Conference 7.286::dcu

789.0. "View from a potential member" by BOOKS::MULDOON (I'll be right back - Godot) Thu Mar 24 1994 11:27

        Let me preface this note by saying that I am not 
     currently a member of the DCU. The significance of
     this statement should become clear as you read further.

        For two years now I have been following the trials 
     and tribulations of the DCU with some interest. You see
     I'd really like to be a member. Up until two years
     ago I did all by banking with WCIS and they fit my needs 
     very nicely. I had a checking account and a savings 
     account, no fees with direct deposit, and a branch within 
     a mile of my house. Then I got married. 

        My wife was already a DCU member so I considered moving 
     my account to DCU and opening a joint account as well. 
     I started reading the notesfile and discovered that the 
     credit union was in the midst of a huge upheaval. I decided
     to wait and see what happened. I was gratified to see that
     the membership voted to oust the old board, but I wanted
     to see whether the new board could turn things around. In the 
     meantime we opened two joint accounts at WCIS. As before,
     WCIS suited our needs very nicely for about a year. Then 
     we bought a house.

        The added expense of the house and a new baby, coupled 
     with the fact that the closest branch was now 3 or 4 miles
     away in the opposite direction from the office, caused me
     to again consider the DCU. It would be much easier to have
     all our accounts at the same institution, and with a branch
     not more than 200 feet from my office the DCU seemed the
     clear choice. I again opened up the DCU notesfile and began
     to read. 

        It appeared that the DCU had indeed turned around. It
     had not only survived but, in fact, it seemed to be flour-
     ishing! Good news - my decision was made easier. As I continued
     to read, however, I was disturbed to see that things were
     not as rosy as they appeared. The most disturbing of these
     was the implementation of a tiered membership; In effect, 
     the creation of a "preferred" class of membership. This is
     totally unacceptable for a credit union as far as I am concerned 
     and I refuse to do business with such a "union". The one
     and only thing that kept me from going elsewhere is the 
     upcoming/in process election.

        It has become a very simple decision for me now. Unless
     there is a significant change in the makeup of the Board of
     Directors (read: vote out those who voted for relationship
     banking) I will choose not to bring my checking, my savings, 
     our joint checking, and our joint savings accounts to the DCU.
     In addition, I will encourage my wife to move her account(s)
     as well. I pass both Worker's Credit Union and Leominster
     Credit Union on my way to and from work every day. I'll be
     willing to bet that they won't make it so difficult to do
     business with them.


             What's it going to be, DCU?

re: .0, Steve

I understand your feelings. And, I must admit that, if this election
doesn't turn out "properly", even I, a charter member and witch-hunter
in good standing, will be taking my savings, my checking, my second
mortgage and my stock loans elsewhere.

In the meantime, I'm voting "properly" in this election. I hope your
wife does as well. I only wish you _had_ become a member prior to this
so that you could do likewise.

-Jack

    
       Jack,
    
           My wife and I are going to sit down this evening
       and go over the list of candidates. I will give her
       my thoughts on the subject and the reasons behind 
       them. Hopefully the information I've garnered from
       reading the minutes of the board meetings will help
       her make a more informed choice.
    
    
                                                  Steve

    I'm not an avid reader of this notes file, but when I saw this note I
    had to reply.
    
    I've been a member of the DCU since it open at Digital.  I can say for
    many of the early years, I was a happy customer.  But over the past few
    years, I feel the DCU has lost their customer service attitude.
    
    My husband and I just recently bought a new home, due to a Digital
    relocation.  Our previous home was mortgaged with DCU, so of course, we
    thought to continue our service there....MISTAKE.  It was like we were
    some aliens from another planet trying to get a loan.  Now mind you our
    credit is outstanding and we had just purchased our previous house just
    under 2 years ago.  But, no matter the DCU treated us like they had
    never seen us before.  
    
    The initial man that took our application was cold and basically rude,
    the processor of the loan had not a clue as to his responsibilities. 
    Couldn't answer our questions, lost paperwork that had to be FED EX
    from the Digital relo co more than once, really didn't know how to
    process a loan.  The supervisor was non too pleasant to work with
    either.  My husband had to make more than one trip to the DCU HQ to
    straighten things out.  We spent many of hours on the phone and
    resending paper work that was lost/mishandled.
    
    Now that I'm settled in my new house and town, I will be closing my
    accounts and moving to a new bank.  The lack of customer service at the
    new branch that I have to use has also pushed me to my decision. 
    There's many people in my Nashua site that have complained and some
    that have closed their accounts already.
    
    I would not recommend opening up an account with the DCU.  They think
    you have to bank with them since your an employee.  They've completely
    taken advantage of their stituation.  There are other banks out there.
    If I were you, I'd stay put the WCIS.
    
    Chris