I recently ended my employment with wnb. I could not believe the astronmical fees that they charge! I was not familiar with the bank when I accepted a job there. It remined me of a check cashing place. All of the fees went up in february so consummers beware. I cannot believe how much paperwork they give you when you open a new account. I have never seen so much "small print". I couldn"t take the way the employees treated and talked to customers. I abruptly left. Wnb is no place to work if you think you are going to work at a real bank !
In today's context, I cannot understand what you think a real bank would be. How many billions/trillions of dollars of national debt were imposed on future generations of taxpayers to bail out the financial system? As far as I know, Woodforest did not stand in line to ask for a single penny. As a matter of fact, the government is now punishing Woodforest for doing nothing wrong when you consider that bailouts of failing institutions stops Woodforest from entering the fair market and claiming the newly opened market share that would exist without the bailouts.
I am a current employee and I hope to retire from Woodforest. I have no right to represent the bank's response to your grievance, but I feel you have made a poor choice to quit a job at a stable bank that will certainly survive the next waves of bailouts that have not even made the news, yet.
Of course a bank cashes checks. What is so bad about a bank that reminds you of a check cashing place? You lost me. I would like to clarify that Woodforest is not a payday advance company. That idea was fully explored up to the point of nearly being deployed. As far as I know, it is now a dead idea that will never happen at Woodforest. I think that is a shame because payday advances help many people despite the bad public image people have in their minds.
Woodforest bankers have always been very nice and willing to work with customers who find themselves in trouble. I never saw any public banker treat a customer rudely. I think you may not have been understanding the tools Woodforest has available to help a customer in trouble. Woodforest is willing to work with any customer who gets into trouble with negative balances and often stronger customer relationships are born from this.
Short of the government offering a trillion dollar "Checking Overdraft Fee" bailouts, I don't know what more you can expect... except perhaps a more consumer friendly posting practice for events where postings collide at the same time. In my opinion, every bank has a funny way to post events that hit at the same time. If Woodforest marketed a way for smallest amounts to post before the larger amounts, customers would flood to Woodforest to open accounts.
Woodforest is private and employee owned. The valuation of the stock is artificially depressed in sympathy to the publicly traded peer group. You just surrendered your employee right to purchase undervalued shares of a strong company that is surviving a global economic crisis.
It takes time and growth of the Woodforest market share footprint to release the corporate oversight of POS, ATM, mortgages, and financial services to the individual branch managers. I feel secure that Woodforest is choosing to operate within the proven business model during this time of economic upheaval.
I am also a current WNB employee. I must say that you were probably unfamiliar with the systems we have in place to help customers who are in need while overdrawn, which compared to other banks would be extremely frowned upon. We help our customers to a degree that no other bank could possibly offer(at least to my knowledge). I started with no experience with the bank as well, and now that i look back over my year and a half of employment with WNB i greatly appreciate what i have been able to help customers from all walks of life with. I am always learning more, and it has been an incredible ride. I love everyone i have worked with, and work with to this day. They have helped me learn so much in work and as a person and i thank them all for their time. They have helped me grow as an employee and thanks to them my ability to serve customers has grown. From flipping burgers to changing lives. This is something that i cherish the most about my job. At times i do get tired of standing all day, as well as marketing alot, but i realize just how lucky i am to have a solid job in these times of economic crisis. I deal with some of the most kind hearted people around, as well as people who care about nothing and are rude and yell at me. But hey it's a bank.. what do you expect? =] Well i heard about this place on the net about us and thought i would check it out. I am glad i did. I hope you have found your way to an easier position somewhere else. I just wanna give everyone with WNB a huge pat on the back, and say i respect everything you do. I know how hard we work. After all we do it all on our own. Balancing our own vaults, Work, Running work, marketing, opening accounts, meeting goals, deadlines, helping difficult customers and everything else we put up with... Congrats and keep on keepin on with the great work. Look how far Woodforest has come! and with our continued hard work and support, all while going the extra five miles in banking, who knows how far we will go! My name is Brentley West Everett. And i am a proud employee of WOODFOREST NATIONAL BANK! Thank you all and i wish you the greatest life has to offer.
This sounds to me like a disgruntled customer posing as an ex bank employee. Either that or they have no previous experience at all with banks. The "small print" isn't so small. It's what, about 1o pages of information? A few of the pages have 1-2 sentences about safety, there's your "signature card" which is your agreement to open the account, there's the page explaining the overdraft system, again no small print... in fact the employees even sit there for 10-20 minutes going OVER the disclosures and highlighting them. So, I think this person is mistaken. Woodforest is the most upfront bank I've seen when it comes to fully disclosing the fees and explaining the "fine print"
best bank ever... 24/7 no hidden fees or anything
sawleh
i have been banking with woodforest since 98, at which time i came to work for them contract for video production projects. Though I was not a salaried employee, they treated me as if I was. The only thing I wish I had was the profit-sharing and 401K. In the two years I worked from them, many employees retirement plans were set. They have been the best bank I have worked with. The fact they stay open later and even some 24 hour locations shows they care about their customers who can not get to the bank during normal hours. I am not naive, of course there is profit motivation, but that comes when customers word of mouth brings in new customers about their service. I have never had a complaint about their service in 14 years. They even fully refunded my account after 4 transactions were made from ATM location I had never been to. The bank they allowed the transactions never investigated, and woodforest ponied up the whole loss, from which the other bank was technically liable for. That was many years ago, and since then I have been a steadfast loyal customer long after I stopped working for them.
And J. Doe is correct in his analysis, it was as outright injustice that was perpetrated on not only the consumers, but the small financial systems, that did not need a penny but saw how the "Fair Market" really works.
And whats with the all caps thing? That is very annoying, probably as bad as my grammar and punctuation.
I am a previous employee of WNB and a current account holder. My departure from the bank was personal and not professional. WNB is a great bank and offer many products that work FOR the customer. The disclosures, as far as WNB trains, are to be discussed and explained at lengths for the sole purpose and benefit of the customer. How many times has an idividual walked into a major bank, opened an account and the disclosures explained so thoroughly? How about fees discussed with the customer? WNB employees are trained to be customer oriented...to provide exceptional customer service. WNB's fees are not outrageous, not "hidden'. If you truly want to know what kind of bank they are, walk into any branch and ask the customers...talk with the retail bankers or even the manager. I'm sure any of them would be more then happy to "enlighten" you how things are run with WNB.