Consumer complaint received 2017-05-19
Product: Checking or savings account — Other banking product or service
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low — Overdrafts and overdraft fees
Company: BANK OF THE WEST (CA)

I am a Bank of the West Customer and a small business owner. When I opened my account with Bank of the West we were told about the  Merchant Services  available to us as Bank of the West Customers.  XXXX   XXXX  at the  XXXX  branch praised the company they refer which is  XXXX  and its representative  XXXX   XXXX . When we read the literature  XXXX  confirmed that any batch that was done prior to  XXXX  was credited the same day and any batch after  XXXX  pm. would be in my account the next day.    XXXX  with  XXXX   XXXX  on  XXXX   XXXX ,   XXXX  . She explained their services and confirmed what was told to us by  XXXX  at Bank of the West, that yes our deposits would be in our a cct 6-12 ho urs after we batched out.   We agreed on what type of equipment she thought would best suit our needs and signed up with  XXXX , I signed an  Installment  agreement for the equipment. After a lengthy and ridiculous underwriting process we were finally approved to be able to use  XXXX  as our process server. ( Thats another story ). With that process finally over our equipment was shipped and received shortly after that. I want to mention that none of the equipment was ever able to be hooked up because the card swiper that was mailed was not encrypted for that type of machine. So we had to hand Write Customers account numbers on the guest checks and process them manually, embarrassing to say the least to my customers who were very uncomfortable with that and then I found out later that I was paying an additional fee for manually processing them the whole time, about an extra hundred dollars for the month. I couldnt Get  XXXX  to give me the time to come out and see what was going on even though I called and texted her for her to come see what Im dealing with, she never did. When I realized my deposits were not being processed in the time frame I was promised I called  XXXX  to ask why and and spoke to Mr.// of   XXXX   I asked Mr.// about the next day deposits and he said this is not how it works that if you batch out after  XXXX  the deposits do not go into your account until  72hrs  later. I explained what I was told by their rep.  XXXX   XXXX  and he said he was going to call her. Later I called  XXXX  and told her what  XXXX  said and she told me that she informed him that because I was a Bank of the West Customer that I was getting a provisional credit and thats why the deposit would show up in my account soon after I batched out, again confirming this to me that my deposit would be in my accou nt 6-12  hours after batching out.   The problem is that this is not true and even though when I asked  XXXX   .   XXXX  and even  XXXX  at the  XXXX  branch why Im not getting next day credit they say they cant understand this because it has never happened to anyone else before.  ( Well  I   XXXX     XXXX  and read the reviews, everyone had similar stories. I cant believe there isnt  a Class Action Law Suit against t hem ) So with all this being said thats just some of the issues in dealing with  XXXX . On  XXXX   XXXX   XXXX  debited my account {$2200.00} when I called  XXXX   XXXX   XXXX  to find out what was going on. She informed me that she would research it and get back to me. I explained that I had outstanding checks and that money had to go back in my account right away. It was either later that day or the next she informed me that they debited my account the total amount for the equipment not the installment amount which I signed for plus my monthly processing fees. It took them 10 days to put that money back into my account. Which means I had no access to any of my money for 10 days . Again Im  a small business thats all I had.   Since this disaster of a processing company has been responsible for depositing to my account, they have caused my account more than {$2100.00} in overdraft fees because of the misleading sales tactics. So from day  one I have had service charges because the money is not there when promised. For Example I b atched out on XXXX  and the money should be deposited on  XXXX at the latest per  XXXX   XXXX  but its not there at any point on that day. Its not even at  XXXX  on the  XXXX  of  XXXX . I have a screen shot of my account balance on  XXXX / XXXX /  XXXX   when the deposit is supposed to be there and you can see there is no deposit but around  XXXX   XXXX  the next morning you can see the deposit with the date of  XXXX / XXXX /  XXXX   not an effective date of  XXXX  on  XXXX  but like it was deposited on  XXXX / XXXX /  XXXX   when its supposed to be there They are altering the daily activity on my account for the prior day so it looks like the money was there, and because the money wasnt there the morning of the  XXXX / XXXX /  XXXX   I have od fees for items that the money should have been there for. The problem is that it is a snowball effect it is impacting my cash flow and the ability to have my items covered and not charged and overdraft fee to have them paid. I can never recover what this has cost me in over draft fees. I have accrued over  XXXX  in service charges over and above what they reimbursed me for. This has been an absolute nightmare. And Im not even asking for the total amount, this is just since  XXXX   XXXX ,   XXXX   when the wrongly debited my account.  XXXX   XXXX  said that her manager would only approve  XXXX  of my overdraft fees.   Bank of the West has paid my items, they said until this was to be straightened out. The ramifications of my checks being returned are enormous anything from being reported as a bad check issuer to having a payroll check bounce and Labor enforcements of being sued.   I am asking for  XXXX  to reimburse me in the amount of  XXXX  --. I would not have overdraft fees if I hadnt been deceived in their processing procedures.