Heartland Investments - A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Heartland Bank

Ms. [redacted] acted unprofessionally towards my firm regarding an account issue. When I complained & proposed a solution she closed my account.

*On March 12, 2012 I used a drive-thru teller to make 2 deposits: 1 deposit of $500 to [redacted] from an account at [redacted] bank, and 1 deposit of 2 checks drawn from [redacted] to be deposited in my personal account at Heartland. The teller informed me that she was going to place a hold on 2 of the 3 checks. When I pointed out that 1 of the checks she wanted to place a hold on was written from one Heartland account to another, she retracted the hold and said only the [redacted] check would have a hold.

I requested that she verify the funds with [redacted] bank rather than place a hold on the check, which Heartland has done for us before with no problem. The teller disappeared for over 10 MINUTES, at which time I drove off because I simply don't have that kind of time to waste sitting in a bank drive thru. I decided to forward an email with my request instead.

*I followed up on March 13th, 2012 with an email to [redacted] and forwarded the email to [redacted] because [redacted]'s autoresponse said she was out of town. In it I stated very clearly that I couldn't have $500 tied up for 7 business days and that if the Bank wouldn't verify the funds I needed to stop the check and move cash instead between accounts instead. After sending this email, a $500 credit popped up in the [redacted] that I took to mean Heartland was lifting the hold. Ms [redacted] did not respond to me with any other acknowledgement of my email or suggestion on how we could resolve this.

At the end of the day I forwarded an email to Ms [redacted] asking why the [redacted] account looked so "out of whack" and explaining the transactions that should be there. She responded after the close of business - when it was too late for me to act - that she did not release the hold, despite the mysterious $500 credit that showed up and vanished the next day.

*The next day, March 14th, 2012, Ms [redacted] and I had a series of emails back and forth in which I expressed my dissatisfaction with the course of events. She expressed indifference at both my dissatisfaction and whether Heartland Bank retained [redacted]'s business. She also mentioned in her email that the bank could not verify with [redacted] if the item had been paid; however, on December 29th, 2011, I sat in the Grove City branch of Heartland Bank while she verified that a deposit I made of $10,005 had cleared so that I could take out $1,200 from the account, explaining to me that if she did not verify this I would be "on the hook" for the money should the check not clear. Obviously either then or now I was not given truthful information.

This complaint for me and my firm is more about customer service than anything. Ms [redacted] was not just unprofessional but rude in dealing with this situation. We never had a deposit returned on this account and she never gave me a reason for the branch placing a hold on the check or why they couldn't verify the funds to remove the hold as they have done before. The behavior is quite frankly bizarre. I sent an official complaint to Ms [redacted] outlining why I was dissatisfied and proposing a resolution, and she responded by closing my account! I have never been treated like this by any bank, with this type of bizarre and retaliatory behavior.

If Heartland Bank is a true community bank and concerned about its reputation, I believe someone of higher authority than Ms [redacted] will be appalled at her behavior and require her to apologize to me and my firm for this treatment. The other proposed remedies are up to their good conscience.

Again, I wish to express my disbelief at Ms [redacted]'s treatment of my firm. She could have headed this off easily early on but chose to be rude and unreasonable. THAT is why I am so upset. This situation was totally mismanaged, but I believe the company's CEO and management would not approve of this treatment of a customer and will act on my complaint.