Ally's customer service seems to have fallen apart in the last 6 months. I've had accounts with them for 5 years, but closed mine last week after I was dissatisfied with their handling of 3 separate incidents.
I've only had excellent experiences with Ally support so I'm curious what happend and if I should change my expectations of them?
First, I called to get a replacement debit card because I misplaced mine within my house somewhere. They sent me one for an account that I had closed months before. I called them again and they had to transfer me to another department to order it. Then, that department was having technical difficulties so they couldn't order it. I asked them to call me back when that was resolved. They never did. I spent 15 minutes on the phone on that occasion. I then had to chat with them online to finally order the card.
Next, I called them to make a travel note on my account because I was going to Europe. This again took 15 minutes and required transferring me to another department.
Finally, the disaster. I accidentally gave my checking account # instead of savings to pay husband's grad school tuition ($11k). We had their overdraft protection to automatically transfer the money over set up, so I chatted with them just confirm. This happened on a Monday. Our savings account balance showed current balance of $X+11k but the available balance showed $X. My checking account was -$X. They told me sure, no problem, the money is in transit and it will be transferred tomorrow. Tuesday, I get on a plane to Europe with my Ally debit card (because no foreign transaction fees, whee!) The money hasn't transferred, but I thought oh, no biggie. Wednesday, I try to chat with customer service from Europe, but oh wait! They only have that during US business hours. My husband, who is on both accounts tries to call, but on no! They can't see my account notes when he calls in. I call Wednesday night and am told absolutely, this will be resolved tomorrow after 40 minutes on the phone. Nope. Finally, the money is transferred Friday after I force them to escalate the issue to a manager. In fact, it's transferred in seconds WHILE I'M STILL ON THE PHONE WITH THEM. In all, I think I spent nearly 2 hours on the phone with them to resolve this really simple issue. I totally admit it was my mistake to start with, but I don't think it should have taken 4 business days to resolve, especially when I told every single person I spoke to that I was out of the country intending to use their debit card to withdraw cash.
Mistakes happen, but that was just way too far for me.