Consumer complaint received 2023-12-06
Company: WEBSTER BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: GA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Can't close your account

Complaint:
The company is XXXX XXXX. I began speaking with them at XXXX and did not receive confirmation of my account being closed until the 3rd representative from them at XXXX. The first two representatives hung up on me after placing me on and off hold more than a dozen times after I made my goal of closing my account clear. They also told me that I needed to pay a {$25.00} fee to close my XXXX account. 

The first representative deliberately misspelled my name over 5 times even though I kept spelling my name out for her and clearly enunciating every letter. She would repeat back to me but leave a different letter off each time like it was a weird joke. She then would place me on hold for five minutes for every single question I was asking her which was simply what happened to my account after I left my previous job. She would deliberately misunderstand me, misrepresent my question, and went above and beyond to misconstrue what was really just a simple question : were my funds still with this bank, yes or no? All told, I spent 40 minutes with this woman just to get to that yes answer before she finally hung up on me after I asked about how to close the account. 

The next representative I met with was more of the same in terms of difficulty. My address had changed and I needed to update the address so that it would be correct and the bank would know where to mail my check after I closed my account. This man deliberately misspelled the street name and the city name even though I spelled each out to him and had him repeat them back to me. When I went to confirm the address had been updated, I told him that he had misspelled both. After he was caught, he said he would update it to be correct later and I said no, update the address now. He relented and updated the address. When I said I want to close my account he then hung up on me. 

The final representative was the only one who would help me in closing my account. However she kept trying to dissuade me from closing my account by offering to wave a XXXX  XXXX fee which has been assessed on my account for the last two years. ( This is a separate complaint and question : is it legal to assess a {$3.00} fee for a cash account? If so, that seems terrible and should be made illegal. ) the final representative attempted to convince me to open an investment account for which she would wave a fee for me to do so. I told her no. She then placed me on hold. She then came back after a few minutes and attempted to get me to do a draw down instead of closing the account. I told her no, I want to close the account. That is all that I am interested in. She finally relented and said she would close my account. She told me that the bank was going to wave the {$25.00} fee for me to close the account as well. It wasnt until I got to this form that I even knew that they were not allowed to assess a {$25.00} closing fee. 



I have a downloaded file from the bank as well which lays out the {$25.00} charge. 

XXXX XXXX. Reiterating the name just so you dont have to scroll back to the top to remember what hellish institution this whole complaint was about. XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation