Maybe you are one of those people with a highly magnetic personality…

P.S. I’m not sure the post by my dad was long enough?

Some details: it was 9:30am. Bank was empty. Weekday. Why was she already pissed off?

I made my bank deposits and transfers and drove down the street to TD to get a couple of accounts opened.

So, yeah, I’d switch banks.

One of the experiences in my life was serving on a credit union board of directors for over 25 years, and our number one priority was customer service. Wells Fargo should be very responsive to the failure of your ATM card and while a trip to your local bank branch will take some time I would recommend it. Ask to speak to an officer and explain what happened. The officer should respond quickly and offer to replace your card ASAP with no charge to you. If he or she does not respond in this manner then I would do whatever it takes to move my accounts to another bank ASAP.

The first rule of customer service is that happy customers usually tell five friends or relatives about the good service they received. Unhappy customers typically tell ten or twenty friends why they were unhappy, and in these days of e-mail and Facebook it can and easily should be hundreds of friends. Bankers know this and they should be all over this problem to get it fixed right away not only for you but for all of their customers.

ATM cards and credit cards are usually provided by third party companies that the banks or credit unions hire to provide these products and services. That is not your problem. Don’t let Wells Fargo give you some story about problems with their ATM care provider. It is Wells Fargo’s problem and they need to fix it ASAP.

We had been with the same credit union for over 25 years and it was recently bought out by a much larger credit union and our customer service went to hell. There were mistakes on our accounts, deposits put in the wrong accounts, etc. I went in personally three times to correct things and they always apologized but nothing got better. After three months we moved all of our accounts to a bank and said goodbye and I made sure to spread the word to all of my friends who were still credit union members.

In today’s recessionary economy any business should be bending over backwards to keep your accounts. Anything less and it’s adios amigos!!

As for your appliance failures consider yourself fortunate. Nine years these days is rare. The old standards of appliances that lasted for 10 or 20 years are gone. Set up an equipment replacement fund and chip in $25 a month to put money aside for just such contingencies.

I go with the number 8 which is very good luck in the Chinese culture.

Hang in there,

Grandpa Ike