- Jun 16, 2000
- 30,213
- 12
- 81
I've had a Sovereign account for over ten years now, and for the last couple of months I've been using that checking account for bill paying purposes only. I had enough money in the account to cover my bills, so I didn't feel it was necessary to check it every day. I logged in yesterday to see if my bill payments all went through successfully and to see how much I needed to deposit to cover the next round, and was shocked to find myself $96 overdrawn.
Turns out a week or so ago, ESPN charged me an extra $40 for an Insider subscription. An honest mistake, things happen. I called ESPN, they refunded the charge, but this still leaves me with $80 or so in overdraft fees. Turns out ESPN caused my account to go overdrawn, and then my last bill (a measly $10 one) caused it to go further overdrawn. Both gave me $30 overdraft fees. In addition, I was receiving a daily charge for not paying back the negative balance.
I moved about 2 months ago and submitted a change of address form at my new local branch. They seemed to have lost this information, the change was never made, so I never received any notices about these charges.
I called customer service, and was informed that since I filed the dispute directly with ESPN, and not with Sovereign, that I was still liable for the overdraft fees. I asked to speak to the account executive who makes these decisions, and she informed me the same thing, and when I told her I'd be closing my account if they didn't remove those charges, she said "thank you for banking with us, can I help you with anything else".
I understand their point, its not THEIR fault that ESPN overcharged me, but I think the fact that ESPN is refunding the charge should show that its not MY fault either. Its not like they would really lose any money by refunding those overdraft fees - without the ESPN charge I still had money in the account. Policies aside, this was a blatent show of poor customer service, and they've lost a long-time customer because of it.
Turns out a week or so ago, ESPN charged me an extra $40 for an Insider subscription. An honest mistake, things happen. I called ESPN, they refunded the charge, but this still leaves me with $80 or so in overdraft fees. Turns out ESPN caused my account to go overdrawn, and then my last bill (a measly $10 one) caused it to go further overdrawn. Both gave me $30 overdraft fees. In addition, I was receiving a daily charge for not paying back the negative balance.
I moved about 2 months ago and submitted a change of address form at my new local branch. They seemed to have lost this information, the change was never made, so I never received any notices about these charges.
I called customer service, and was informed that since I filed the dispute directly with ESPN, and not with Sovereign, that I was still liable for the overdraft fees. I asked to speak to the account executive who makes these decisions, and she informed me the same thing, and when I told her I'd be closing my account if they didn't remove those charges, she said "thank you for banking with us, can I help you with anything else".
I understand their point, its not THEIR fault that ESPN overcharged me, but I think the fact that ESPN is refunding the charge should show that its not MY fault either. Its not like they would really lose any money by refunding those overdraft fees - without the ESPN charge I still had money in the account. Policies aside, this was a blatent show of poor customer service, and they've lost a long-time customer because of it.
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