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Sovereign Bank

Customer Service Ratings and Comments

Sovereign Bank is ranked #164 out of the 301 companies that have a CustomerServiceScoreboard.com rating with an overall score of 37.20 out of a possible 200. This score rates Sovereign Bank customer service and customer support as Disappointing.

NEGATIVE Comments

27 Negative Comments out of 30 Total Comments is 90.00%.

POSITIVE Comments

3 Positive Comments out of 30 Total Comments is 10.00%.

Issue Resolution

Reachability

Cancellation

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Product Knowledge

Disappointing Overall Customer Service Rating
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  • I am sitting here waiting for a live person...on speaker phone because nobody answers. The recorded voice simply says "Your expected wait time is..." with no time. What a crock. I faxed my request for a payoff on an auto lease twice over the period of a month. No response, no payoff. Not only that, but $20 for a faxed payoff? This bank is the pits. And all of you who got rude, nasty customer service people, I suggest you get names and air your grievances in public!

    Lynn 9/1/10 7:16AM

  • What is the problem??? I gave you my account number and asked you to validate my card immediately. Do I have to find your bank and close and cancel all of my accounts in order to get your Customer Service Attention? I like Sovereign but I cannot condone you not even answering the question as to why my credit card is "unauthorized".

    Lockhartmary@ymail.com 8/30/10 11:48AM

  • I have had an account with this bank for almost a decade, and havn't had any problems until Santander took over.

    I travel often, and spend most of my time overseas, but this last year, they keep locking my online banking and ATM.

    I have used these features with no issues for years, but now it is nothing but a headache. And to add to that, when I call in, from overseas (expensive), I get put on hold for 20+ minutes at a time.

    If you are a traveler or spend any time out of the country, don't use this bank.

    annoyed 8/25/10 12:39AM

  • MY HUSBAND GOT ME A SOVEREIGN BANK DEBIT CARD TO USE FOR EMERGENCY WHEN I CANT USE MY REGULAR CREDITS CARDS SO WHEN THE DEBIT CARDS CAME IT WAS A LABEL THAT COMES ON THE CARD AS ALL CREDIT CARDS HAVE TO CALL A TOLL FREE 800 NUMBER TO ACTIVATE YOUR CARD SO WHEN WE CALLED WE GOT THIS VERY NASTY, IGNORANT CUSTOMER REP ASKING ME ABOUT ALL MY PERSONAL BUSINESS JUST TO TRY VERIFY WHOM I WAS BEFORE HELPING ME ACTIVATE IT HE ASK ME WHAT I PLAN TO PURCHASE WITH THE CARD, WHY I NEED THE CARD, WHERE MY HUSBAND WORKS, HOW OFTEN HE GETS PAYED, WHEN WAS HIS LAST DEPOSIT, AND HE WAS ASKING THESE QUESTIONS IN A NASTY SARCASTIC WAY IT WAS VERY UN PROFESSIONAL HE ALSO ASK WHAT WAS THE AMOUNT OF MY HUSBAND LAST CHECK THAT HE DEPOSITED I TOLD HIM WHY HE ASKING ALL THESE UN RELATED QUESTIONS HE SAID TO VERIFY WHOM I WAS SO I SAID HOW KNOWING WHAT I PLAN TO DO WITH THE CARD IS GOING TO VERIFY WHOM I AM , WHEN HE KNEW ALL MY INFORMATION WAS ON THE CHECKING ACCOUNT CAUSE HE PULLED IT UP SO THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SUFFICIENT ENOUGH WHEN I ASK TO SPEAK TO A HIGHER AUTHORITY SHE SAID THAT JUST GO ACTIVATED AT ATM THAT'S IT SO I KNEW THEN HE WAS OUTTA LINE THEY HAVE RETARDED PEOPLE WORKING FOR THEM ME AND MY HUSBAND MOVING OUR ACCOUNT ASAP.

    MEESA 8/5/10 4:41PM

  • Sovereign is one of the worst banks I have ever worked with. I once incurred an overdraft fee because of a mistaken charge made by my utility company. My utility company admitted the mistake, and then made a series of other mistakes in communication about how they would restore the money to me. First they told me they would send it electronically back to Sovereign, then a week later said they'd restore it to me a different way, and so on. Knowing I couldn't trust the utlities people, and knowing I needed to act fast to minimize the overdraft problem, I went to the Sovereign branch at 1 Beacon Street, Boston, to find out what my options were. The manager I talked to was arrogant (to the point of sadism), confused about electronic debits and credits, and ignorant of her own bank's overdraft policies. She acted like it was not her responsibility to know these things. She refused to waive the overdraft fees, or to communicate with the utility company about electronic restoration of the funds to Sovereign. She seemed to view the situation as a competitive encounter in which she forced the customer to be stuck with maximum penalty fees, regardless of the extenuating circumstances. She did not see herself as someone who was there to help a client with an unusual and unfortunate problem. The situation only got worse from there. There is something very seriously wrong with Sovereign's corporate culture.

    bishop 7/23/10 12:52AM

  • We are in a retail business and so we have a lot of cash to deposit on Mondays. We are doing business with the eastown mall branch for the past 6 years. There has never been any problem with our deposits.Since this cashier " Luz" started to work in this branch, she always have a problem because she has to count alot of cash. But yesterday, july 6th 2010, she called me that my cash was short about 100 dollars. I took my calculating tape with me to her to verify everything,but then she got really upset and told me that I do not need to bring my cash to her. She was loud and very disrespectful to me.

    Singh 7/7/10 9:46AM

  • Santander/Sovereign should focus more on its employees' training, knowledge, and consistency.

    Not 6/23/10 9:42AM

  • I HAVE USE TO HAVE 3 ACCTS. AT THE SOVEREIGN BANK. I USE THE BANK IN SO. YARMOUTH, MA. THEY HAVE CUT THEIR HELP DOWN TO ONE TELLER AND THE WAIT TIME IS TERRIBLE. PLUS NO MATTER WHAT BRANCH I GO INTO IN THE MORNING THEY ARE ON CONFRENCE CALLS. THE ASST. MANAGER PATTY A SNOB. THEY SHOULD MAKE THE MANAGERS HELP THE TELLERS WHEN THEY AREN'T BUSY. I WILL BE TAKING MY BUSINESS ACCT. OUT OF THERE AS SOON AS I HAVE A CHANCE. THIS BANK HAS GONE SO DOWN HILL. I HEAR BAD COMMENTS ABOUT THEM ALL THE TIME.

    capesteve 5/26/10 11:04AM

  • I opened an account online in the middle of April 2010. I got a call the second day of my online application to verify my info. 3 weeks later I got nothing. No welcome letter. I called sovereign bank. They even could not find my application. I have no way to find where it is.

    Anonymous 5/13/10 12:33PM

  • I can't even begin to tell you how bad they screwed me over. I will never bank with them again. They charged me no funds fees when the money was sitting right in the account and they refused to reverse them, and their customer service is aweful they are all so rude i was nice and was trying to explain that i never call and fight things but this is crazy and she told me well we are not going to do anything about it we can charge those fees anytime we want to.

    bp1678 5/12/10 11:23AM

  • sovereign bank is the worst ever. They owed me a promotion money and refused to pay it to me because 2 employees ****** up. I complained to Anthony Ryan who could care less. He implied "thats our policy" so tough ****. Take your money somewhere else instead of dealing with nut jobs who work here!

    snugglesmom 5/10/10 2:45PM

  • I made some purchases on my card and transferred money form another account to cover it. What Sovereign Bank did was charged me the late fees first before they put the money in my account. When i called them they told me the new system doesn't come into effect about the late fees until August.

    Sena 5/8/10 10:50AM

  • I applied for a Mortgage Loan, got charged $399 to lock-in a rate. When the loan did not get approved, they mailed me a new loan without even an explanation to why, TRIED TO GET THE NEW LOAN signed (WITHOUT AN EXPLANATION). When I refused and asked for a Denial letter they started making all kinds of excuses so that they wouldn't have to reimburse my $399. AND tried to say "at this juncture" your money is non-refundable for application fees and denial letter, etc... Its really outrageous. "at this juncture" means that at any point they can claim whatever they want, take your money without so much as an explanation. What they need is a class suit!

    Vibacious 4/27/10 1:21PM

  • I tried to open up an account in the Morris Plains NJ branch of Sovereign Bank. There was a representative by the name of Perdensia. She was the ruddest person I ever encountered in my enter banking experience. She made it extremely difficult to open up a simple account, by throwing false restrictions on what would be required to open an account. She purposely harrassed another customer that was in line before me. I have no desire to open another bank account with this institution until that woman Perdensia is gone permantely.

    NeverbankwithSoverignAgain 4/23/10 6:39PM

  • I called Sovereign bank to find out how much I would have to have in my account to make my payment for the line of credit I had before my business closed and spoke to the rudest man I have ever met> We started off with telling me that he didnt want to hear any of my problems, and from there we palyed phone tag> I asked him if he could call me from the 800# instead of a blocked telephone number because I could only handle one creditor at a time and I wanted to know how much needed to be in the account so I could continue to pay them. He said he wasnt able to unblock the number(keep in mind that on my caller ID thats how originally I had gotten his number) and he was not playing phone tag with me. He also said I was not on interest only payments and he had turned it over to legal. He also sent a certified letter to my NEW job, my old business and my home. Since he had already sent the letters out to my old business and my home address I asked him why he would send the letter out to my NEW job and he had caused a lot of problems for me. his only response was YOU GOT IT DIDNT YOU! He also stated that he wasnt dealing with me any more even though I told hime I wanted to make payments.

    acarter 4/7/10 7:32AM

  • I would NEVER bank with Sovereign Bank. I switched to this bank after hearing some horrible stories about Bank of America, but I will quickly be switching back to BOA. Not only have I had to recently deal with 5 different Customer Service agents (of course all stating different things), I have had to deal with a person at the branch who has not been a help at all. My online banking balance said one thing, and the bank is saying another. When I asked about the discrepancy, they flat out said "I guess your online statement was wrong," yet they still haven't tried to fix the problem, nor are they going to. If you care about your money and want to be treated like a human, DO NOT BANK HERE


    also: litre85 ....that is EXACTLY what happened to me!!!!!

    jenniferc20 2/23/10 12:29PM

  • I have been a customer for almost 10 years and recently have noticed that the online banking and phone both say you have availible funds but in reality you don't. If a check has not cleared it still claims that it is availible and in 2-3 days charges $35.00. They were also unhelpful when I called the women said she didn't know why I would be charged and put me on hold. She came back and stated with the holiday weekend my check needed another day to clear they will not credit the fee. I have never had a problem like this in any other bank. I have decided to switch banks and hope that everyone looking to open a new account read this first and thinks before they chose Sovereign bank.

    Anonymous 2/19/10 6:03PM

  • Sovereign bank is an awful bank overall. I had to have it for 4 years just because of my college. Over that period of time many bad things happened with them. i cant even remember to count them all. From not being able to set my online and fone banking to linking my accounts wrongly, to rudest customers service and their manager telling me "i dont have time to listen tape of your conversation with customers service"
    I think they make most of their profits from ripping off their customers. Basically i cursed the day i opened account with them. And today actually i am going to close it.

    Anonymous 1/5/10 11:52AM

  • Very bad bank to do business with, My account was overdrawn. I tried to explain to the bank I was in the Hospital due to medical issues. They didnt care. They closed my acount reported it to chexsystems. I went into a branch and was treated very rudely. I then complained, they told me they were going to call me back. They never did. Instead I received a collection letter from a collection agency. Do not do business with them, I cant imagine having a loan with them. They are horriable to deal with.

    Reviews 12/5/09 3:35PM

  • Sovereign
    Bank mails its invoices for credit lines and mortgages in an envelope without their name in the return address. Their mail looks like junk mial mail and more than once it was in my pile to throw out.

    I missed an interest payment (37.00) and the phone started to ring daily. This is in spite of the fact that I always added 1,000.00 to the interest only payment.

    When I complained about the envelopes, they said that it was to protect me. I asked protect me from a stranger paying down my loan. When I persisted, the customer service clerk told me that he was not interested in my comments. I spoke with his supervisor who said she would review the tape of the call and only she could decide if he was rude. I told her that I was paying off the entire account within 7 days and she wanted a telephone payment so they could charge an additional fee, to avoid the late charge of 3.12.

    I have paid off the account. Over my lifetime I have had several mortgages and equity credit lines and the rudeness of the bank exceed anything I have ever seen.

    My advice to all: get out of this bank.



    alanco 10/21/09 12:52PM

  • While the bank remained Sovereign I have not had a problem. When Santandar bought my auto loan that's when my troubles began. I was charged late fees although I have a grace period. When I called the customer service department I was told that there were no grace periods with Santander. I made my payments at the Sovereign branch. Since Santander does not receive it on their end for at least 2 days later I was assessed a late fee. This infuriated me. I threatened to report them to the federal reserve - they have not honored my original agreement with Sovereign. Ironically, I was told that I was right and my late fee waived. I still proceeded to have my complaint posted with the federal reserve commission. The bank is making the rules as they go along. The customer service is poorly handled. Their reps are rude. My advise to you - if you decide to have your loan paid off by another bank, make sure that you keep all pertinent information so that they don't sneak in any late fees. They are predatory lenders and if you do business with them it is at your own risk!

    annoyed consumer 9/28/09 9:18AM

  • Sovereing Bank charged us 6 seperate $35.00 insufficient funds fees in a single 30 minute period. They bundled up debit charges and released them all at once versus when the funds were available in the account. I had $3,000 available in other accounts at Sovereign that I could have transferred instantly if I was aware of the situation. They are essentially anti-customer. They won't make another dime off of me or my family - even in ATM fees.

    No More Sovereign 9/22/09 12:15PM

  • I pulled out of this bank more than 3 years ago. Today I tried to get a payoff on a customers auto loan. This crummy bank has the nerve to tell me to fax a request which would take up to 3 business days, and in addition to that wanted to charge and additional $20 fee to the payoff amount. My advice for anyone that is in this bank....pull out. They take your money then want to charge you for information on your own account. Sovereign, you should have been one of the banks that failed. Investors BEWARE!

    Edd 9/18/09 12:24PM

  • Dear Call Recipients:

    Santander, which now owns Sovereign Bank, has to make up for the billions they lost in the Bernie Madoff debacle. And you, the banking customers, will have to make up for the loss.

    If this has not happened to you yet, watch out: you will find that even though you may have made a legitimate deposit to cover your checks and purchases, Sovereign Bank will delay the availability of your funds deliberately, all the while accepting—very quickly--checks that you probably mailed after the initial deposit. In most cases, a handwritten mailed check is instantly converted to an “electronic check” and presented against your account the next day, weekends included, even though the company you mailed the check to, resides in another state. This “trick in the system” allows Sovereign Bank to charge and extra $35.00 (unavailable funds fee) for every quickly converted electronic check, sometimes resulting in hundreds of dollars in fees. Albeit this “trick” is not illegal, it is, however, highly unethical. You have been warned.

    Scamwatcher 8/16/09 11:42AM

  • Complaint
    Description of the complaint:
    I spoke with three people over the telephone. On 2/12/2009, I made a deposit of 934.00 leaving me with a ledger balance of 2,113.00 and an available balance of 1179.00. After this deposit, I checked my online banking everyday to see when my check would clear. On 2/17/2009, online banking showed the funds were available. There were several withdrawals on this date leaving me with a balance of 430.00. On 2/18/2009 I checked my online banking and I saw that I had seven 33.00 unavailable funds fees. I called immediately and the representative told me that I am incorrect and the check did not clear until the 18th. I know this is incorrect because I am well aware of the difference of ledger balance and available balance and on the 17th I made an internal transfer to my savings account because of the available money. The people I spoke with were relentless in telling me I was incorrect and that even though the money was there, the check did not clear yet and that is why they charged me 230 worth in fees. This is absolutely fraudulant and suspicious. There computer systems say one thing and their representatives say another.

    How complaint can be satisfactorily addressed:
    Being that I have been a Sovereign customer for over 7 years now , I would like my fees reversed. I am horrified about what happened and believe it is only fair since their system showed their was available money in my account.

    liltre85 2/20/09 1:39AM

  • This bank is worthless. Sovereign Bank has one of the most ridiculous "policies" I've EVER heard of. I asked one of their rep's to fax a letter to my bank saying that we're up to date on our payments(which we are) so we can get a small christmas loan and they told me I had to write a letter of request to their claims dept. and include a CHECK FOR 20.00!! Why should I have to pay for information that's involving my OWN ACCOUNT?? The lady I spoke with says that the department isn't open all the time, and they would have to make sure someone was there all the time to take calls, and they can't do that. They may as well charge you for calling them and answering the phones then!!! I can't believe this is actually one of their policies. Thank you sovereign bank for ruining my families chances in getting the christmas loan for our 3 kids while their daddy is in Iraq. Merry Frickin' Christmas.

    Sherri Tomlin 12/8/08 10:55AM

  • My son has a truck loan with you . I co-signed for the loan. He was laid off in May, 2008, but has been able to make his payments using savings and doing odd jobs. He called customer service last month and was told he would be able to skip a month if need be. I called this morning and got the rudest person! She talked down to me. Wanted to know why I was calling and not him. I explained that he started a new job this week and was unable to make the call. And since I am on the loan I was calling. She wanted to know why I wasn't making the payment and I explained that my husband and I are having financial difficulties just like everyone else now days. She said she would submit our request and we needed to call back next Fri. to see if it is granted. I realise this is your policy, but there is no excuse for her rudeness! She acted put out that I had called. Isn't it her job to be helpful to your customers? I called the 800-207-8767 number.

    Thank you for your time.

    Anonymous 10/10/08 7:19AM

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  • I am extremely happy with the service I received at your Kingston, MA. branch. I am a long time customer with numerous accounts and loans with the bank. Kash Khan, Asst. V.P. , took a lot of time and showed great knowledge and creativity to help me through a complex series of changes and transactions. He was patient and courteous all the way. My relationship with Soverign was firmly cemented.

    Anonymous 7/21/10 8:04AM

  • This is a bank that understands customers financial needs. While I have been a customer for many years, I am always happy with my service. It isn't just one branch, it is every branch I go to. The representatives have great knowledge and always have a smile. I tired opening an account at another bank, because that bank was offering money at the time. What a mistake. Other banks have to offer you money to be customer, at Sovereign, they know what is most important- customer service!

    happycustomer 2/6/10 8:08AM

  • I have actually had a fantastic experience with Sovereign Bank. It is the only bank I have used where I felt like I had a personal relationship with my banker. I know him by name and he knows my whole life story practically. I am familiar enough with him to write him emails and he can carry out changes for me over the phone. Mr. Kalaw is the reason I remain a Sovereign customer even though I have moved to an area of the country where that bank does not have branches or ATM machines. I have never had anything other than fantastic customer service from them.

    lefthandedarchitect 12/22/09 10:54AM



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