I am not a fan of the big banks here in Canada so when it came time for the man and I to choose where to get our very first mortgage, I did not hesitate for a second and chose ING Direct. I know of several people who went through them and loved the bank, the low interest rates and everything else. I already have my RSP and savings account through them so I figured it would be easy sailing. Boy was I wrong!
Every single step with these guys has consisted of several heated phone calls, me questioning their competence and it ending up being their fault 100% and them having to fix something for us. First it was us trying to close the deal with our place , then it was adding insurance to our place, then it was them 'forgetting' to cover our City of Vancouver property taxes and now it has to do with our first time home buyer's exemption.
I faxed them the forms in late October and thought all was good. I got a bit worried in mid-November when I heard nothing back from them. I faxed it a second time and again, the fax receipt said 'received on their end'. I called them just to make sure and they were like, 'Nope, we haven't received anything from you, Yes you were dialing the right number. First Time Home Buyer's Expemption? What ch'yu talkin' bout?" I calmly explained what it was and they said fax it YET again. Well it turns out they received it but never faxed the forms to the BC government; nice. So I get hit with a 4420$ tax bill yesterday from the BC government saying my bank did not send the forms to them at all.
So I call ING again and ask "Why did you not fax my forms?". Laura-Leigh from ING got all defensive, shrill and cranky saying 'we did SO send them'. I asked her for the fax transmission receipt and she came back with 'You are not privy to such information!'. WTF? I am possibly on the hook for over 4K cause you're retarded? I don't think so. (and YES, she actually did use the word 'privy' and did say 'we did SO'....classy I know).
All sorted now thanks to Ron @ BC Small Business and Revenue (you THE man!) but man am I pissed at ING yet again!!!
Goes to show that one should not pick a bank based on a guy in a snappy vest who has a cute Dutch accent *sigh* What was I thinking? Save your money my ass....
4 comments:
Don't even get me started on Banks.
When we bought our place on 59th, we kept our mortgage with TD. When it was all said and done we received the paperwork indicating title transfer and relevant mortgage information only to find that the address that they had on file was wrong. We owned a place on 58th. I didn't think that sort of error was possible from a banks' side. They were able to clear it up after many phone calls...but still...it shouldn't be up to the customer to point these things out to a bank. Especially when they are charging US user fees when we are doing their jobs. All banks suck that way. Remind me to tell you the story of my student loan and the Royal Bank. Nightmares of nightmares...that and 7 years of a bad credit rating because of it. MoFOs!
Ok...to get retribution call the Better Business Bureau and tell them, get your lawyer to look into as the banks mistake so you should not pay, and contact the bank manager-and document.
Yeah, cause I keep a lawyer on retainer *sigh* It's all sorted now thanks to government Ron, no thanks to ING though, screw-ups.
Several people have IMed me telling me they had the very same issue with the home buyer exepmtion with different banks so I guess that's the nature of the beast.
You are right about the Snappy Vest and Cute Accent (and not a bad looking fellow), and you are right on about ING. You know the story because you heard it from me. $3000.00 out of my bank account - not ING but my main and soon to be only bank - and into ING without so much as a sniff of a warning or notification. I made a phone call, maybe to your Laura-Leigh, and was told I could do nothing because it happened that my hubby, who is away on Military duty, had opened the Line Of Credit and forgotten to put my name on the account. The ING savings account was joint, but unless he said it was OK, I had no say about the Line of Credit. The 3000 was taken out of our joint account at another bank, leaving me $2000 in the red. Not a great place to be with bills to pay and kids to feed. What a mess. Now the Line of Credit is paid off (we are very good about paying our debts) and, ING, we will no longer use your money for Anything. You could have asked, or sent a quick note to tell us you were planning to rob our bank account. Thanks for a very frightening two weeks with no more than about $10.00 in my pocket for groceries for my kids.
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