Client Review on Northern Star Credit Union

Feedback:

Dear Mr. Early: Extremely Poor & Disappointing Customer ServiceI’d like to preface my comments with the fact my wife and I have been customers of the Northern Star Credit Union (NSCU) since 2014 when we opened a savings and a credit card account. However, yesterday, July 16, 2019, we experienced extremely poor and disappointing customer service. I went to the NSCU Portsmouth branch in person to pay my credit card bill and to inquire about the waiving of a late fee after at least 4 telephone calls placed by my wife. Her last call was answered by a rep and she was told we needed to contact the loan department because they handle waiving credit card fees. I decided to go to in person to the branch to kill two birds with one stone; possibly get the fee waived and to pay the bill.I went straight to the Loan Department area when I arrive. Ms. Angela (declined to give last name) was working the desk in the reception area of the department. I explained my situation to her briefly. Ms. Angela looked up our acct. information and made a call to another employee & explained my request. Ms. Angela relayed to me that the employee declined waiving the fee stating fees are only waived when they are the result of an error on the banks behalf. I asked Ms. Angela if there was anyone else that I could speak to who could assist and possibly waive the fee. This is when a Ms. Jennifer Riley arrived at the desk I explained to Ms. Riley the situation and she began looking at our account information and proceeded to tell me that the account was not up-to-date because the savings account did not contain a balance minimal of $25 and it will eventually be frozen. I explained to Ms. Riley that my wife and I haven’t been held to the $25 account minimum requirement in years. We only opened the savings account because it was a requirement in order to be approved for the credit card we opened through their organization in 2014. After briefly going back and forth surrounding the $25 savings account minimum balance, Ms. Riley made it a point to bring up that I am not the primary account holder so she could not offer any pertinent account information and asked for my wife’s telephone number to contact her about the $25 account balance minimum. I explained to Ms. Riley that I was just there to see if the late fee on the account could be waived. I was not requesting any account information because I’m already up-to-date on the account dealings as I’m an authorized user on the account/credit card and I make the payment each month. I also made the point that if I never came to the branch no one would have contacted us or brought the minimum requirement to our attention again. Ms. Riley insisted on contacting my wife via telephone regarding the $25 minimum balance requirement and asked what was the best number to reach her on. I told her the best number to reach my wife on was the number listed on the account but I asked her not to call my wife. Although I did not explain this to Ms. Riley because I shouldn’t have had to, my wife was busy at work preparing for a business trip scheduled for tomorrow morning and did not have time to speak with her in length, hence my reason for coming to the branch.I attempted to refocus the conversation away from the $25 minimum and back to the potential waiving of the fee so I asked Ms. Riley if she was going to assist by waiving the fee because all I came to do was pay our credit card bill not go back and forth with her. Ms. Riley gave me a snide look and replied “No!” I said “Ok” and began to walk toward the teller area to make the credit card payment. Halfway to the tellers, I turned around and told Ms. Riley not to lock our account and she replied with either “I’m going to lock it” or “It’s going to be locked!” I cannot remember exactly which but it was either of the two. I began walking back to the desk and asked for her name and she said “Jennifer Riley.” ***Continued in the review below this one due to character restrictions***