Problem Solver: Bank battle ends after email

January 12, 2012

The Problem Solver did not lift a finger to help Norman Hernandez in his battle with PNC Bank, but he provided an assist.

Hernandez’s fight with the Pittsburgh-based bank began in August 2010, when he deposited rent checks from his six-unit Chicago apartment building.

The checks were posted to Hernandez’s account, and the Oswego resident thought all was well.

A few weeks later he received a letter from PNC saying there was a problem. One check, for $725, had apparently become lost in the bank’s system.

PNC’s solution was deducting $725 from his account, Hernandez said.

So began a protracted and frustrating battle. Hernandez said he spoke to several PNC employees and was repeatedly promised he would receive calls back. In most cases no one returned his calls, Hernandez said.

On numerous occasions, he was told the situation would be straightened out within weeks, he said.

That didn’t happen.

In November, Hernandez gave PNC a two-week deadline to fix the mistake, he said.

Two months later, with the $725 was still missing from his account, Hernandez decided on a different approach.

He sat at his computer and typed an email detailing his 17-month-long slog through PNC’s customer service department.

“I am a stickler for good service and will complain and/or pose very difficult questions when my threshold of satisfaction is not met,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, I find myself in a quagmire and have been extremely patient in trying to resolve an issue with PNC Bank.”

Hernandez addressed the email to two individuals he had dealt with at PNC — and copied the Problem Solver.

He hit the send button at 11:33 a.m. Tuesday.

Less than five hours later, a PNC representative called Hernandez and promised to post the $725 to his account immediately. Hernandez said he checked his account Wednesday morning via the Internet, and the money was there.

The Problem Solver has said it before and he’ll say it again: Often, the mere threat of bad publicity is enough to get action.

“PNC resolved the matter immediately after receiving the ‘cc’ on my email to you,” Hernandez said.

Why it took a 11/2 years and the possibility of bad publicity to resolve the issue is beyond Hernandez.

The final straw, he said, was when PNC employees made promises they did not keep.

“What really ticked me off was when they started blaming each other and not taking responsibility,” he said.

Fred Solomon, a spokesman for PNC, said Wednesday that the bank could not comment on Hernandez’s situation.

“We thank you for bringing it to our attention, but our policy is not to comment on our customers to unaffiliated third parties, including members of the news media,” Solomon said in an email. “Typically in a situation like this, we will have already contacted the customer and come to a resolution.”

Hernandez said he spoke at length with the PNC representative Tuesday afternoon.

“I let her know in no uncertain terms that I was not happy with the length of time it took to resolve,” he said. “I said, ‘This call should have come a year ago.'”

Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune

Seriously?  You deposit good checks into your Pittsburgh National Corporation bank account and are credited with the funds.  At some future point said bank loses those checks and instead of actually investigating where those checks wound up, they withdraw the money from someone who was in no way a part of their mistake and who is unable to resolve it.  pah, like I’d ever use this place…