First Niagara Bank

First Niagara...A Nightmare!!!
- dave9354 - Friday, September 23, 2011 - 5:55 AM

After receiving a flyer in the mail, I opened an e-checking account with the promise of a 100.00 bonus. It has been a week since they ACH transfered my initial funding to open the account. The funds were withdrawn from my external account the next day but they were never deposited into the new account. After repeated calls to the bank, no one seems to know where the money went!!! The csr tells me she will check on the problem and call me back. No one returns my call. I have wasted a great deal of my time calling the bank and no one can find my money!! When I call the bank they just pass me on to another csr with no results!! This bank has the worst customer service I have ever seen in my life!!

You'll Get Better Service Burying A Tin Can In The Back-Yard
- js - Friday, December 9, 2011 - 3:36 PM

Hands down the worst bank I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. The down fall was immediate when First Niagra bought my old bank (Harleysville National)... First Niagra "automatically changed accounts to different types" started charging monthy service fees, and minimum balance fees on account that previously had none... the service at the branch level was poor too, tellers and managers just shrug and rol their eyes "that's just how it is" this bank changed my accounts started charging fees and when confronted about it... they kept the fees and threatened to turn me over to collections for the negative balance on one of my accounts (YES they charged enough in "new" fees to run my account into the negative. There Idea of customer service was to keep the money and offer to forget about the negative balance.... I would not ever consider doing business with this bank again... EVER

If I could have given a 1/2 star I would have

Stay Away....Far, Far Away
- Speakoutnow - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - 1:47 PM

sadly, this monopoly has taken over hsbc and selling some of those leftover branches to keybank.   I am a former customer of first niagara and can attest that their bank tellers have no social skills whatsoever and act as if you are bothering them.  I also tried registering my companies insurance with them on the 4th floor downtown Syracuse (First Niagara Risk Management).  That was a complete waste of my time and a real eye opener.  These people have no idea what they are doing.  I saw the so called "manager" outside smoking with 2 other of the employees.  There was a larger woman in charge of marketing for my account who was unbearably loud and complete low class.  I also spoke to a woman who had so much perfume and makeup on I almost choked.  The agency has been downsized dramatically and probably will not be open much longer.  These are not the type of people you want representing you or your company.  Do yourself a favor and take your business elsewhere. 

I Have Never Been More Unhappy With A Bank In My Entire Life
- mikehunt - Saturday, May 26, 2012 - 4:14 PM

Months ago I was told that my bank account was to be sold to them. I wrote a letter to my bank and to niagara telling them not to do it. After filling out multiple forms that stated this I was told it was to be transfered. I called up HSBc and begged them not to transfer it and they told me it had already been sold. I call the government department that oversaw the transfer and they said they couldnt reverse it unless Niagara agreed to. I called Naigara up and they refused to.

 

I explained to them that I lived over 300 miles from the nearest location and they didnt care

I explained to them that i needed to renew my license and couldnt do it without a checking account and they didnt care

I explained to them that I had a child support check due and could literally go to jail if I didnt have a working checking account and they didnt care.

Hours and hours (literally hours I called at 3 pm and was on the phone to 7 pm) I begged, pleeded, threatened, said everything I could think of asking them to not do this until after I wrote out the child support check and renewed my license. They still refused. I had to use relatives to western union my ex-wife up the money, I was fined by my credit cards for not being able to send them a check, was almost evicted, I spent 200 dollars in cab fees because I couldnt access my account to get my license renewed. I had 5000 dollars in my bank account but could only use the money I had on me for a week because of them.

All in all they costed me about 400 dollars. No apology they dont care. I closed the account the moment it was opened and went to chase. Never in my entire life have i treated a customer with such rudeness.

 

My only plan now is to continually write letters to the Fed overseers and my congressional reps until I am refunded the money they cost me.