Umpqua Bank

I leave for vacation tomorrow morning at 4:00 AM from the Portland airport. I made a $ 2,000 deposit via the mobile banking app last night around 9:45 PM, so that I’d have travel expenses and cab money to get to the airport. The deposit was accepted, and I received a notification with a confirmation number. It said in the confirmation email that «it may take up to 2 business days or longer for the full amount to be reflected in your balance.» This was fine, no big deal. No surprises there.
It also said, «Money in the meantime: Generally, up to $ 200 a day will be available on the day of the deposit.» This has always been the case in the past when I’ve deposited checks via the mobile app. The $ 200 is usually available to me right away. I thought that $ 200 would be plenty for my initial travel expenses, so I wasn’t worried.
I started to worry when, a day later toward the end of the business day, the $ 200 «money in the meantime» still hadn’t shown up. I worked until 5:15 PM, so I rushed to get to my bank before 6:00 PM, in order to speak with someone in person. Because I only bank with Umpqua, and because it is a local bank, I knew that I would have no money for the first two days of my vacation (until pay day) if something went wrong. This worried me. I spoke with the guy at the counter, and he said that it was normal for the $ 200 to not show up until the day AFTER the next day if the funds were deposited after 6:00 PM. This conflicts with the information that I was provided with in the confirmation email. The manager shrugged off my concern and showed no empathy for my situation, stating that, «The word ‘generally’ leaves a lot of room for error’, or something like that. Neither the guy at the counter nor the manager bothered to verify that my deposit was received on the other end, or that it was going to show up in the system. They called another department on the phone, and told me that my money SHOULD be available to me «midnight-​ish». I said, «maybe?» and the guy said, «definitely.»
This didn’t leave me feeling totally confident in the situation. At this point, I was looking at a situation in which I would have to basically take Tri-​Met to the aiport the night BEFORE my early morning flight, since getting a cab was no longer an option, and just camp out — hoping that SOME of my deposit might be made available to me sometime after midnight for my trip.
I called the bank branch to get a second opinion, and spoke with a woman who essentially told me the same thing; but she said that she couldn’t see my deposit in the system, and said that I should have gotten the $ 200 by now. Needless to say, this worried me even more, so I asked to speak with a supervisor.
The supervisor was the first helpful person that I talked to, and he told me that he saw no record of my deposit having ever occurred, and put me on hold for a bit. When he returned, he said that he’d literally had to grab one of his online banking employees on their way out of the office and ask him to honestly tell him what might be going on. He told me this: Apparently there is a known issue with the banking app right now that causes the deposits to just vanish, and then mysteriously reappear the following day. He advised that I take the physical check down to an ATM and deposit it, so that I’d have some of the funds available to me. He said a possible double-​deposit wouldn’t cause any problems. This guy was personable, kept thanking me for my time and patience, and was thoughtful and thorough. Most importantly, he was respectful, and didn’t try to argue with me or come up with excuses for my predicament.
The guys at the bank didn’t find out any of this information for me. They didn’t offer me this other alternative solution. They didn’t bother to verify whether or not my check had been accepted or even deposited. They weren’t aware of this mobile banking error that made deposits mysteriously vanish and reappear. They honestly didn’t really seem to care about my situation at all, and I felt dismissed as if they thought I was just some whack-​job.
Misleading confirmation email aside, I’m also upset that they had no way to cancel the entire thing and just let me hand them the physical check in person. It’s frustrating to stand in front of my bankers and have them tell me that there’s nothing they can do, and that I should have known that the word «generally» is a vague term, as if it’s somehow my fault.
I work in customer service, and I know the difference between good customer service and bad customer service. This was really, really bad. The supervisor that I talked to on the phone was so nice and helpful that I almost want to stay with Umpqua; but unfortunately it seems that he is the exception, and definitely not the rule, as Umpqua employees go. I will likely be switching banks soon.
TL; DR: Bank error not in your favor

$ 3.50 service fee to use your ATM? Absolutely terrible. Umpqua is working hard to set the standard in unreasonable fess. I would advise anyone considering this bank to look into credit unions instead.

Chejwa and her staff are very friendly every time that I stop in. They make you feel very welcome with free coffee, computer access, and knowledgeable conversation. Umpqua seems to have a very wide variety of products that can work for most people as well, which is nice as I am a small business owner. If you are looking for your next bank, then I would look no further

I really wanted to love Umpqua. I switched over during the whole Occupy thing to support smaller banks. But what a disappointment. I won’t list them all, but there have been problems after problems, requiring frequent, annoying, time-​wasting trips to sort things out with bank managers. And my banking is not complicated! I miss super competent, efficient bankers and not having to untangle so many problems.
The final straw was Umpqua switching a material term in my plan (reimbursement of non-​Umpqua ATM fees) without providing me that information in writing, so that I wracked up fees without knowing it and now my banking has become super inconvenient (there just aren’t that many Umpqua ATMs around). To add to that frustration, today an Umpqua banker scoffed and said I never had ATM fees reversed… which is just flat wrong. And why should I have to spend my time arguing that point?
So I’m continuing my quest for great banking and will be looking into local credit unions, and switching out of Umpqua as soon as I find a good fit. It’s an epic hassle to switch banks, so let this go to show you how unhappy I’ve been with Umpqua.
(p.s. This review isn’t specific to this branch… I have also had issues with other branches).