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Thursday, October 1, 2009

TD 'not very convenient today' - Update

UPDATE: "TD Bank is not giving the full story to the media," says frustrated TD customer Shari Rathet of Newtown Square.

Since TD bought Commerce Bank last November, the banks have maintained separate accounts, Rathet says. Even though they were owned by the same company, she's needed TD's help every time she deposits her Neumann College paycheck, drawn from a Commerce account, into her TD checking and savings accounts. 

TD tried to merge the systems last weekend. But the system couldn't handle the transactions, phone lines couldn't handle the resulting increased volume of calls, and now "I have no access to my money. It is causing a lot of people a lot of inconvenience."

For a bank that calls itself 'America's Most Convenient Bank,' "it's not very convenient today, is it?" said Rathet's friend Dotti Bobst, of Glenolden. Her husband's Direct Deposit check didn't getposted automatically in their TD account this week, and Bobst is worried their payments will start to bounce. She waited an hour on TD phone lines this morning. On her third call "this nice guy Matt" was able to manually transfer her husband's check into their account. But she worries she'll have to try again tomorrow when her own check gets deposited.

ALSO: "They're going to lose customers," Gerry Cuddy, chief executive Beneficial Bank, Philadelphia, and a onetime Commerce executive, called to tell me. He says TD depositors are visiting Beneficial branches and opening accounts in "volume." Also, "This is critical... If you can't get access to your money, that’s it."

EARLIER: For the sixth day in a row, some of TD Bank's 6.5 million U.S. customers still aren't getting transactions posted in realtime, as the Canadian-owned bank struggles to finish combining account systems with the former Commerce Bancorp network. TD bought Commerce last year.

"Unfortunately, we experienced an unusual delay in our overnight batch posting again last evening," TD spokeswoman Rebecca Acevedo tells me. "All postings are up to date as of Wednesday evening, but now we are having an issue with last night's batch posting.

"We are working nonstop to resolve this issue. We are sorry about the inconvenience and we thank our customers for their patience and understanding...

"We expect to complete our transaction processing and have current account balances later today. We will reverse fees, charges or interest incurred as a result of this disruption... We continue to operate on full tilt to get this resolved."
 
Posted by Joseph N. DiStefano @ 10:31 AM  Permalink | 3 comments
Comments   
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:22 PM, 10/01/2009
    Their website is down too -- time to take my money elsewhere.
    — John Q. Public
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:35 PM, 10/01/2009
    Day three of having no idea WTF is happening with my account. The number is now busy. Here I come "any other bank"
    — Localjoe


3 comments
About Joseph N. DiStefano
Joseph N. DiStefano writes this blog to feed his PhillyDeals column in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Joe has been a member of Bloomberg LP’s New York Finance Team, wrote the book “Comcasted,” taught writing at St. Joseph’s University, and studied economics and history at Penn. Reach Joe at 215-854-5194 and JoeD@phillynews.com
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