April 2018 by E L.
Underhanded business practices at Bank of the West in Orinda We opened an account that included a promotional "bonus offer" for keeping funds at the bank for 12 months with 0.90% rate on a 12-month CD. Unfortunately, the Bank of the West employee, Deonna Hale, did not mention the CD auto-renewed although more than 12 months later Deonna claimed she "remembered telling us about the auto-renew feature" which is laughable...I can't remember what I had for dinner last week. As a result, 12 month later--after a vague voicemail and incomplete notice in the mail--our CD automatically renewed at 0.2%. What customer would want a 12-month CD at 0.20%? When we complained, the Orinda branch manager, Jack Lucas, told us we could not cancel the renewed CD without paying a 3% "early withdrawal" penalty. This is nothing more than a bank taking advantage of its customers. To make matters worse, Bank of the West did not deliver on the "bonus offer" saying that we were not registered for the promotion even though Deonna Hale stapled the coupon to our application. Unbelievable...is this what it takes to turn a profit in commercial banking? Only after writing a letter to the CEO did Bank of the West make good on the "bonus offer" and release the CD without penalty. We recommend steering clear of Bank of the West in Orinda and would not give a job reference for Deonna Hale and Jack Lucas considering our bad experience.
