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| - Since moving to Toronto a little over a year ago I had been flirting with the idea of switching to PC Financial. In Calgary it didn't make sense since there is only Superstore to shop at. But here in Toronto there are so many Loblaw options that it seemed like the right move. I have a No Frills across the street from my house and for those items I need that No Frills doesn't carry I have a Loblaws not to far either.
Switching to PC Financial seemed like the logical choice since I was formerly with TD and did all of my banking online or at an ATM anyways. Because I only ever go to a teller maybe twice a year I figured that small loss of services would easily be outweighed by the fact that I would no longer be paying $12.50 per month in bank fees by going with PC. The lure of the PC points seemed to be the cherry on top with the fact that I could get 10,000 points just for getting my pay cheque direct deposited into my account.
So a few weeks before making the switch I started doing my research and due diligence to make sure that this was the right choice for me, after-all this was a big step switching from TD who I have banked with all my life, so I wasn't just going to dive in head first. I read through PC's website, grabbed a brochure from the grocery store, and talked to a couple of people that I knew had PC Financial accounts. The information seemed to be in line and the people I talked to said they loved PC Financial. So I took the dive and switched my banking over to PC and had my paycheque changed over also.
Now before I get any further here let me state that everything after this point was a customer service issue. It has nothing to do with the fact that PC Financial is not a full service bank. I believe that PC Financial is a very smart business and has a well executed strategy. The only service offering I think they fall short on is not offering e-mail money transfers as this seems like a common sense offering for a virtual bank.
About a month after changing everything over to PC I had an emergency and needed to access more money than what my daily limits would allow ($200 ATM/$500 Direct Payment). After trying to find a solution through the online banking website (like e-mail money transfers) I called customer service to have my debit card limit temporarily increased so that I could get the $1000 in cash that I needed. The customer service agent I spoke with wasn't rude but very un-empathizing with my situation and would not even attempt to help me find a solution. The only thing she would say over and over was "Increasing withdrawal limits is not something we offer to new customers who have been with us for less than six months". I was never rude to her nor yelled and screamed at her so there was no reason for her not to try and provide some level of customer service, which after all, is her job. At this point I asked for her to escalate me to a supervisor.
The supervisor was much more helpful, but not in the least bit empathetic, in trying to come up with solutions. She suggested a range of options which ultimately would still only let me get at $700 not the $1000 I needed. At this point I am thoroughly annoyed (still not yelling or being abusive to the supervisor) that I am being held hostage to my own paycheque. This wasn't a random cheque that I had deposited and was trying to access right away; this was my paycheque that had been direct deposited from my company.
Now, I've worked in customer service for many years and I know that though the customer may not always be right they should at least always be happy with the situation when the customer/business interaction completes. I was nowhere near happy. I probably would have been happy even without being able to access my money if they had given me any other reason other than "I'm sorry sir, but increasing withdrawal limits is not something we offer to new customers who have been with us for less than six months".
They could have said "This is a security feature to protect your money in case of fraud or if your debit card gets scammed" or any number of other reasons to which I would have been understanding to. Isn't it the customer service person's job to try to keep new business? Generally new customers are unfamiliar with the processes of a business and the front line people are there to help them work through this process. They would not disclose why my debit limits were set as they were and would just repeat the "This is not a service we offer new customers" line over and over.
So basically the issue here is that there wasn't really any customer service provided by PC Financial. There was no empathy and no understanding. I realize that banking is a very serious thing but customer service shouldn't be provided like they're reading from a script.
An upper level of PC Financial customer service is supposed to be contacting me again to clear up this issue so we'll see what happens.
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