Brian Slezak

So, unrelated, my feed reader just ate itself and lost all my feeds. I’m piecing things back together and happen to notice jgrabrian’s post on US Bank. That prompted me to write this up real quick.

So, last week I get a $1 charge on my “Savings” account at US Bank. This happened before because they screwed up how many withdrawals I’m allowed to make in a month. When I opened the account they told me it was 6 per month, then they later charged me and said, “Whoops our bad, that was really 3 per month.” Well I call them to get this most recent charge reversed because I figure they screwed up again because I’ve only had two. I call the national number and talked to Matthew. Matthew is the worst customer service rep I’ve talked to in around 10 years. He constantly cut me off when I tried to explain things, and I ended up hanging up on him because he would not even let me speak. It was so far from customer service I can’t even tell you. That was the second horrible experience I’ve had with US Bank customer service.

Next I called a local branch and found out that those 3 withdrawls per month I had, yeah – it was really just one. They changed that and never told me. Then they tried to upsell me into a “gold” account for the ridiculously high interest rate of .0085!! Oooo. I told them I didn’t want a saving account at all anymore and immediately drove over to the branch and converted it into a checking account. They were even nice enough to KEEP that $1 charge, probably for my trouble. Wasn’t that nice?

On top of all that, just a week earlier was the second time that by their mistake, they double-charged my account causing $75 in overdraft fees (all of which were reimbursed) and caused my reserve loan to kick in. Subsequently I had two conversations with their customer service at the national level and the interest they chargedme on that $8.72 is still not reimbursed to this day.

At this point, free checking has cost me around $15 over the past 4 years (including other mistakes in the past they would not reimburse me for) for the priviledge of banking with them. Still not expensive, but not free either. I moved to US Bank for online banking and account management. I may go back to Commerce, because at least they made mistakes in my favor. (Still up about $30 from banking with Commerce.) :p

A couple weekends ago we were driving home after a late dinner with friends, and we drove by a church which had a tell tale, hand-written sign on the edge of the church property, facing the street. (I wish I had a picture, but I was driving at the time.) The sign was a white backboard with large, black, hand written text that read, “Thinking about becoming Catholic? 816-123-4567″

<sigh> I instantly knew this was wrong in many ways, but after actually putting some thought behind it, here is why:

There is NO Audience for this Sign
C’mon. Seriously, who walks around with the thought, “I’d actually like to be <insert denomination here>. I wonder how I can do that?” No one does. This sign better targets squirrels, because squirrels like to sit on signs. Squirrels can’t even read.

The End is Near
More likely, this sign is a visible cry for help. Please be a part of our church, or we’ll die! Help!

You Will Talk to Us
Rather than provide a site url, which someone could expose themselves too before attempting anything, they provided a number. That means even if I was interested, I’m gonna have to talk to someone and say, “Yeah I saw this sign with this number … so I called it.” Hmm.

That’s Some High Quality
A hand written sign plopped in the front yard? Oh no – you didn’t?! Printing out banners on 8×10 sheets of paper, splicing them together, and and covering the whole thing with clear tape – would be a step up from this. Think about that. How serious is this church about welcoming someone, if they either A. will not pay for a printed sign, B. don’t have the motivation to go through that trouble, or C. do not have the money. If C – then close the doors.

Please, please, if you are someone in a church that has this or other similar sign – take it down! Please don’t advertise like this. Squirrels appreciate it, but you are making rational people laugh, cry, or both.