Sound Community Bank — Local services in Sequim

Long time customer- possibly on the way out. Service here seems to be getting worse with each visit. Example: Today at 330 we were at the drive through. We chose to use the outer lane as we were in our truck. We sent over our deposit. 4/5 cars that came up AFTER us were helped. We were not acknowledged until we said something- and your teller was RUDE. Tony- if I remember correctly. Yesterday I had to drop off a signature card to the Port Angeles branch, because work has had me away from my local area and this needed to be done. The teller there seemed annoyed that she was going to have to do extra footwork. I asked if it was not going to work and she seemed more annoyed that I picked up what she was puttin down- I ended up leaving her with my contact info for follow-up if needed.... We may not be white collar, white glove six plus figure clients -even though that shouldn't matter it sure seems like it does. Please remember that this area was built on the backs of blue collar men and women - we are still here and we are your customers. My husband and I have been with this branch long enough to notice the high turn over recently- the new customer facing tellers seem to not understand what customer service actually is? Maybe its lack in management noticing a teachable moment? Or they feel under prepared, overworked and underappreciated themselves? Either way there is room for improvement somewhere. I will say that my interaction yesterday afternoon is probably the only saving grace at the moment- To the employee named Kammie (sp?) who greeted me at the end of the day with a smile and a good attitude- THANK YOU- Thank you for being an upstanding example. That gal is going places. She followed up at the end of the day, waited for me to arrive to take care of one more signature, and then followed up the next morning to let me know that everything was set and to make sure I had no other questions. She gets FIVE stars from me. Tony is lucky to get the one. Hopefully I don't have to visit this branch anytime soon, or use the...

I reached out to the VP, Kirsten Pawlak, both by phone and email regarding my incompetent loan officer and asking is there another LO I can be referred to that will get the job done. No response. That's GREAT customer service. Especially from the VP of the bank!

So far just to get a mortgage approval letter, it's taken 2 WEEKS and counting, and I've submitted all the documentation a week ago! Normal lenders have this done in TWO DAYS. There is zero urgency or communication. I've lost 2 homes I've been looking at waiting for an approval letter. Loan officer Mark in Tacoma, I have a hard time giving him any financial compensation for as little as he's done.

Lack of communication, speed of service, VP that can't be bothered to respond to a potential mortgage customer, SCB doesn't even deserve one star. I am beyond frustrated. As if home buying isn't stressful enough! The bank should be giving me a lower interest rate just for the inconvenience this is causing.

EDIT- I transferred to another LO because Mark was a joke to work with. Jordan was the new LO. He qualified me for mortgage based off the information from Mark. So I began looking for my new home between $350-400k. Oh no. Three days later, Jordan says $325-350k max budget. A week later, no, you only qualify for $200k. Say what? Luckily I never put an offer in BUT $150,000 difference is a huge sum of money to make a mistake on! $10-20k difference I can understand. But $150k?!? Jordan said he'd call the next day to explain his errors. Nothing. Her emailed 3 days later, " how are things"? I responded, Well I met with BofA the day before for further information. To which he responds, "well sometimes it is good too look at other lenders". WOW. So your job is to help find funding for customers and you're telling me looking at another bank is positive?

I guess SCB doesn't need new...

My family and I were going through hard times financially and getting forced out of our home. We looked to our financial institution for help to pull ourselves out of debt. We got no help. Getting a $500 loan was exhausting and took 4 days to even process, and all I got was jugement and lectures. She went through my account picking out things one by one that were frivolous spending, in her opinion. It was pretty humiliating. And with all the turmoil we were being put through medically and financially, we needed a helping hand. The $500 took care of a car payment and groceries. But in the end it still left us in the same position. After being forced to move out of state and in with family we have since opened an account with a credit union here that was able to process a loan for us to pay off our debts in 24 hours. And now they have helped us open a home loan to buy our first home! I definitely reccomend a credit union or doing a little bank hunting before you...