Sterling Bank & Trust

The person who always helped me may not be working there anymore but I loved her service. One of my favorite Sterlings because of her. Customer service is everything and she cared about you.
Sterling can improve by hiring well qualified, friendly, enthusiastic employees.

I had a great experience with a wonderful employee, Daniel, at the Market Street, San Francisco location. I had a complicated money transfer issue that needed to be taken care of in a hurry, and Daniel pleasantly handled the transaction in an efficient manner. He was certainly a delight to work with and I will be sure to come back to Daniel for my banking needs in the future.

Sterling does things a little old school. Sometimes that can seem a bit slow but what they manage to maintain is customer service in the true sense of the phrase!
I am on a first name basis with the staff and rarely wait more than two minutes whether in person or via telephone.
Branch manager, Wes Lind, has personally assisted me on many occasions and always seems concerned that my experience with the bank be the best possible.

I signed up with Sterling Bank because of their high interest rates on Savings accounts. I use Sterling for all of my bill pay needs and for debit purchases. Within a couple of months, my atm/​debit card became untrustworthy. It would work sometimes but usually would not work when I needed it the most, like at a gas station. I went in to the Market street branch and complained and they said nothing is wrong with the card. And, if I wanted a new one they would charge me a $ 10 replacement fee. I declined and hoped the card would behave. It didn’t. After a second visit to the branch they said they would not waive the replacement fee. I went to the Sterling Bank on VanNess and they immediately offered to waive the fee. WTF?
So just when I thought my troubles were over, I got my new card only to discover that it wasn’t working at all. I went into the Market St location and they took 10 minutes to discover that the card was issued with an expired date. WTF!!!
Get your act together Sterling!
On a side note, the iPhone app for Sterling really sucks.

I have had very few positive experiences in my tenure with Sterling. We were forced to use them when we bought a TIC three and a half years ago, as they were the only bank in the area that would act a lender for this type of loan. Over my time with them, it has felt like every time I go in there it gets worse. They are beyond disorganized, and their agents do not appear well informed as to their systems. They constantly go into the back to «check» with the manager, yet the manager will not come out to speak directly with you when you request it (after the third time the employee leaves to consult). Even the simplest things appear complicated to them. I once went in to pay my mortgage, and it took them forty minutes to figure it out after first telling me I couldn’t do that there. They constantly misinformed us about the forms they needed to make changes on the accounts, and each time they instructed us about something the requirements were different. Toward the end I just started telling them what it was supposed to look like, and showing them on their computers which forms they should print out for us. Their security is miserable (and probably illegal) — every time I went in to ask a question about our HOA account, they would print and show me a paper that had the social security numbers of my neighbors. They also let the crazy neighbor (every building has one, right?) open an unauthorized account in the rest of the owners’ names, and then threatened to charge us when we refused to sign off on paperwork authorizing the account. They can only view and print one document at a time, so if you need copies of your account forms, be prepared to wait a while. This is especially true because the employees are so poor at listening that they never seem to understand what you’re asking for (and I like to think I’m a reasonably educated, well-​spoken person). The computers are old and slow, the décor is horrendously outdated, at least two of the chairs are broken and will suddenly drop while you’re sitting in them. The website is poorly laid out and extremely finicky, and we had to call in at least ten times to get them to reset our passwords. To top it off, as we’ve just sold our property, Sterling has added in almost a thousand dollars in previously undisclosed «fees» (including a $ 30 fax fee… c’mon) for which we had no choice but to pay if we wanted to proceed with the sale. I’m actively avoiding going in there to close out our accounts because I’m fairly certain it will take an entire afternoon.
It’s hard to imagine a more poorly run institution. If you absolutely have to use them, I’d recommend the Fillmore branch, but you will still have to put up with the low-​budget facilities, terrible website, and nonsensical rules and limitations. If you have the choice, RUN AS FAR AWAY FROM THIS BANK AS YOU CAN GET.

Eek! Methinks not is right.
This bank is very outdated, and takes forever to do anything. Every time I have gone into this branch they only have 2 people working in the front office. Even simple deposits or withdraws however take them 30mins to process. This is probably not helped by the fact that they always have to disappear into the back to get «approvals». The ATM looks like something from the late 80’s, and requires you to hand fill out a slip, and envelope.
Also the on line banking is VERY OUTDATED, reminds me of on line banking when it first came out in the 90’s. It also doesn’t continually update your balance so it’s easy to loose track, but I guess that’s why they cap your Debit card purchases to $ 500 per day and withdrawals to $ 300 Total. The website only updates once every 24hrs and only Monday thru Friday (weekends & holidays Forget it).
I would Not Recommend this bank.