Consumer complaint received 2019-01-03
Company: COMMERCE BANK
State: KS
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed

Complaint:
I am listed as a transfer on death for my mother 's checking account. On XX/XX/2018, she died. 

I contacted the branch several times by phone yesterday and today. The first call was left on the branch manager 's v-mail, XXXX XXXX. I called to find out what type of paperwork I needed to bring for the money to be surrendered in my name. He never called me back. I had to place another call later in the day and spoke to a branch employee. She advised me the paperwork that would be needed, including the chain for my name change. 

Today, I received a call from forensics. They stated the body was ready to be picked up and that we needed to make a decision on a funeral home or crematorium. I asked about the death certificate, and they said the final official death certificate would not be available for another 15-16 weeks due to the additional tests run on her body to determine the exact cause of death. The stated a pending official certificate could be issued more quickly. 

In the interim, I contacted the bank to see what type of documentation they would accept. I told them about the circumstances with waiting on the final, but the woman stated she had verified with the branch manager that all we needed to bring was paperwork from the crematorium stating my mother was deceased and they would provide this when I signed the paperwork for her cremation. The crematory sent me away with an unofficial pending death certificate, I gathered all the other documentation, and we headed to Commerce to take out money to pay for the cremation that my mother had set aside. 

I explained that I only wanted part of the {$1700.00} she had left in her account, because she had written a check for {$250.00} and we needed to make sure it would clear. They stated they normally just closed out accounts, but they would make a call to verify if they could handle the account this way -- withdrawing part of the money prior to closing the account. 

When they spoke with legal, the legal department inquired about the status of the certificate and the banking rep stated it was a pending official. They stated they could not accept it despite what was told by the branch manager. I complained that we had had several miscommunication problems with this location in the past, which is why my spouse no longer banks with them. In addition, when I would take my mother to the bank, she would routinely write checks out for {$20.00} in cash. Sometimes they would demand id and other times they would not. My mother had suffered a mini-stroke, so she would need to fumble in her purse and wallet for sometimes 10 minutes at a time in drive-thru in order to find it. When I worked in banking, there was a standard policy to ask for ids on checks that were {$50.00} or more. From what I have been told, Commerce has no standardized policy on id and just makes rules at the branch level or depending on whether the teller wants to ask for it or not. This in itself will end up making Commerce look like they are racially profiling if they tend to ask for ids on minorities more than Caucasians.

I left and called customer service to complain and to ask for a district manager to call me back and explained the nature of the complaint. The first person I spoke to was named XXXX. She spoke to her supervisor named XXXX, and his recommendation was to go to another branch location if we were having problems with this location in order to withdraw the money. It was like they did not even understand the nature of my complaint. I told her this was not a solution, to jump branches until the money was withdrawn, and that I wanted a clear explanation of what I needed to bring, official pending or offical final, before I made another trip to a branch. She then transferred me to another supervisor named XXXX. XXXX stated she would give me the district managers name and number to speak to directly. What she gave me was the branch manager 's name and direct number. I was furious. I can not believe they are pulling this kind of nonsense on a person in the middle of a grieving process when the person is trying to get cremation expenses paid for. This branch clearly lacks proper training and I expect a call back from a distract manager explaining exactly what they will take before I make another trip.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation