Phil Marlowe wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

PM>  Roy J. Tellason wrote to Charles Angelich

> Charles Angelich wrote in a message to Wayne Chirnside:

CA> Even doing banking in person things can go wrong. My bank lost a 
CA> $954 deposit to my checking account once and began bouncing my 
CA> checks all over town. When they found the missing deposit they
CA> never apologized nor would they refund the bounced-check-charges
CA> they had withdrawn from my account (over $150).  I couldn't afford
CA> to take a day off from work to sue them (I made more than that in
CA> one day) and they got away with it. :-\

> I would've at the very least changed banks, at that point...

PM> They don't care.

Enough people do it,  they will,  eventually...

> And have. Maybe you couldn't take time away from work to do that 
> particular number, but complaining to real high up in their corporate
> hierarchy, _in writing_,  would've maybe gotten you somewhere.

PM> Ditto.

Yeah,  but they don't tend to disregard stuff written at them quite as
easily as phone calls or stuff in person...

PM> Their policy seems to be to wear you down.

No doubt.

PM> There used to be a consumer complaints column in the daily paper 
PM> here.

Sounds like a good thing,  I wonder why more papers don't do that?  You say
"used to be",  did they stop?  I guess papers are dependent on
advertising revenues,  though...

PM> The banks were the most uncooperative, or simply refused comment
PM> when they were contacted about a problem.

PM> Only the insurance companies were worse.

Yeah.  Insurance is a perfect example of a business that's over the years
completely gotten into bed with government,  particularly state governments
all over the place,  so that stuff is mandatory in way too many instances.

Like my car insurance,  for example,  which continues to cost more as time
goes by even though I've never cost them anything.

CA> Another bank lost $15,000 of an account when my mother was the 
CA> executor of her brother's estate and they never apologized either 
CA> after finding their error. Having deposit slips from the tellers
CA> was the only reason the banks in question continued to search for
CA> the money.

> That's one of the reasons I always use the "credit card" function of 
> what they gave me, rather than the "debit card" where you punch
> in a PIN. In the case of each and every transaction there's a bit of 
> paper to prove what went on one way or the other, and if there isn't 
> then it's not a valid transaction.

PM> Wise. Over the years some consumer protection laws have been 
PM> established for credit cards. The same laws do not apply to debit 
PM> cards -- no protection there even with the paper slip recording 
PM> your transaction. Read the bank's info about the debit card 
PM> 'Agreement' -- basically you're at the bank's mercy.

Yep.

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