Michael and Diane sent a message to William H. Rogers, Jr. CEO, SunTrust Banks, Inc. – email address that said:
Mr. Rogers,
Hi Mr. Rogers, I am writing to you as a last resort before I go to the media or contact an attorney.
We have been dealing w/ the Suntrust Branch in Collierville Tn for almost 2 weeks.
I went in to pay my mortgage payment as well as a payment for escrow and 2 days later I determined that my account was in overdraft for over $700. Upon calling it as determined that the teller ran my mortgage check of $1000 thru twice.
I have been told by Stewart Plumlee at the local branch that he is working on it but we have yet to see this money returned to our account. He keeps advising that it is the Mortgage company but to be honest we dont really care who is at fault we just want our money returned.
From our view point it took the bank less than 2 days to completely wipe out our account and cause major issues but we are now going on 10 days w/ no resolution.
I am writing to you in hopes that you can get the right people involved to get this resolved.
We advised the local branch manager that he had 24 hours yesterday and he has yet to return our call. I don't know about you but I would think even a courtesy all stating he was still working on it would have been advised but instead he chose not to heed my warning.
At this point, I would appreciate any assistance that you can provide to get this matter resolved.
I think I may be able to provide more clarity.
I received a check from Suntrust Mortgage for excess escrow for approximately $900.
Rather than spend that money, I endorsed that check and included it with my payment of my mortgage.
So it was a $900 check from escrow and a personal check of $1100.
This was submitted to the Collierville, TN branch through the teller window on 05/04/16.
While I monitored my Checking account, I noticed an electronic debit transaction of approximately $2000.00 (the exact amount of my mortgage payment and escrow check). I assumed this was a standard transaction and the $900 escrow check would clear a little later, but I had the money to cover any expenses until it had.
Two days later, my $1100 check cleared a second time.
I immediately called the Customer Service number listed on your web page. The person was very nice and was able to understand what had happened. She created an incident report and told me it would be 2 working days before research could correct this error.
At this point, the overdraft fees began.
I waited 3 days and phoned back in to the number for an update. I was confused to find the first level support told me Suntrust would only refund 1 of the overdraft fees (3 had occurred). I asked for a supervisor and was again surprised when told the incident had been closed. They offered to open another incident, but I explained I had already done that 3 days prior. After explaining my situation to the supervisor, she told me SunTrust Mortgage would be able to help me. I explained this was not a Mortgage issue, but a banking issue. The mortgage group simply took money that the bank had issued twice. She promised a refund of the overdraft fees, but I would need to contact the local branch where I had placed the payment to correct the banking error. I immediately went to the bank.
I met Stewart Plumlee who greeted me as I entered and I explained the situation again. He understood, apologized, and promised to fix this. He offered to open an incident record for research (I explained I had already done that and gave him the number). He started looking into the error and realized what had happened and again promised to get this corrected asap.
He has been the redeeming voice for SunTrust to this point.
Two days passed and no correction had been made yet, however I was charged an extended overdraft fee for a negative balance on my account. I went back to the bank and Stewart corrected this problem. I asked for an update and he was unable to ease my mind that any significant progress had been made. However he did say his associate had been working to correct this issue and believed she had this on the way to resolution. I left and decided to wait 48 hours.
Yesterday my wife and I phoned Stewart as everything is as it was 2 weeks ago. He stated he is working on it and we requested an update and resolution within 24 hours or we would need to escalate. I stated it has now come to a point where I have bills that cannot be paid, I cannot tithe at church, my daughter is graduating within the next 72 hours and we are unable to provide for her as we should. This is distressing to me and causing great mental anguish. As I stated to Stewart, they are about to turn the lights and utilities at my house, my cable tv has been cut off, and we have budgeted our grocery shopping based on the “need only” impact.
I feel I have been patient with your bank, as we have been greeted with kind words and promised responses.
However, kind words, promises, and incident records are no longer sufficient.
Please Respond asap,
Mike
A breakdown of our transactions is below:
-$1100.00-Mortgage payment by personal check
-$ 900.00- endorsed check to include in mortgage payment
-$2000.00- electronic transaction (not authorized)
As you can tell, I have taken a $4000.00 hit to my bank account, when the actual amount should have only been the $1,100.00 check. I am unsure if you realize the impact that can make in a standard wage earners account, but I can assure you it has caused us much concern and anguish.