Consumer complaint received 2024-04-04
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Closing an account — Funds not received from closed account
Company: BMO Bank, N.A. (CA)

On XX/XX/2024 I closed my BMO Checking account holding a total balance of {$10000.00}. I called customer service to close it, and they said they would send a cashier 's check with the entire balance through mail. On the week of XX/XX/2024 to XX/XX/2024 I made several phone calls with customer service because I was getting concerned the mail hasn't arrived yet. It is a check holding my entire balance and I was/am in need of it right away. The first couple phone calls, CS said to wait about a week. I waited but there was no mail. I called on XX/XX/2024 again explaining my concern and emphasizing again that I'm in urgent need of the check. In my previous call, they told me 'wait a couple days, and we'll try to expedite the situation, void the check sent out, and either wire transfer the funds or re-issue a new check. The call on XXXX, they contradicted their statement and told me they'd need 90 days to void the check and re-issue a new one. I expressed my situation in which I was/currently am in desperate need of the check and wouldn't think I'd survive a whole three months not knowing what happened to my entire balance, when It was crucial for me to live and financially support myself. The ignored all of my concerns and request for expedition and said there is no other way. I asked if they could provide me at least provisional credit for me to live off of the three months. They declined. On the phone, BMO Customer service said I'd have better luck visiting the branch and asking for a check there. They told me the branch could expedite the situation and have more options for me. The past week, I visited three USPS to find the missing check, and a visit to the local branch to emphasize my request. I visited the BMO Bank located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, CA XXXX on XX/XX/2024. All the banker did at the branch was call customer support in front of me, of what I have already been doing several times for the past week. I asked the banker at the branch if they could issue a check and give it to me in person. They said the could not. I asked if I could make a new checking account with BMO and have the funds returned there. The said they could not. They did not do anything, and told me I'd be better to call Customer Service. Customer service was incompliant in everything. I expressed my situation and concern and the fact that I can not mentally go on with my life not knowing what happened to my entire balance. They told me they couldn't cooperate with me on anything and said I need to sign a document/waiver to consent to have a new check reissued that they'd send to me via email and that I'd need to print it out, sign it and physically mail it back to them. I asked the next time if they send a new check if they'd send it via priority mail, or any other kind of shipping system that'd have a tracking number so that it wouldn't go lost again. They declined and told me the only way is to send in regular mail, along with all the other spam mails and newspaper that gets handed to the mailman. When I visited USPS to ask the whereabouts of my missing check, the told me banks usually send checks with a large sum through priority mail or system where the recipient needs to be present to sign their name when the mailman hands it over to them in person. BMO declined to do so. On top of that, they told me they'd send the waiver through my email on the call I had with them on XX/XX/2024. Today is XX/XX/2024 and I have yet to receive anything from them on my email. They have been non negotiable and trying to consult with them on this situation has been helpless on how reluctant they were in trying to solve this situation. My biggest concern is I wouldn't be able to survive 90 days with the amount missing, and the bank has done nothing to help in trying to find a better solution. Everything they've been telling me before has been debunked and they have not kept their word in agreeing to expedite this situation. Temporary provisional credit is commonly practiced in other banks while they undergo the 90 day investigation, and they denied my request. Sending a new check through priority mail is highly practiced across other banks ( according to USPS ) and when I requested this, they denied. They are not sending me the waiver form to have the check re-issued. They have denied everything I've pitched, and now I'm feeling helpless and defeated, not know what to do, what happened to my entire balance that is still currently missing, and how I will be able to survive off of until this is situated.