No "Five Star Service" Here!
US Bank advertises a "Five Star Service Guaranteed" policy, but often they provide just the opposite. This page is here as a testimonial against US Bank for its horrendous treatment of one of its customers. For a more complete list of complaints about US Bank's questionable banking practices and poor customer service, visit the following pages:
Five Star Screwed and US Bank Complaints.
On May 31, 2002, a US Bank branch in Nashville, TN allowed a $61,000 theft of a senior citizen's money. The then 66-year-old gentleman had been a customer since the 1980's, long before the branch was owned by US Bank. At first they seemed concerned, but after several days of discussions with them about returning the money, they turned their backs and refused to acknowledge their negligence or to hold the thief accountable. A US Bank Vice-President offered this explanation on why they couldn't seek the return of the senior citizen's money: "I have to protect the bank and its shareholders."
The OCC did have to seek a response from US Bank regarding the complaint. In the response, US Bank provided inaccurate information in order to cover up their negligence. Even though it is a federal offense to lie in response to a government inquiry, the OCC still refused to do anything to US Bank.
Help was sought from members of Congress. The chair of the House Banking Committee would not respond; a U.S. representative and a U.S. senator responded and both said that there was nothing they could do. The office of
another U.S. representative called and finally admitted that there are no laws to protect the depositor in this situation. He said that no one can force a national bank to correct any mistake they make with a customer, and that only a court could order them to correct a mistake and make restitution. He said that was the way Congress wanted it. So according to the federal regulators, there are no laws protecting the depositor. A national bank, such as US Bank, can steal or allow someone to steal your money and there is nothing you can do about it except go to court and try to win a judgment against a multi-billion dollar corporation. Incidentally, US Bank had nearly $200 billion in assets at the time and has even more now.
So a lawsuit was filed against US Bank in Davidson County Circuit Court. In response to the suit, US Bank filed false statements to the court and simply pretended that they did nothing wrong. According to US Bank, it was apparently acceptable to give away $61,000 of a customer's money.
If you care to share your horror story about US Bank, contact us at usbankvictim@hotmail.com
It appeared that the only recourse of the customer was to file a complaint against US Bank with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) which is the federal regulator of national banks. No other local, state, or federal agency would accept the complaint. Everyone said that the complaint must go to the OCC.
But even the OCC didn't want to hear the complaint. They immediately said that there was nothing they could do. They said that it was a "civil" matter, that it
was your word against theirs, and that you would have to go to court to sue them. When asked how the senior citizen could afford to sue US Bank after it had allowed his savings to be stolen, the OCC replied "Maybe he can find a legal aid society to help him."