Still Hating U S Bank

I got this stupid piece of email, which my spam filter didn't like either, from U S Bank, wanting my opinion of them. Click the link for their survey. I guess they're so full of themselves that they think I'll reply with nice sweet nothings and mildly "helpful" tidbits that they can ignore, having shown me just how much they care simply by offering me the chance to fill out their survey. For them, mission accomplished.

The email survey came at the same time as their annual letter to me letting me know that once again they are stealing $30 from my CDs. They certainly don't have good timing either, do they? Just to rub their indifference in my face, when I clicked on their survey link, a nearly blank age appeared telling  me they had enough folks giving input in their "quota." As if I weren't unimpressed with them enough already, eh? Now that I'm even more annoyed with them, I hit their website. It's been recently reconfigured. There is no way to email them with any comments or questions. They do give phone numbers, but that has never gotten me anything, just like walking into one of their branches and letting one of their officers know what I think of them and their policies has done anything either.

But hey, I'll keep doing my best here to spread the word.


"Dear" U S Bank:

I recently received your email survey inviting me to let you know what I think of your services. You only want me to think you want to know. Your survey wasn't available to fill out. But I'm going to pretend you really meant it, and fill you in on how I esteem your company.

I have had several kinds of contact with you through the years. I may not have been your best customer, but I treated you fairly and honestly,  and I did keep coming back. The last time we did business was when I purchased a couple of IRA CDs from you just a few years back when you were offering the best interest rate of any of the various financial institutions I had a interest in doing business with.

Boy, was that a mistake! Within a few months you reneged. Perhaps you regretted being so "generous." Perhaps you merely thought that you wanted to encourage me to become a bigger investor by punishing me for being a somewhat lessor investor - a particularly peculiar tactic, and, as you may have noticed, unsuccessful. Perhaps you decided that your contract with me was no longer important, that profit by whatever grasping means available to you was meant to win out over integrity, reputation, and any hope at all of maintaining me as a repeat customer.

What exactly did you do? You simply decided that you could call my two IRA CDs a "Retirement Account" and use that name change to justify charging me an annual fee for "services rendered."

Services? What the hell are you talking services? Have you ever given me advice about investments? Have you ever called me, consulted with me, written me, offered me further profitable investments? Check those records all you want: they'll be blank. No, you never did. There have been no "services." Nothing, Nada. Never. Zip. Zero.

Oh, unless you have redefined the term "services" to refer to your annual letter informing me that you are once again stealing back $30 of my interest. Is that your service? Theft? Fraud? Accepting my money under false pretenses and breaking your end of the contract?

It is perhaps needless to inform you that once those CDs have matured, I will never again put one penny of my funds in any of your establishments. I will loudly and repeatedly advise anybody who will listen not to do so either. I will take every available opportunity to assist others in seeing clearly just what your reputation, so well-earned, is worth. And I will blog about it every time you so thoughtfully remind me exactly how reprehensible an establishment you are.

I am surely not the wealthiest fish in your banking barrel. I'm working hard to be the loudest.

Sincerely, but definitely not respectfully,

Heather M. Rosa