December 2016 by Gary H.
Having banked at this location for nearly 30 years, it has taken me a bit to get fed up with their poor service. Don't get me wrong, however, the staff at this branch are really quite pleasant. When banking, pleasant is not enough. Getting anything done out of the ordinary at North Shore Bank is a challenge. Branches apparently are not all created equal, so they are limited in what they can do for customers. Think more than an ATM, but not a lot more. A while ago, I ran out of checks, planned to order more, and stopped in to have a few printed. When this was a Firststar bank location, I could get that done. Even when it was a North Shore Bank, I could get that done. Well, "The Bank of You" no longer prints a few checks for customers. Okay, no big whoop, I will find a workaround. A few weeks later, I wanted to wire some money to a friend of mine in another state. Since he was very ill and awaiting surgery, I wanted this to be done right away. I got the routing number and account number for his bank and headed to North Shore. I was told they could not wire the funds using the routing number that I had because there is "often another number known only to banks." I asked if they could call that bank and find out the number only known to banks. She said no, but since I had the necessary information for my friend's account, I could go to their competitor's bank (1.5 miles away) and deposit into his account directly. It isn't so much that this information was incorrect, it was that it was not helpful. When I got to the other bank, I asked about their secret routing number and they thought that this was particularly weird, asking if I'd like to open an account with them. My late mother was a banker for many decades, and I have heard many stories about weird bank requests. I don't believe either of mine fall into that category. I have now gone to a credit union with better service, better rates, better web presence, and free checks. The bank of whom, precisely?
