In this era where everything is computerized and backed up in the clouds, bank safety deposit boxes are both anachronistic and reassuring. But when you wonder for three months where yours is, and no one has an answer, the vault becomes more of an illustration of poor customer service.
Posted at 6:30 a.m.
François Deschênes is stunned by the “surreal steps” he was forced to take to see and take in his hands the jewels of his deceased sister. A “good value” diamond necklace and earrings, which he had deposited in a safety deposit box at BMO about ten years ago.
The case began in November 2021, when he discovered that his bank branch on Saint-Laurent Boulevard in Montreal had moved. To be certain that his box has followed, he goes to the new address. It’s mid-December.
Surprise: the employee is unable to determine where the box is, because he cannot find the cardboard on which certain essential information appears, including his number, says François Deschênes. We promise to call him back quickly.
Still without news after the holidays, François Deschênes returns to the branch. Same scenario. He enters the vault with his key, but it is impossible to find the box without the famous box. And BMO’s computer system isn’t helping.
I have never witnessed a bank move, but I imagine that everything is done according to the rules of the art. That it’s not the brother-in-law who carries the clients’ paperwork, money and safety deposit boxes with his pickup. But where is that damn card? Mystery.
In February, a request is sent to the head office. “Investigation on the client’s safe, do not locate the safe’s file + not entered in the system. Investigation: search safe contract + check safes sent to Revenu Québec”, it is written there. In March, François Deschênes wants news. But the author of the request will be absent for an indefinite period. He writes immediately to the branch manager, but gets no more answers.
PHOTO OLIVIER PONTBRIAND, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Overview of safety deposit boxes in a Montreal bank
“I started to get impatient. I contacted the ombudsman who suggested I meet with the branch manager… the same woman I had written to! »
By rummaging through his belongings, François Deschênes ended up finding the number of his box, which he had forgotten. He goes back to BMO. We let him turn the key in the lock. It works, but he is not allowed to look inside, he says, since the bank is unable to make the connection between him and the box. This is the reassuring side of the matter.
But François Deschênes questions himself. What if he hadn’t been allowed to peek at the contents because the box was empty? He invents Hollywood scenarios…
“The more time passes, the more I realize that it is not serious. A box is supposed to protect our property, but it’s managed all wrong. It is the nature of the product that is symbolic. »
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On Wednesday, I contacted the BMO to understand what could have happened. The same day, François Deschênes received an apology call from the bank. The next day, the branch manager gave her access to her safe. Everything was there. The sixth visit was the good one.
“If someone goes to the BMO to access his box and he only gets there three months later thanks to the intervention of a journalist, that’s a problem”, indignant the Montrealer . Luckily he didn’t need the content quickly.
At BMO, spokeswoman Marie-Catherine Noël assured me that “all safety deposit boxes, keys, papers have been moved in good and due form”. But she could not explain to me what had happened “for reasons of confidentiality”.
As for François Deschênes, he did not know either. Now that everything is settled, he is rather insulted by the lack of replies to his emails and follow-ups.
Beyond the crazy side of this story, it must be seen as a clear example of the deterioration of customer service. Have you tried calling a bank in the last year? A colleague from The Press recently waited in line to settle a credit card matter for… 8 hours and 19 minutes!
I am also trying to get answers from my card issuing bank. The waiting time is always more than two hours, I am warned at the outset. So I hang up. And I use another payment method. Last summer, when I wanted to open a bank account for my son in another institution, I was told at the branch to proceed online. Online, I was forced to go to a branch. On the phone, the employees told me one thing and its opposite.
The staff shortage is certainly having an impact. But this argument seems to have a broad back. Just like the pandemic, by the way. I rather tend to see it as a form of apathy fueled by the fact that customers feel quite captive to their bank and that the level of competition is low.
“I would say that the service is of poor quality in all the banks and that it is even worse for credit cards”, summarizes the director of the HEC Montreal Sales Institute and customer service expert Jean-Luc Geha. . This was true before the pandemic and it is even more so today, he says, because remote work brings security and staff supervision issues.
In addition, technology is playing tricks on us. It allows us to do many things on our own. Which means that when we pick up the phone, it’s for complicated business. “There are only heavy cases that take a long time. »
Is this progress?