TDCanadaTrust: A New Low in Customer Service

About 6 months ago, my husband got a letter telling him that he was eligible, at the age of 55, to withdraw 25% of his pension account for his use.

Without a tax hit?

Yes.

Cool. Let’s do that.

Off we went to our bank to speak to our (so-called) financial advisor. She didn’t know how to do it but would look into it and get back to us.

Or not. Several weeks later, she still didn’t know how to do it, so fine. We called TD Waterhouse, which is where the pension was sitting, in a locked in self-directed RRSP. A large sum of it was actually in cash rather than stocks, and since we were anticipating taking out 25% of it, we left it that way.

TD Waterhouse arranged for us to meet with a different person at our branch, who was able to see us that same day.

Supposedly, they had spoken to him and he knew exactly what he was supposed to do.

Except that he didn’t.

He had us fill out a large amount of paperwork which created a new account for us - but then once that was done, he mentioned that they would be selling all of our stocks and from that point on they would be managing them for us.

Excuse me? All we want is the 25% out of that account to put towards our line of credit.

We do not require someone to make stock purchasing decisions for us, thank you very much.

Nor are we okay with you selling off all of the stocks we hold now.

Fine - that was an oops… we were beginning to get frustrated, but mistakes happen - and at least we discovered the miscommunication before they actually did get to selling off all of our stocks.

Now fix it please.

Sure, no problem. It will just take a few days to have that wrong account deleted and the correct one created, and then we’ll move that 25% to where it belongs.

Uh huh. A few days. Or weeks. Whatever.

Eventually that was done, and the correct account was created and visible in our online banking account. We’re rolling now, right?

Or not.

How long DOES it take to move everything, in kind,  from an RRSP to a RIF?

Months, apparently. But it is not our fault. TD Waterhouse blames TD bank; the bank blames TD Waterhouse and round and round we go.

In the meantime, our tolerance for poor customer service at the bank itself is sorely tested.

I am spoken to in a very rude an accusatory tone of voice by a teller demanding to know whose access card I am trying to use. Uh …. mine. Not possible. It says it is a student account - the insinuation being that I have perhaps stolen it. Yes, my name has changed from Canadian to possibly native Canadian (it is not, but most people jump to the wrong conclusion) - but I am still a student, still a customer supposedly in good standing with the bank, and still entitled to be addressed politely, am I not? Even if I did happen to be native, I would still expect, I think, to be spoken to with respect.

Hubby meets with the same sort of attitudes. Yes, he too has a native sounding name… and worse, he wears his hair long. He is meeting with even more disrespect and outright flack almost every time he is there any more. They refuse to allow him to deposit cheques made out to me and signed over to him - even, once, when I was right there (we ended up doing both of those through the machine without issue).

Then they refuse to allow him to deposit an insurance company cheque without putting a 10 day hold on it. It is from an insurance company for God’s sake - and anyway, there is enough room on our line of credit to cover it what, 8 times over?

If for some reason it did not clear, they would simply take it from the line of credit, but no… he is obviously not trustworthy any more - nor entitled to be spoken to with respect (seriously - he was getting frustrated and rather than addressing his concerns, the woman he was attempting to talk to ORDERED him to sit down and stop talking).

And still the money is sitting in the wrong place doing nothing because no one can be bothered to care.

Eventually, after months of this nonsense, we take to calling TD’s Complaint line. Every week.

Every week they tell us that the manager (who we have already tried talking to without success) will call us back on Monday.

FOUR weeks later, he actually does.

He’ll get right on it - see what is taking so long, make it happen, blah blah blah … just a few days.

Yes, he indeed is using the TD definition of a few days, also.

Hubby asks again - for about the 10th time in conversations with these people - about taxes. He is concerned that because it has taken so long to get things sorted out, he will have lost his eligibility to move it without penalty.

The manager assures him that he has 60 days after it is moved into the RIF.

Are  you sure? Because otherwise, we want to stop the process and leave everything where it is.

Yes, yes, he’s sure. Not to worry - just a few more days. Oh, and by the way, the manager insists, it has not been months that we have been trying to get this money moved. The paperwork was just done in January 2009.

Hm. Funny - because we were dealing with it for about 3 months before I was given an email for the guy we were dealing with at the bank - THAT did not happen until we were already well and truly frustrated; that’s WHY he gave us the email address.

And of course, I kept all of the emails between us …and those begin September 20, 2008.

Whatever… just a few more days.

Or not. Weeks, not days.

Anyway - they did manage to get it done. About a week ago, the money and stocks jumped from the RRSP to the RIF.

It’s all good now, right? All we have to do is exactly what we were told - call the folks at TD Waterhouse and have them move 25%  from the RIF to our line of credit.

We do that. Hubby calls and speaks to them; gives them the account information for the line of credit and confirms the amount, the account, and again, that there are no tax penalties.

It’s all good. It should only take a couple of days.

Later that afternoon, TD Waterhouse calls back. Hubby is not home, but the person on the phone says that is fine and asks me to confirm the amount and the account. I do.

That is where you want the money to go into.

Yes.

Good. It will only take a couple of days.

So …. I look online and sure enough the money is gone from the RIF.

This is good right?

Well - sort of.

We would like it better if it was showing up somewhere, as well.

Two lines of credit. We would be happy to see it in either one.

Seriously.

It is not there.

The weekend passes and then it is Monday lunch time, and it is still not showing in either of our lines of credit.

So we call. Where is our money?

Why, it is right there… in your LOCKED IN RRSP.

Why yes, you did tell us to put it in your line of credit.

But look - we put it there for you instead.

Oh …. you want it in your line of credit, like REALLY?

Well, gee, you know, when you take money out of your RRSP we have to withhold taxes.

The tax hit is quite high…but if you only take $5000 right now we will only have to withhold 10% - and then you can take the rest out later and…..

BLUDDY HELL!!!!! 

After all of that time and aggravation, they buggered it up so that we wind up losing 10% of it anyway.

Yes we will probably get that amount back - about 14 months from now in our 2009 tax return. But WHY THE HELL should we have to wait that long because they can’t be bothered following instructions?

Or telling the truth?

Or being COMPETENT?

We are waiting for a manager to call us now…. within 24 hours, so says the man we talked to today. I’m holding my breath. Not.

We shall see, I guess.

#1 in Customer service doesn’t mean the kind of service one thinks it does, I’m thinking.

Tags: customer service., TD Canada Trust