RBC Bank (US) Online Banking Failure

Posted on September 25, 2012 by cbahan

Recent changes to the RBC Bank (US) online banking website have really been making me upset. Most of my issues or cosmetic or basic usability issues which are likely a result that I do this for a living, however, today I was pushed over the top.

Recently, it turns out we made a payment from an account that did not have the funds available (wrong pulldown selection from a screen where the fund available are not listed) — and after the payment which failed they changed an NSF fee. No warning! – No Notice! – Not Acceptable. Worse yet, after the first attempt failed the credit card then attempted to pull the payment a second time a couple days later which caused a second NSF fee. — No notice! No authorization!. So now we are down $70 … before we even noticed there was a problem. And it was us who noticed by seeing the NSF fees being posted to our account – for all we know at this time, the credit card company was going to attempt to pull the payment yet again. Don’t know.

My two issues here:

(1) The original issue was caused due to a missing “if” statement on the website to verify funds were available to make the payment – something that would have been caught at Teller. As someone who does this for a living this is a failure of the website and is completely unacceptable today. THIS IS A BUG and charging fees against customers is completely unacceptable when it could have been prevented.

(2) A re-attempt at payment should only have been done after authorization, or it should have been flagged with “fee already assessed”. This should really be illegal!

Technology is suppose to make things easier, cheaper, faster. Online banking should look to provide an improved the banking experience. At the moment, the RBC US Banking website is failing completely on this front — and worse it has taken many steps backwards from where they were just a year ago. Seriously — things have gotten worse.

USER ERRORS ARE STILL BUGS!

This is the first time I am serious considering changing banks … for now I am waiting to see how they handle this customer support. But I would really want to see is (1) reversal of all fees (from both the account and any potential CC fees) and (2) I want a conversation with the software team currently in charge of their website — they need some serious help.

Comments down

Posted on May 12, 2007 by csb

It seems that that there are some technical snafus at the moment that prevent commenting. Please stay tune.

CollaboZOT

Posted on May 27, 2006 by csb

Over the last couple days the guys over at MacZOT! have been running a couple promotions: and today we participated in the CollaboZOT game – answer all the questions correctly and get a chance to win. We even developed a new screen saver for the project … Logopulse. A final version will be out after a little more testing and polishing is done – might even add a couple extra features before all is said and done.

It has been a fun exercise in marketing, but I am curious what you think about these kind of promotions? Should we look at doing this again?

Degression into Geekland

Posted on November 16, 2005 by csb

The cow from Drunkenblog.com, a regular read of mine
So, last night I stayed up late … hooked up some headphones … and leaned back against the pillows of bedopia to watch the Evening at Adler. A conversation on Mac development through the eyes of some of the most prominent names in the community, at least in the independent Mac software community. (more info)
Just listening to these guys explain some of the ins and outs of writing and supporting applications from the point of view of one-man shops (or very small outfits) was extremely interesting. They discussed everything from current and future technologies to development best practices to how to operate as an “independent”. All of which is relevant for both my “day” job as well as my fun hobby-ish excursions. With the release of the Screen Saver Menu, I have been dealing with supporting customers, defining and developing the next release, and looking to other projects I have promised to myself. So listening to these guys, the successful, is a great inspiration to continue going.
Thanks DB for putting on the show and then posting it for community at large.

Final Candidate

Posted on August 8, 2005 by csb

Screen Saver Menu
Version 1.0
I am putting a final candidate release into the wild today. This little freeware utility is designed to address some of my workflow issues. There are times in the day where I would love to lock my screen to deter unwanted visitors. There are other times where I like the screen saver on but hate always typing in my password. And still, due to my typical usage, there are other times I find it annoying that the screen saver activates while I am reading or making notes at my desk. Thus, I came up with a manual screen saver launching tool, the Screen Saver Menu.
It allows me to change and launch the screen saver without loading any additional applications. I can instantly lock the screen or toggle the automatic screen locks ON state. And, in addition to supporting both system and user account screen savers, it fully supports iPhoto album selections.
Download it here
Requires: Mac OS 10.3 or higher
Please, let me know if you run into any troubles. I am thinking of making this a shareware application, $5 – $10, but would love to know your, customer, input on such things. Would you pay for this application?