May 2020 by Thomas Bennett
Extraordinarily bad experience with this branch and with Flagstar in general. My debit card/checking account with them is where my paychecks go and it’s my primary day to day source of spending money. From the beginning I’ve been disappointed with their lack of function and general customer service. They just aren’t a user friendly bank. On Sunday April 19, 2020 during the Covid crisis things got much worse. I went to the drive through ATM at this branch to deposit $47 that was difficult for me to spend because of Covid. During the transaction the machine froze at a “processing your transaction” screen just after confirming the $47 amount. I sat there for 25 minutes trying to figure something out. I called their corporate customer service and no one was there. There were no help numbers on the machine or anything. I just had to drive away with the uncertainty of my money and card out of my control. I have had an atm do this once before at a regions bank. They went outside, unlocked the machine, and gave me my card. Is this what Flagstar did? NO. Of course not. The manager Ryan informed me that their machine is serviced every 2 weeks and was serviced that preceding Thursday. It would be 1 1/2 weeks before it was serviced again. When they come they have a transaction log that (should in theory) have a log of my $47. They will also get my card out so I can go by and get it. Not good enough to begin with. I called the bank a few minutes after the 9am Monday open time. Ryan the manager informed me that he could issue me a temporary ATM card. This card is only useable at atms for cash. That exposes me to Covid 19 and it makes the cash app, Venmo, and PayPal transactions that I frequently use impossible. The bank has effectively forced me to use cash and expose myself to the virus in this time of uncertainty. Ryan told me he would order a new debit card for me overnight that day (Monday.) Ryan failed. I went by at the end of business on Wednesday and the card hadn’t arrived. Ryan was not there at the time to provide some semblance of reassurance. Thursday rolled around and I called early afternoon. Ryan screwed up ordering my card apparently and it won’t be in till next week. I have to leave town to help the state of Iowa reopen their parks at this point. I haven’t worked in a month and a half. Iowa is counting on my contracting work post Covid. I am counting on this card. Ryan has failed me. Flagstar has failed me. Now I will have to expose myself to this virus more to access my own money. I will have to pay transaction fees to use my own money of prepaid cards. I’ve had to drive 16 miles into town repeatedly to deal with this. I had to actually point out to Ryan that he never apologized. He has only ever fed me excuses. He has failed me catastrophically and never offered to compensate me or make for this in any way. Avoid this branch and Flagstar as a whole.
