Bbva

This BBVA branch used to be a Guaranty Bank, and before that a Stockton Savings and Loan — my parents were charter members of the very first bank in that location, going back 35 years. As charter members of Guaranty, they were given a free safety deposit box *for life* — the sort of gesture that gives small town banking its humanity.
When it recently became a BBVA branch, they were told that the safety deposit box was no longer free. It’s fine for a new bank to institute new policies, but the manner in which this was explained to my parents was the utmost in typical corporate rudeness. They even pro-​rated her $ 6.00 for the month in which this new policy started! When she went into the branch to inquire in person, she was snapped at by the branch manager, who snippily repeated that the safety deposit box was no longer free in a «take it or leave it» manner. And frankly, as 35-​year customers, my parents were surprised by the cold, perfunctory manner of the bank manager who quickly went from cold to rude, and who said it was fine if they pulled their business from the bank over this, because «policy is policy.»
Later my parents learned that policies like free safety deposit boxes are up to the discretion of the bank manager — so she could have continued to give them a box for free. But she’d rather lose them as customers. Really? 1) the bank would rather stick to its guns about a $ 40 a year safety deposit box fee than grandfather in customers with a 35-​year history of banking at that location? and 2) no one could speak with them about it in a kind and patient manner?
My parents did elect to leave BBVA, because why stay and be treated like that?
BBVA may have inherited a customer base from Guaranty bank, but its current management has a long way to go to learn how to treat people.