Valley First Credit Union

This USE to be a good bank; but their customer service and «small town» relationship feel has clearly evaporated overtime. Perhaps their customer base has grown to a point that irrespective of being a customer for over 10 years, they are perfectly fine with customers taking their business elsewhere – over a technicality!
I moved to the bay area in 2012 to finish law school and had initially called to cancel my account. My mother and I each have accounts with VFCU and it was her who helped me open my first account when I was just 17. My mom actually moved to Sacramento and was planning to close her account, but I convinced her to keep hers, because I live in the Bay Area – but still had mine.
In any event, the woman I spoke with told me that although I was moving away, I could still keep the account instead of canceling it. She even emailed me a list of credit union partners in my area that I could still bank with if I needed to make withdraws, deposits, etc. So I did not think it would be an issue when I made a large deposit last week Friday morning. Only a portion of the deposit showed up on my printed receipt, but I just figured the rest would clear in a day or so. Come Tuesday this week, there was still no release of the funds into my account. By Wednesday, I was very concerned because I have many bills automated. Between planning my wedding and trying to recall all the places that would be debiting my account, I decided to call VFCU on Wednesday. I waited, and waited, and waited for SOMEBODY to pick up the phone – but no, just the annoying recording played over and over. I had to get back to work, so after 8mins, I hung up and sent an email instead.
Nobody got back to me yesterday so I decided to call again this morning. I called at 9:15am and by 9:28am, I was STILL waiting for someone to answer the phone. I decided I would call back during my lunch break. Meanwhile, my
account had notified me that my account was now overdrawn. I was livid! THIS was what I was trying to avoid and what I was afraid would happen!!! I received an email finally from Raquel around noon. Rather than email her back, I decided to call. AGAIN I was on hold for 10 minutes before someone answered. It turned out to be Raquel. I explained to her the situation and she put me on hold again to speak to her manager, Joan (a). When she came back she told me she would release the money pending to my account but that they were not going to reverse the two overdraft fees on my account that happened the hour before! I asked to speak to her manager, and was told she was gone for lunch. I was instead transferred to Joan’s voicemail.
Joan called me back later about a couple hours after the voicemail. She acted like she was there to hear me out but after I explained to her what happened, she just dismissed me saying that she was not going to reverse the overdraft fees. It was so incredibly insulting. Both Joan and Raquel had the unmitigated chutzpah to scold me about not using the VFCU app to deposit my check rather than go to a partner atm. Joan said the app just came out – thanks for the marketing effort VFCU. So now all of this is MY fault? Because I did not know it would take THIS much time to deposit a check into my account!!!
I ended up letting Joan know that I wanted to close my account with VFCU. I was told I had to sign something to do this. I asked her to email it over so I could begin the process and as it stands now (10:13pm) I never received anything although we spoke this afternoon around 3pm. I am so over it. It is so clear that these folks haven’t a clue that it is more difficult to get new customers than it is to maintain the LOYALTY you had! Great service guys! Good riddance!

I love banking with valley first because i never get charged monthly for banking with them and they always have good customer service and friendly staff

This is a sister credit union to my own. I enjoy the same good customer service here as I do at my own. They have never made a mistake and are always happy to help