Consumer complaint received 2017-09-12
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed

Complaint:
On Saturday, XX/XX/XXXX, I endorsed three checks for deposit into mmy checking account at Fifth Third bank, where I have been a customer for approximately 15 years. I have moved all over the country and have always maintained that banking account. I placed those checks in a special devlivery envelope for overnight delivery to my bank in Michigan as that bank does not have service in MA.
One of the checks was not dated. I failed to notice this but the bank teller did not. They did not deposit that check in the amount of {$1000.00} and instead, the teller scribbled a separate deposit stub ( which was completely illegible ) and mailed the {$1000.00} check back to me. By regular mail. The teller said she attempted to call me twice about the date of the check. That is not true as my cell phone, the only phone I have, did not record any missed calls. 

The bank mailed that check back to me, knowing that a scheduled withdrawal was about to occur, which would reduce my bank balance to close to XXXX. They mailed it back using the slowest possible mailing method, so that other scheduled withdrawals would bounce and so they could charge me $ XXXX/per bounced check. 

When I called to complain, I was escalated up the chain of command until I spoke to someone named XXXX, whom I told I did not think I should be charged overdraft fees when that happened, as it would be their fault, not mine, that my account would be overdrawn. 

XXXX then proceeded to lecture me on being an irresponsible customer, and that I should not be scheduling withdrawals for money that was not yet in the account, and that this was therefore my problem, not the bank 's problem. That legally it is MY responsibility to see to it that money is in the bank before I write any checks on that money, failing to note the irony of his statement. I had done what was necessary to have money in the account and his bank was seeing to it that it was not placed into the account, with an incentive for themselves as it allowed them to make quite a lot of money in overdraft fees. There is responsibility for me, but not for them apparently I asked whom else I could complain to, and he said he was as high as my complaint would go, because his supervisor did not have " face-time '' ( i.e. contact with the peasantry ) in his job description. I find this utterly appallng. XXXX XXXX, the CEO of Fifth Third bank just experienced a multimillion dollar raise in pay, no doubt composed of an awful lot of overdraft fees engineered by his bank. 

So now, according to XXXX, I have to wait 7-10 business days for the check to be returned to me, and must then date the check and redeposit the check ( by express mail if I wish to minimize overdraft charges ) and  Fifth Third bank will profit from the entire procedure by an unknown number of dollars in these over-draft fees. I believe this is highly unethical and clearly not customer service oriented. Their attitude in speaking to their customers is condescending and rude. They ought to assume this overdraft responsibility, not me.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief