I was unaware of the account they were trying to withdraw the money for. She continued on to say that she was going to send me another dispute paper to dispute both charges from June on the grounds that I was in overdraft and instead of calling me and informing me I was in overdraft and that Netflix was trying to charge me twice, the bank allowed them to overdraft once again charging me two overdraft fees. I am currently waiting on the papers I need to sign but I still have to go to my bank on Friday to pay the total $225 so that I can stop the $5 daily fees and wait to hear what happens.

What made me so upset is that the original charge that caused me to go into overdraft occurred on May 11, 2012. I was sent two note cards five weeks after the initial charge stating what I thought was what I owed that turned out to be wrong and finally being informed over the phone on June 19, 2012 of my actual balance. I do not understand how a bank, whether it is up to that particular branch or not to inform me, can just tell me I owe them $225 in overdraft fees without informing sooner. Like I told them I would have been more than willing to pay that first overdraft fee of $35 and the $7.99 they gave to Netflix. But what I was upset about was the $5 daily fees they allowed to accumulate while waiting over a month to tell me over the phone (being that mail does not always get to where it's going) and the additional $35 charges I had because instead of refusing to pay Netflix because the account was overdrawn and allowing them to get in touch with me, they paid them then charged me the fees for it. I have explained this to several people and every time they say this sounds like a scam and that I should not pay the fees until everything is taken care of.

Okay, I accepted that and continued to get ripped off by these robbers. No personal contact or concern by corporate. Just routine declination, although someone in the bank said leaders just charge so many fees at so many different dates that the bank will not involve themselves even if illegally unheard of. Then, I legally cancelled the 3-year contract and these crooks leaders are still debiting my account. Again, I tried to get my bank of over 20 years to help us. Denise ** in corporate refused, even though I presented proof of original contract and proof of cancellation in writing. This bank is the worst at the corporate level for service to consumer.

I applied and received two loans from them but with draconian terms and payoffs to credit card companies, almost totally negating amount of loan. I could not understand why with our good credit and excellent reputation with the bank. Even in these tough times we are seniors, 62 and 65, put through the ringer and made to go through more hoops than anyone else. A former bank manager, who shall remain nameless, said Bank of the West discriminates and red-lines the self-employed and she suggested not to apply for any loans through them. To add insult to injury, they now inform me that my savings account will be charged $20.00 per month if it falls below a certain balance with the wonderful interest rate of .065, I believe.

They failed to give me even photocopies of checks on a small DDA rental account and when asked, said it would be $2.50 per month only running 2-3 checks per month. I need verification of these checks for income tax purposes. When do you charge for this? The corporate end of this bank is just that terrible.

I have been close to foreclosure with my Aussie house and have gotten back on track, but now thanks to Bank of the West, I am 2 weeks behind a payment. They are giving me the runaround, the transfer was to Australia, not an igloo in Alaska. Why on earth they would allow an untrained new employee to transfer money without supervision is beyond me! Is there anything you can do? Phone calls from me achieve nothing!

Everyone gave a different story every time I called. They were giving me the runaround. I don't remember ever getting a title. I bought the trailer and paid for it. Why can't I get something saying it is paid off? Why is it so hard to send something saying there is no lien on that account? That's all I need to get a duplicate title. Please help me out here.

If this is supposedly for our convenience, I think that the corporate heads really need to think about people's needs and really try to put the customers first. I am a nurse and my husband runs his own business--and we would never treat any of our clients in this manner. The consequences are that he still does not have a replacement card, and we are very dissatisfied and disappointed with this lack of service.

I was told my account information, along with log in information for online use, personal checks, and my bank debit card would be mailed to me. I never received anything in the mail! But this is not my major problem. I short, I went out of town for a while, literally forgetting I have this account open with BOW, and recently returned and found two letters from September 2011, stating I was overdrawn! So, I went in to talk about my account, which in my eyes was clearly a mistake, considering I never used that account once, and to tie up any loose ends and ultimately to close my account, and withdraw any remaining money.

I forgot which month I opened it during 2011, but I think it was around March. That would be 11 months, hence why I figured there should be around $156.00 in my checking account, minus $44.00 in monthly fees. I had no intention of not banking with you, I had every intention of opening my business account with you. After speaking with the teller, I was informed that not only was my accounts closed and my money was gone (at least $100.00), because who knows if the other $100.00 was ever deposited, I was refereed or sold to a collection agency! Which means I apparently now owe your bank more money! It gets better, this has now going to effect my credit! I

I work hard, and pay attention to my finances and credit. And because of something with your bank and what ever policy, I am a total victim. I would call the police and file credit fraud alert if somebody stole my money and put scrupulous claims on my credit. But for some crazy reason, because you're the bank, you're able to do what you want. Bottom line, I take responsibility for not contacting your bank about my debit card, and personal checks, along with making sure that promotional money was there. I assumed, then forgot and then got bowled over.

Take my $100.00 for my carelessness, but please take me out of collections and clear my name for my credit. Life is hard enough without having to fight this now. I could really use my original $100 considering I am unemployed with 3 children. But please have the decency to restore my credit and be removed from collections. I don't deserve this.

This is their logic: Am I crazy? If you set your payment to be sent on the 15th, Bank of the West sends it on the 12th by snail mail to get there on the 15th. Laughing yet? I get my ATM card to find a number for customer service and they enlighten me on their logic. I'm frustrated. The woman I first talk to says they will stop it for a fee of $35. My response is, "You're nuts. I set it up to be paid on the 15th it says it right there. It's not my error." I say, "I'm a new customer. Can't you waive the fee?" Then, "May I speak to a supervisor?" Nothing there to write home about. She quotes me under section such in such, it says. I told Mary if I closed my account today, it would stop payment quick and save me $35 bucks. The bottom line is they don't like customers! Avoid this bank unless your life is so boring that you need a stroke. I'm searching for a new bank today!

The incompetent person on the phone even saw, that I was not the one who made the withdrawal. I have made a police report, and when, and if this ever gets figured out, I am bringing a civil suit against the bank, as they should be able to fix it with the information sitting in front of them. Regardless, my rent is going to be really late and I don't know how I am going to feed myself.

Looking 5 months later, I am still dealing with the bank because they say that June's payment is still missing. So, for five consecutive months, the money is laying in the account that they were supposed to have taken it out of but did not. It's because the bank claimed there were counterfeit bills. And they only take the money out of the account on the 1st & the 8th of the month. The money was not there in June because of the false claim regarding the counterfeit bills.

Now I have a second loan through Bank of the West for a 246ssi Chaparal boat. Again, I am getting letters and harassing calls regarding the 1st loan for a mobile home that I co-signed for. I informed B of W representatives that if they did not straighten out the problems with the first loan, I was going to discontinue making payments on the second loan as they were going to destroy my credit. It was in the high 780 and low 790s last December. So, I did not make my payment on Sept. 12 as it was due, until Sept. 29, and it posted on Oct. 3. It's funny they corrected the other loan account. At this time, B of W processed check #157 twice. Yes, I said twice, removing $469 dollars from my checking account 2 times. My payment is only $442 and change.

When I noticed the mistake, I called them. They informed me first that it was being reversed. Then, a supervisor told me it could not be reversed, that I had to go to my bank and request they reverse it. And that requires me to take a day off of work. My wife or I had many conversations with B of W regarding these problems, the first on the phone and at the branch level, the second on the phone only. I informed them that they made the mistake again and I was tired of dealing with their mistakes and that they need to fix them. I told them they would play hell getting the next payment out of me as I had already made it. They informed me on 2 occasions that a letter was sent to me, which I have not received to this date, 10-22-2011.

Today, I received their customary harassing phone calls. They called my house phone. I hung up with my work to answer it. They hung up and called my cell phone. When I answered it, they hung up and called my wife's number, which we did not answer. I called them. They informed me the money that they said could not be reversed was back in my account. And they were demanding to know when I was going to make a payment. I pulled up my bank account and the money had been returned. Albeit this does not resolve the bank charges from my bank that I received because of their mistake.

The people at the Bank of the West do not care nor regard the problems that they cause their customers because of their mistakes. But if you make one, they are ready to charge, charge, charge you for yours. The lady on the phone, after demanding to know when I was going to make my payment, reminded me that if I went too long, there would be a fee, and if past 30 days, a negative mark on my credit. My step daughter who made the original deposit into an L.A. County Sheriffs (her brothers) account to make the payment on the mobile home has never had the 200 dollars to my knowledge returned. The harassing repeated calls one after the other on the home and cell phones is uncalled for.

I was told that this was the reason why the bank refused to make the change, since they could not see (verify) my drivers license. Another month and a half went by and no statement. I called the 800 number and was given the runaround. No one wanted to help in any way.

I went back to the local branch next to my house and spoke with the branch manager (Alex), who got on the phone to talk to someone and resolve the matter. I made a payment to bring the account current and at this time, I was informed that I was late with my payment. I made payment to bring the account current. Also, at this time I processed another request for address change and a request to link my checking account to my savings account, so I don't have the risk of being late. A direct deposit within the same bank.

Two months later, I realized that the bank was not taking money from my checking account and I had no idea, so no payments were made. No attempt by the bank was made to contact me in any way. I went back to the branch manager. The manager (Alex) had me write a handwritten letter asking the bank to remove the negative inquiry on my credit report due to a bank error, as a minimum curtsy since I have never been late. Also, he helped me process another direct deposit slip and another change of address form. This time, the change of address finally worked and so did the direct deposit from checking to savings. However, the bank refuses to work with me and remove the negative credit reporting.

Recently, I pulled a credit report to get a home refinance loan and the negative reporting by Bank of the West had come up on all 3 credit reporting agencies. I was unable to secure a favorable loan and had to pass on the refinance. At the same time we had applied for a new loan to purchase an investment property. Due to the reporting, I had to withdraw my application and that effectively ruled out a loan strictly in my wife's name.

I contacted the bank manager but he was on paternity leave. His customer service manager called me back a day later to give me the same 800 useless number and said that there was nothing more that she or Alex could do for me. When I asked for the phone number to the corporate office, the representative went belligerent saying that I put myself in this position. I insisted on a call back from the branch manager or a regional manager and she refused to make any additional effort and became louder. A bit shocked at her behavior, I decided it's best to hang up. I am unable to get anyone who is a decision maker at this bank to listen to reason and provide some relief.

I am seeking the removal of the negative reporting to all 3 credit agencies.

At this time, I am not seeking compensation for the damage caused by the bank error, but I reserve the right depending on the outcome of this complaint. Your expedited help in this matter is much appreciated. Thank you.

The problem is they HAVE NOT GIVEN ME BACK MY MONEY and they have proof of insurance. It has been 15 business days today and now I have to pay interest on monies I never needed to use! Please help!

I called manager and asked for her to call, no response. I will never work with this bank again. He refused to work with me in anything. No extra payment will go towards balance unless I mail in coupon and this loan is set up to be paid through my personal bank automatically. They will not mail a coupon with the payments. I hate this bank and the lack of customer service they give. I have never been late once and have excellent credit ratings and to be treated like this was a stressful experience.

Then we sat there for awhile, and their branch manager Linda ** came over and said "we do not open account anymore because there are a lot of people before you that we need to process first.". I looked over and only saw 1 customer. So I said "how long does it take to open an account per person?” she said "20 minutes". I said "there is only 1 person in front of us, and you guys close at 6, its only 5 right now.” She yelled out "we can refuse service, since this morning before 10AM we have already opened up 20 accounts, and that is enough for our branch. We don't need any more business!” She walked off on us.

After awhile, an older Asian couple walked in, Linda ** walked over to greet them in Chinese and told another employee there (Justin **) to open accounts for that couple. We asked Linda ** why do they get to open accounts before us. She told us with such a bad attitude that "they are my friends! And they are not opening accounts, they just have questions".

Little does she know that I also speak Chinese, I heard the couple explaining to the teller Justin ** that they would like to open up an account. I went over the Justin ** to ask why is he opening up accounts for that couple while we've waited for so long. He said "I am just doing what I was told". During that hour, Linda ** was doing nothing else but just chatting with coworkers, and friends on the phone and purposely not helping us. When finally at 6, she spoke loudly to Catalina ** "I don't know why they are still here crazy people.” Then she called us into her cube, took the account application out and slammed it on the table, and said "do you want to open an account or not?". We asked her why does she have such a bad attitude, and how can she let her employees talk to customers like this. She says she does whatever she wants, this is her branch, and bank of the west does not need any more business that day. She said she turned away more than 30 people that day. That was such a bad experience for us. I cannot believe Bank of the West is letting someone like Linda **, Catalina ** and Justin ** turned so many customers like us away.

The customer service representative from Bank of the West, after reviewing all the payment, said to me that "what happens a lot of times that when you first buy the boat, the first payment is missed because you haven't received your payment book yet". My comment to him is that it is 4 years later and I am hearing this absurd suggestion. The first time that I had called Bank of the West, the first time the repo man was at my door, they said that I missed a payment in July of 2007. But after I went through the bank statements with the customer service, he made the comment about the first payment. Bank of the West did repo the boat which we used with our son and daughter and enjoyed. They sent me a letter that their intent is to sell it at a private sale. Our intent was to keep this boat or we would not have made all the payments that we did and would have continued to do. My suggestion, do not get involved with Bank of the West.

I told her that I could not enter a referral form on-line, so I came in. She directed me to the manager, Simon, who said, "You should just go to the Apple store and buy an iPod. You don't want a relationship with our bank. You only want an iPod. A checking account is not a relationship with our bank. Our primary concern is with the customers that we already have. We want to keep the line short. We can't have our customers waiting just so you can open a checking account and get an iPod." Well, if they didn't want new customers, why did they advertise for them?

On Friday July 9th, I called the 800 number automated system which told me my balance was $169.94. There was a pending charge of $9.99, which left me an available balance of $159.95. My husband had to buy material for a job on Saturday, so we went to Lowe's and spent $43.01. I noted this in my check register and the remaining balance was $116.94. He still needed materials and was going to Home Depot after dinner, so I went out to get gas beforehand.

I stopped first at an ATM and withdrew $102.50 ($2.50 service fee for non-BoW bank). This left me a remaining balance of $14.44. I went to get gas, and planned to get $14 worth, knowing he would be paid on Monday. I got sidetracked and the gas came out to $18.00. So I knew at this point I was -$3.46 overdrawn, and figured I would be assessed a service charge of $35.00 come Monday. Saturday after work, my husband informed me that he would need to buy additional materials. I went to my branch ATM and withdrew $250.00. There was a prompt during my transaction where I had to acknowledge that I was overdrafting my account. I agreed to it. So at this point my account is -$253.46 overdrawn.

My husband gets paid on Monday, but it is too late to run to the bank. First thing Tuesday morning, I make a deposit for $1009.86, which brings my balance in the positive. Wednesday morning, I called the 800 number to go through my checks and receipts to check off what has cleared my account. I learned that my account has been charged an overdraft fee of $140, not $70 as I was expecting! I sent a message online to customer service asking for an explanation. The response is that the computer processes the daily transactions from highest to lowest amount. So for the transactions I made over the weekend where I entered each one chronologically to determine my available balance was a waste.

On Monday morning, the BoW computers processed my $250.00 withdrawal on Sunday first, instantly putting me in a negative balance since my starting balance on Friday was $169.94. I was charged $35.00 for each of the other four transactions made over the weekend, even though they occurred prior to the $250 withdrawal. I called the customer service number and was told the same thing, and the rep said that this is the way they have processed transactions for years, and "surely you should have known about it since you have had an account with us for over a year (actually it has been more like 10 months). Um, no.

He said if I wanted to dispute the charges he would contact my branch manager. He put me on hold for about 5 minutes only to come back to say that the branch manager was unavailable. I could have walked into the bank to speak with him directly, but I haven't. A similar situation happened within the past couple of days, only on a much smaller scale. But this one involved their bank fees for using non-BoW ATMs.

It is bad enough living paycheck to paycheck and trying to pay all of the bills and keep things going. It is another thing to expect to rely on my check register as an accurate account of my balance only to find out that the bank computer system has it's own way of processing my transactions which results in the bank taking money I cannot afford to lose, and making it harder to catch up and stay in a positive account balance. I have been dealing with overdraft fees for BoW since April. While I acknowledge that I have knowingly overdrafted my account, expecting in those circumstances to fairly be assessed an overdraft fee, I feel that they are knowingly and intentionally processing customer transactions to their financial benefit.

I stopped in on 7/9 to see when and where my title would be mailed to. They (the tellers who looked it up) told me it should be mailed directly to me. I waited a few more days and called. They told me my loan was not paid off? "What?" I said, "But I paid the entire amount." They said, "Oh, but there was interest due until this date," which was now the 20th of July, and they told me not to pay it online because that's not the correct amount. Fine. I went in and paid the $41.75, only to be told they do not have my title. It was lost somewhere in the commercial Federal - Bank of the West Merger. I asked them to look, they said no and if they don't have it they don't have it.

They, however, could send me a "Release of Lien" and I could go get a duplicate title. Duplicates cost $20. By now it is the principal of the thing. I asked who will reimburse me the $20. The CS gal said I could fill out a request in writing and they will forward to the branch manager (who by the way is on vacation for 2 weeks). I did this on 7/21. I asked if there was anything they could do to expedite this and they said, "Oh no, it takes 5 business." And they could not do anything about it. I should receive the "release of lien" by 7/28.

The 28th came and went, no call from the bank, no papers. And I waited, and waited finally I called on 7/31. I was told by Aaron (the loan officer) that it was FedEx'd yesterday 7/30 to expedite the matter and I should receive it on Monday 8/2. What do you say at this point?

Monday 8/2 comes and goes. I called today on my way home 8/3 ,talked to the CS gal, Shannon. She tells me I won't be needing the reimbursement for the duplicate because I won't need a duplicate. They found my title and mailed it out regular US mail on 8/2? I will not hold my breath. I am however looking for a local bank.

I got married in 2005 and moved back to South Dakota. Since I rarely used my Bank of the West account, I was going to close it but discovered in the small town I moved to there was a branch office, so retained the checking account using it primarily for depositing mine and my husbands paychecks and then reported to my husband the amount and he would electronically transfer the funds to our TX bank account in the evening. So, I really never kept more than $30 or so in the account. Just used it for convenience of deposits.

In November 2006, we were audited by the IRS. The IRS advised my husband to anticipate a payment due to them, probably in the amount of $2,500 to $5,000. At the time, we were unsure if they would accept a check or if we would have to get a certified check or money order. Dec. 4-my husband left a msg on my cell to write a check from our TX account and deposit it to B of West in case we needed a certified check or money order for IRS. I received a 2nd msg from my husband asking if I made the $2500 deposit and I interpreted it to mean an additional $2500 had to be deposited. He works out of town, so I wrote and deposited another $2500. That evening, my husband said, no, I was just checking on the first check-that's going to overdraw you (bank error in TX account), so he did an electronic transfer from Bank of West to TX acct to correct it. Well, probably not the best approach to correct it because then my troubles began!

On Dec 10, my husband called stating that the first $2500 didn't clear because of a bank error in TX account and told me to call the Bank of the West because we needed to pay them back right away (TX acct jumped right up and corrected their error immediately). I immediately called Bank of the West, SD-and they told me to call the branch where I opened the account, Colorado-because they didn't show the nsf yet. I called Colorado and spoke with the customer Service Mgr and explained the nsf as well as the 2nd check that shouldn't have been deposited.

She said that none of this appeared on their records yet, I had a $5100 credit balance and that I needed to sit back and give the accounts a couple of days to settle down. I told her I would call back on Tuesday Dec 15.

I called back on 12/15 and left a msg for the gal I spoke with. I called back on Friday, 12/18 and was told she had been serious ill but now was transferred to another location and was no longer with that branch and spoke with "Jeanne". They were having an office party in the back round and Jeanne said her computer was "down" and couldn't access anything. I called back on Monday 12/21, and Jeanne said the first check was returned but she didn't have access to the accounts because the statements were printing. I called back as directed on 12/28 and was told by Jeanne that she could no longer speak with me because my account was frozen and Mr. B from the fraud department was trying to reach me. I got his number and immediately called him. He ripped me a new, screaming that I had been avoiding his msgs and yelling that I've finally messed up and I was going to jail. That the account history back to August reflected kiting and I was finally caught.

I said, whoa - what number did you call? He had called my former Colorado cell (which I had filed a new address, phone and name change with the Bank of the West in August before). I explained that I no longer used that number, and that it was only still active because the contract expires in January. He went on and on screaming at me stating that I was lying, etc. I said, if I was trying to avoid you, would I have now just called you? He told me to contact my local police as he has filed charges with them and would not consider payment of the overdraft because I needed to be punished for kiting.

I then researched kiting and freaked out! And called our local police. They had not received a complaint. I called an attorney. The police contacted me around January 15, 2007 and stated they received the complaint. I spoke to the local police and county sheriff for 3 hours, video taped. They then requested copies for the past year of all our bank records from all of our banks (3) as well as credit card statements for the past year. Within 2 days, I produced 3 reams of paper of printed statements. I requested that the police request from bank of the west microfiche of my deposited checks and bank statements from them so I could prove that none of those checks were "kiting". The police said that wasn't necessary and I said if they accuse me of Kiting it is. I advised I could see where, by looking at just statements, it looked suspicious because a check would go in before 3 pm and the same amount would come out that evening online. But with the microfiche, I could show that they were all checks where we didn't have control over the accounts, payroll checks to us. My request was denied, and the Bank of the West was advised by Mr. B to have no contact whatsoever with me or my spouse.

2 weeks later, around January 25, I receive a call from Mr. B of the B of W, stating that the local police do not wish to investigate the claim due to lack of manpower and was I still interested in paying the bank what I stole from them. I said, "I've been trying to pay the bank back the mistake I made since December 11th and of course, I am interested in making this transaction right." He said that they closed my account due to fraud and refused to reopen. I said, fine, after this I want nothing to do with Bank of the West. I immediately paid the $2250 via certified check (I made a $200 or $300 deposit December 17th, thinking this would all be resolved). Bank of West cashed my check on February 11th.

It is important to note that after spending the $115, I had made 5 more purchases for a total of $60.09 which still left me with a positive balance of: $31.10. Following the last transaction, it showed there were 3 $35 overdraft fees, for what I don't know! From what B of W's online banking showed, I still had a positive of $31.10!

Upon talking to a lady at the bank, she informed me that there had been a hold of an additional $120 placed on my account that had not been released (this was for the original purchase of $115 reflecting discount). I asked her to put a stop payment on the $120 because it was for the same purchase and the merchant had already received their money. She refused saying only they can release this "hold" and that I would have to take it up with the merchant which I did.

Here is our correspondence:

"Hi Bryan, Glad I could be of assistance. If the "pre-authorized" charge doesn't disappear after 5 days contact your bank with the authorization code for the transaction and get them to delete it for you - it is as follows: Authorization code: 191144 Our Merchant number is: 275149. Thank you for your patience. Kind Regards, Cat"

"Hi Cat, Thanks for returning my email. I figured it was probably something to do with my bank, although this is the first time this has happened, knowing the corrupt banks over here in the US, I wouldn't put anything past them. I've been a customer of yours for about 5 months now and you people have always been on the "up & up" with me. Right now they're sending me some form to fill out to contest the charge and the overdraft fees that the charge caused. By this time in the month for me, a small amount of money can put me in a world of hurt as I am on a small fixed income. Again, I thank you for getting back to me so quickly, and I will forward your letter to my bank to try and sort this out."

"With the new banking procedures, your card is only 'pre-authorized' when you enter your card details at our website. We do not actually charge your card until we have processed your order and deducted any discount you might be entitled to. The 'pre-authorized' status should automatically delete when the charge appears. However, we've been finding via customer feedback that some US banks list both the pre-authorized status and the completed charge at the same time. The pre-authorization normally deletes after 5 days. If the pre-authorized status is still listed after this time, please contact your bank to delete it from your account. I hope this information has been helpful to you. Please do not hesitate to contact us again if you have any further queries. Kind Regards, Cat"

"Subject: Re: Double Billing of Order Number:** Hi Tom -Bryan Here (Customer Number: **) I left a message on your voice mail regarding my being "double billed" for the following order. My checking account reflects a debit of $115USD on 04-05-2010 to Inhouse Pharmacy (The order was placed on 04-04-2010). Long story short, when I checked my online account balance on 04-07, I was showing 3 $35.00 USD overdraft fees which wouldn't have been there had Inhouse not double-billed me. I went to my bank and confronted them with this whereupon I was informed that there was a $120USD debit on my card from Inhouse (my online bank account did not show this, only the $35.00 O.D. fee). I would appreciate my credit card account be return credited as soon as possible. There is a dispute with the bank that will take a few days (apparently even though I can use this card as a "credit card", they can't, or won't just issue a stop payment on the card!) and I'd rather settle this with you guys than have to deal with a corrupt banking institution. If Inhouse didn't receive the supposed "$120USD" (everybody at the bank, including customer service tells me it hasn't gone through but they won't just cancel it! Sounds kind of fishy to me!), then I apologize, and I then will assume that Bank Of The West is trying to bilk me out of approximately $200USD ($120+Fees)! "

As you can see everything's in reverse. However, when Inhouse Pharmacy gave me the authorization code to release they basically said they weren't going to take that additional $120.. So I called Bank Of The West's customer service line again! I explained to them that I have the authorization code to have the hold on the $120 they effectively "stole" out of my account for the purposes of hoping that I would make more purchases so they could charge me overdraft fees! I explained to the lady (LuAnne -Customer Service manager) that nowhere on my online statement does it reflect any $120 "hold" on my acct. nowhere! And, had I known that I was actually spending $235, instead of $115, I would've managed my funds accordingly!

So, as it stands, as of 04/08/10, Bank Of The West has stolen: $120 (hold) + $140 in O.D. fees(at last count today), for a grand total of $260! What's worse is they are responsible for creating a situation by false and misleading information on their online banking site that gave them the excuse to steal money from a poor and disabled person. This is an outrage! Now, their holding my money hostage until and unless they get around to sending this form out to me to fill-out & send back to wait for them to decide if they're going to pay me back or not. Meanwhile, I have absolutely no money to live on until, of course, they run me through their "Red-Tape" and "bureaucracy" first! Meanwhile, how am I supposed to exist?

I believe (I have a print-out of the very page of my online statement) I have a very good case against them as there is absolutely no indication of a $120 hold on my account. None! Well, if you've read my letter above, I believe it speaks for itself. I also believe I should be entitled to damages (mental, physical, emotional and above all that, financial!) Also let it be known that they did this tortuously to a mentally ill person who lives on disability! Their "customer service" did nothing but give me the proverbial "run-around" and when being apprised of what had happened, stoically (when they had it in their power to do so) kept ignoring all the facts in the case which was just plain evil to to to a disabled person! I may suffer from severe depression (amongst other things), but I'm not stupid! So, in closing outside of financial, mental anguish is certainly on the list!

All of sudden, it's not one item overdrawn but 6 or 7 things overdrawn with a fee of 35 on each item. They say processing on those little items and they make it known that your balance is $350 less than what is available because of those little items purchased but they wait to tell your in the negative so they can kick in those little items they say is processing so they can kick in all these late fees. I really think this is unfair practice and should be looked into. If I don’t make any sense, please call me with the number I provided. Thanks.

I had $188.25 in the bank on Monday and now today, they told me I'm short $96 if this is how they make extra money by cheating their older customers, that make for bad business. People will start leaving that bank. I can't get on the online banking, they first told me that I had the wrong window and now they tell me that the dial up is to slow. Why can't they make up their minds. When a person calls and ask about your bank account, they should tell you the truth.

I called them 5 days in a row and each time they didn't tell me the truth, they told me that more in the account than it was and I believed them. The $100 that was taken out from the ATM machine should have been rejected but they let him take it out and that was on 1/29/2010 and they paid it on 2/9/2010. It should have been taken out on 2/3/2010 when there was money there. I guess this is how they make extra money. I can't afford them waiting forever to pay out the bills that messes up my account. Now, I don't have enough money to pay my bills and I need to see a doctor and now I don't have the money. They should not screw around with a Senior Citizen bank account. I don't know if they pay the $30 check and I don't if I can go out and get the food that that check was for.

I hurt my knee and I need to see a doctor and now I can't. The way that they have treated me the last 2 months, I feel like I'm having a nervous break down and now I don't have enough money to pay my utilities and my gas, lights phone cable will be shut off. I don't have enough money to buy any food.

They changed the order of the debits so they could get as much as they can out of me. I also have overdraft protection and if they did not change the order, I figured I would have only had one fee. Their website is very unreliable and when they make a mistake, they will not stand behind it. They need to let their customers know they cannot rely on this method of record keeping that they provide. As of Monday morning, I will be opening an account with a different bank. Thank you for your time.

The next day, I checked their online banking and it showed that I had the full amount ready and available. I showed up that day and asked if I could withdraw $2,800 for a vehicle that I wanted to purchase. The teller had to ask an account clerk that originally opened the account for me why she was unable to withdraw the amount. It turns out they did not place a hold on the account immediately, like they were supposed to. I was told that the funds would be available on Friday (07/24/09). I returned on Friday and was told that the funds would not be available until Tuesday (07/28/09). Then I was handed a "notice of hold" document showing me when the funds would be available. I was told there was no way I could get my funds before Tuesday.

I attempted to close the account and take the claim check back so I could do business elsewhere. I was informed that they could not give me the check and that if I wanted to close the account, I would have to wait until Wednesday (07/29/09). I informed the account clerk that the teller told me that all my funds would be available on Friday. She denied that was ever said and walked back in to her office. At this point, I was very upset with Bank of the West's customer service. I got home and called the 1-800 number listed on my new account card. I was told there was nothing they could do and that I should contact the customer service manager at the location I do business with.

I called my local Bank of the West and was told by the customer service manager that he would have done the same thing and that he's sure the other Bank of the West employees were not trying to make me look like a liar or make me feel bad. I was told that the "notice of hold" document did not have to be given to me immediately. However, the document clearly states the notice should be given at the time of deposit. Not only did the teller, account clerk, and customer service manager treat me like a second class citizen, but they all lied to me to cover up their actions. I have been relying on others for transportation for over 3 weeks. I am a single woman that works a 40-hour-a-week job and drive over 30 minutes a day back and forth. Now, I have to wait longer to regain my independence. I just hope the seller of the vehicle I planned on purchasing is willing to wait longer for the payment.

Here is the clincher, we will say you are a college student with no job relying on loans to get you through school and you need to purchase a new tire for your car. Since it is a necessity to get you to school, you buy the $50 tire. You figure that you have $10 in your account, and it is the day after you made the gas purchase and you can handle one over draft fee as your loan is coming in in a few days. The tire brings you down to a negative balance of $40. The tire company places your 50 bucks on hold as the gas company still has your $35 on hold as well. In the real world where an apple plus and apple makes two apples, you have just drawn your account into over draft one time for those new tires you needed. But in the eyes of a greedy banker, such as BOTW CEO Michael Shepherd, you owe 70 bucks on top of your $40.

That’s right, instead of using that money to feed yourself for the next three weeks, your money is now going to feed some fat old greedy banker’s appetite for a $70 plate of calamari. Since your ATM transactions are on hold at the same time, the bank considers them a lump sum and creates an overdraft flag on your account, thereby sending all transactions, regardless of common chronological sense, through as overdrafts. And this is how they make money. Shall we call them human? They are animals, using the legal system to rape us of our hard earned money. And they lecture us about being responsible as if they are better than us? Well, place Mr. Sheppard in our shoes for a few weeks. Let him see what it is like to suffer the shaft he runs up our back sides in the name of his love for cash.

The bank has this thing, this way of making it right. It is evil. It’s wrong, and honestly, in my own opinion, these people who control our society, I think, are the reason wars are fought over oil. These people are evil. The girls at my branch are wonderful and pleasant. The people on the phone sometimes do not have a clue what they are talking about but none the less are also pleasant. It is the CEO, the stock holders and the soulless, motherless, spineless jerks that find ways to steal out money that we should turn our anger towards, not the people who get paid to work there. I feel almost as if I am taken for a fool. I am 35 less than I was before and while it is only 35 bucks, it is the principal of the matter with the greedy jerks.

I was informed that I could make partial payments and keep my vehicle. This went on for a couple of months. I then sent in a payment of $400.00. 28 days later, they sent a repossession team to my home to repossess my vehicle. The vehicle was surrendered but with doubt about the validity of the lenders actions. Because I could not get the lenders rep to talk to me at this time, I then petitioned the lender in writing regarding this issue and expressed my concern for their actions, and my concern for consumer rights.

I don't deny I was delinquent on some monies owed, but I was confused as to my rights as a consumer and equity, if any. I was informed by the lender that my vehicle was impounded, and that I had to come up with the entire payoff amount approximately $28,500.00 to have the truck returned. I argued the point and questioned them about just paying the past amount due, approximately $800-$900.00. They denied my request and auctioned off my vehicle. Then they tried to collect approximately $5,500.00 from me. I then questioned them about the extended warranty from GM, GAP Insurance, and the Road Hazard Warranty that were all financed into the terms of the loan over the period financed. To this day, GMC continues to try and contact me about my extended warranty.

I was basically a single father without transportation. This caused more economic hardship and stress. The way I was treated as a repeat consumer has really soured my taste for GM and Bank of the West. This was several years ago, and the scars left by this entire experience and the people involved are deep. I feel cheated and robbed; I was always a good customer, had good revolving credit and paid my debts. I fell on hard times and was misled. I don't deny my own faults but felt positive about my recovery.

Why am I questioning this now? Now, the taxpayer is being called to bail out GMC and multiple banks. Now, GMC is offering all kinds of acts of forgiveness and kindness to anyone who purchases a new vehicle and loses their job. This is hypocrisy and not right. I can honestly say that I will never purchase a new GM product or do business with bank of the West again. I was treated unfair by all the people involved and will be very careful about any bank or auto manufacturer I do business with in the future. Buyers beware; word of mouth advertising is valuable information.

In closing, I feel that I have been able to vent my experience. The bailout of GMC has rekindled my emotions, and I don't feel this is appropriate. I was honest about my situation and just wanted the opportunity to make it right. I too had money invested in my transportation and needed this vehicle for my own livelihood. Not only did they hurt me and my family financially, but they hurt the future of America.

When I went in to complain I was told that the charges actually came through the night before but are posted the next morning before the direct deposit was posted so my account was negative. I showed her the NSF notice with the date on it and she still stuck to her story. (they have since re-worded the notices) I also pointed out that some checks were honored and some were not and she told me it was up to the manager whether to honor the checks or not. Even though I had the money to cover them from the direct deposit. What?

I could not believe the differences from branch to branch and how you are at the mercy of someone who just decided hmmm...I'm not going to honor that check This practice cost me a huge amount of NSF fees as well as fees from the persons I wrote checks to not to mention the embarrassment. It was a viscious cycle of trying to dig out of a hole that seemed so unreasonable on Bank of the West's part!

The fees were in the hundreds of dollars as well as the fees from the people I wrote checks to that Bank of the West decided not to honor.

The transaction overdrafted into my savings account, Bank of the West charged me $10.00 (they made money off it) It has taken me three days to deal with this, multiple phone calls, red tape.

Had we known this, we never would have switched, well live and learn....last year they had charged us in the neighborhood of $7,000 for clearing nsf checks(which clear faster now that Check 21 is in place) What a windfall! They cannot offer a $2,500 overdraft acct but they can sure take the $7,000 in fees. Seems like a pretty good racket if you ask me. In my research, I've seen where people can try to get the exorbitant fees back but businesses can't. Is that true?

We are a small business. We struggle to keep the doors open and the lights on but with this and all the other costs out there(taxes, workers comp, health insurance, ever increasing utilities, inflated rents, It's hard to see how anyone can make it!

in there opinion,

nevertheless the last insurance document was sent to bank of the west, through my own insurance company, which is as followes.

Within 2 or 3 months or so we were late in making payment and the boat was repossesed with no notice or pohne calls. When we called we were told that because we lied about where the boat was, the boat was taken and was in Maryland with several thousand dollars of my personal property aboard. They said the marina we gave as the location of the boat during my conversation with that representative did not exist. The Marina did exist, they just were looking at the section of the marina that had closed. However the main marina was still open and that was where our boat was when they inquired.

Subsequent to that we took the boat back after the repairs to our regular slip and marina. I was not going to be able to pay for shipping to and from Maryland plus all the other fees for what I felt was a repossesion based on spite by that woman and incorrect information on the location of our boat gathered by their repo agency.

We would never have let the boat go, but their unnecessary actions made it impossible to handle this any other way. What was owed on the boat was less than what it was worth, so without hearing from The Bank of the West we assumed that was the end of the ordeal.

I have stress and more stress about the situation. I got a differment from my bank on my car. 6 times they worked with me but, Bank of the West have made nothing but threats about lawyers to me and again I'm not on the loan.

Consumers need to be aware that although the following appears on the Bank of the West web site:

The Banks reputation for honesty and integrity is the sum of the personal reputations of its individual employees. Ours is a culture of ethical behavior, in which we protect the confidence and privacy of our customers and scrupulously avoid conflicts of interest.

The Bank of the West does not enforce this statement nor do they discipline any managers who violate this statement. The Bank of West actually takes the position that the activities of their managers are personal activities and not an issue for the bank despite the statement above related to their core values.

Federal agencies such as the FDIC and the California Department of Financial Institutions do not take any action related to this type of identity theft activities. Law Enforcement agencies, most notable, The Los Angeles County Sheriffs department will not take any action in a case like this unless there are fraudulent activities that actually occur with the stolen identity.

Months later I was then contacted by a woman from the banks' collection department. I explained the circumstances of my account to her. She then asked me to fax her a copy of the check($4,500.00)that I used to close the account. After weeks of looking into this case she said that the bank did make a mistake and not to worry because she was going to take care of it. I never heard from them again.

A few months ago I tried to apply for a loan at my bank (Washington Mutal) and was denined due to the bad reporting by Sanwa Bank and Bank of the West(duplicate reporting for same incident). Please help me! I've called the bank to have this resolved and no one can find any record of this anywhere.

I had a overdraft line account limit of $5,000 and owed $4,500. On the day in question I wrote a check for $4,500 and closed the account. I called the bank and asked them to explain to how I could possibly owe them $700. They explained to me that some checks or transactions did not clear. I then explained to them that it was not possible due to the fact that the maxium available was $500. I also asked them to prove and show me the checks/transactions ect. that supported this claim.

A week later the bank called me back and said that they made a mistake and told me that I only owed them $500 and not $700. They were not able to show me or prove to me where all the other checks/transactions that added up to $500 came from. I then told them that I was not going to pay them any money until they could show me that I was responsible for these charges. I asked them to take this to court so I could show them that I was not responsible for this.

They then said that they were going to re-open my account, after I had closed it, and not close it untill I paid the $500.

Months later I was contacted by a collecting agency(Sanwa). I explained the entire story to her. She asked me to fax a copy of the check of $4,500. and a statement from the back. Weeks later she called me back and said that I was right and that there was no evidence that I was responsible for this balance. She then said she was going to forward the case to the bank. Months later I received a letter from Bank of the West explaining that they were now taking over for Sanwa.

I then had to go through the whole entire process again. I never heard from again.

About a month ago I tried to apply for credit/loan at my bank (Washington Mutual) and was denied because of my credit report. I then requested a credit report from Equifax and found that I had two charges of bad debt. One from Bank of the Wast and the other from Sanwa Bank. This was the same incident but it was showing up as two separate ones. I wrote a letter to Equifax and explained the incident and within weeks they deleted one of the two.

My complaint is I do not believe that companies,such as this one, have the right to unjustly ruin my credit especially when they have nothing to support their claim.

These people have been irrsponsible and negligent in ruining my credit report and preventing me from accomplishing things in my daily life.

On August 14, the branch manager closed our accounts. No reason was given except that the bank had the right to close any account at any time.

We have to find another bank. Also, we are not sure if the closing of the accounts will appear in our credit reports.