Sovereign Bank

i went thru the drive-​thru a couple weeks to try to avoid the horrendous counter service, what happened? Worse then going to the counter!

This bank is a pretty miserable place. On the plus side, it is in a building that looks like a bank, which tends to give me hope. On the minus side, there’s rarely more than one teller working, and, while the line gets longer, bank employees in the cubicles across the floor pretend not to notice. They’ve recently installed enormous TV screens which will no doubt assault our senses with ads for Santander products. In my past two times there, the TV screens had a dedicated tech working on them, while the rest of us peons with actual banking needs languished in line for the one teller.
My experience with the cubicle employees has been frustrating. I needed to get new checks with a new address, and one woman told me to come back some other time as they were going to close in an hour. (!?) Next attempt got me another woman whose interest in making sure that my check order was correct was nil. Kept having to read her typing on the computer screen & let her know about errors. And this was simply for checks! The checks arrived and weren’t totally correct, but I couldn’t deal with the hassle of talking to another unmotivated cubicle-​dweller.
I also tried to rent a safety deposit box once and was told by a very tired woman that I should call before coming in. Why? Do safety deposit boxes constitute a major time commitment? Not in my past experience, but at this branch everything seems to be an agonizing request. Another time I needed something notarized, but none of the five cubicle dwellers had their seal with them. Pitiful. So I went down the block to Bank of America & a fellow notarized it in 2 minutes.
All of which is too bad, because if just one employee there took an interest, I would make use of other Santander bank services.

Service here is very slow, especially the drive thru teller. There is usually only one teller at the counter. If it weren’t for their convenient location and decent online billpay and checking, I would consider switching banks, however even with the numerous banks in Coolidge Corner, I haven’t found a better one yet.

I got over the fact that the place was a grave yard long ago (seriously, only 1 teller working on a Friday afternoon when it’s payday for most folk?!), since I have no choice but to go there to deposit checks for a business I work for. But today was the last straw.
During my lunch break, I drive up to Coolidge Corner and park my car in Sovereign’s parking lot and walk around front to make 3 deposits totaling close to $ 200,000. I leave, and walk around the block, make a quick pit-​stop at Mike’s to get a sandwich (hell, it IS my lunch break, after all), and walk back to my car. That entire trip took maybe 15 minutes. Maybe.
I turn the corner and see Robert’s Towing hoisting my car onto their truck, and the tow guy’s ass crack hanging out my passenger side door as he’s hunched in my car doing who knows what (yes, he broke in.) I walk up to him, politely telling him that I was just at the bank, and I show him my 3 deposit slips. He looks at my sandwich bag and tells me that’s not allowed — the lot is for bank customers only, and it’ll cost me $ 50 to get my car back now. I’ll save you the rest of the infuriating story and get straight to the point:
Any bank who hires a tow company to monitor their lot should at least keep an eye on their customer’s cars and know who is coming into and out of the bank. I make multiple deposits at this location, both inside and through the drive through, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to be familiar with frequent customers and their cars.
I will be strongly advocating that our business accounts be closed at Sovereign and opened up at a local bank. And I guess I’ll stop doing work while I’m on my lunch break. FML.