27 mile walk, a phantom Flagstar Bank and the WORST customer service ever

So at 1:00 a.m. on Monday 21 February 20 after years of study and a full day of exercise, contemplation and meditation I achieved tranquility. Later in the day I had planned to ride a bicycle down to the Flagstar Bank branch that I typically use which is located in Zionsville. I had checked the branch locator on their website just a few hours earlier to confirm that it was still the closest location. I confirmed that it was and plugged the address into Mapquest to get the exact distance as I had been contemplating taking a long walk this week. This trip provided such an opportunity.

So at 9:23 I headed out into a slight drizzle and a strong breeze coming out of the southwest. My journey was a simple one; East on Main to Indianapolis Avenue which becomes Perryworth once out of town until it terminates at 334 which is the road Flagstar sits on where it intersect with Ford road in Zionsville -- 13.52 miles.

I reach my physical destination at 1:04 but it is not a Flagstar Bank as their website had indicated less than one day earlier. If you've followed my Life Coaching postings then you are well aware that I don't accept excuses. It would be my fault 100% and completely if I had assumed that the bank I had last visited in October was still there in February but I did the prudent thing and checked the website less than 12 hours before opening for business today.

I was assisted by a very pleasant woman there who provided me with a phone number, 800.642.0039, for the Flagstar Banking Center located in Michigan. Fortunately I had earlier in the day achieved tranquility and easily passed this test by not getting upset. Instead I called that number at 1:10 and very matter-of-factly spoke with a quite aloof fella who apologized for the inconvenience of walking for nearly eight hours, as my round trip would be, because of their mistake. However, he was curt in his attitude that Flagstar was not going to expend any effort to provide any assistance to me in resolving the issue of my need to make a deposit into my account today. I needed to pay a bill on-line and my Flagstar account is the only one I have linked to a debit card for such activity.

His solution was very straight forward; I was to walk across the street, place my $100 US Treasury Note into an envelope and mail it to him in Michigan. I could go into a whole plethora or reasons to not mail cash to him but those are irrelevant to my need to get the cash in the account today. There were numerous options available though.

The most simple would be that he could have or had someone with the authority to do so waive the fee for me to access overdraft protection so long as I make a deposit within one week. Flagstar could have arranged with any of the numerous banks located at the banking corner there in Zionsville for me to open an account and then have the funds transferred to my Flagstar account. Another option, a little more personal attention intensive, would be to do a bank to bank transfer of funds in my name which Flagstar could have then deposited into my account.

There was going to be no effort expended on Flagstar's part though. I even suggested the absurdity of having a courier services take the money to him. Nope, his solution was simply take that cash across the street to the US Post Office.

Never in my 30+ years of doing business with banks have I had such a poor customer service encounter. It's no wonder that Flagstar closed down all their branches in Indiana [although the website indicated 30 branches within 15 miles of Zionsville] and now only does business in Michigan.

If you ever see a solicitation to open an account with Flagstar Bank head the other way. This is the last place anyone should ever do their banking with. I'll forward this posting to the CEO of Flagstar Bank and post a response, if any, ver batum in a future posting here.

Tomorrow I will get back to posting about the Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines proposed changes. I am just a bit too tired for some reason to summon the mental faculties necessary to make an effective presentation.

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