FirstMerit Bank in Berlin, OH

FirstMerit seems to have lost it's appreciation of it's customers. Here's the story... In the interest of disclosure, this did not happen to me. It happened to a close teenage friend of mine. I am the manager of a business and do the business banking and my personal banking with FirstMerit so I tried to help him out as you will see below. On August 18, 2012 my friend (James Miller) went to the Berlin branch of FirstMerit to deposit a check of $504. It was a Saturday and James was aware that the check might not clear until the following Monday. James wanted the money deposited in his account that day or the check cashed as he had some large purchases to make that day. He asked the teller if there was any way to deposit the check directly into his account that day. The teller told him she could cash the check then deposit the cash into his account and the money would be available immediately. James said this would be great and made the deposit. Throughout the day he made 19 purchases with his debit card. On Friday of the next week James noticed online that his account was overdrawn. The teller had not cashed the check and deposited the cash the way she said she would and the check did not clear until Monday of the following week. FirstMerit charge James' account 19 overdraft charges at $35 each for a total of $665. James immediately went into the bank and talked to the manager at the Berlin branch. She said she would talk to the teller who processed the deposit and get back to James. She did not call back. James called or stopped in again and talked to the manager. The manager said the teller did not remember anything about the transaction. The manager said she could only refund James $180 out of the $665. That is when I got involved. I talked to the branch manager (she would never call me back when she said she would) and could not get anywhere with her. She got rather upset that I was pushing the issue when I did talk to her. I called corporate and tried to explain the situation but they said we had to talk to the branch manager and they could not do anything for us. With some research I got the branch manager's boss's number (district manager) and talked to her. She was nice but after looking into the situation said she could not refund any more than the $180. Needless to say, we are quite upset that a teller error cost James $665-$180=$485 and several of James friends have pulled their money out of FirstMerit, closed their accounts and moved to PNC. I am considering doing the same for myself and the business I manage. I would strongly urge you to think twice before opening an account with FirstMerit bank.