I am not one of those people who rail against the Banks. But I do wonder whether they have a department in charge of making things difficult for their customers.
Today I will tell you about CIBC. Next time, it will be TD’s turn.
I had too many credit cards, so I called to cancel my CIBC card. Before calling, I paid off the balance. After some time on the phone, they told me that my card was cancelled. So, I cut it up, threw it away, and deleted the app from my phone.
All good, right?
Wrong.
I kept getting statements, showing that I owed them $0.62 for interest accrued prior to the date of cancellation, and charged afterwords.
I was unable to pay the $0.62 electronically, because I did not have my account number. That is because on every statement, the number was partially blocked out, supposedly for security reasons.
Those of you who live in the Big City, may not know this, but all of the Banks have been busy closing their branches in the small towns. The closest CIBC branch to my house in the country is a forty-minute drive. Forty-two minutes at rush hour.
After receiving statements for $0.62 for a few months, I drove into town to pay my debt at the branch. The teller was friendly and helpful, which is the only good thing that I will be saying about CIBC today. First, she explained that had I looked at the string of numbers at the bottom of my statement, I would have realized that my account number was hidden in there. I guess blocking it out at the top of the statement is only to fool customers. Surely the crooks must all know where to look.
I tendered $0.62 in change to her, but she told me that the Bank could not accept the two pennies because they only accept them if the customer collects enough of them to fill a roll. So, I offered to pay her $0.60, but she said that if I did that, they would keep invoicing me for $0.02. So, I paid her $0.65.
After a few more months of receiving statements showing a credit for $0.03, they eventually sent me a bank draft for $0.03.
I have not quite decided whether to deposit it, frame it, or simply leave it uncashed, so that I have a visible reminder of what customer service looks like when you have little competition.
I am sure that all of this makes sense to CIBC. To me, not so much.