Don’t use Wachovia for business banking. This is as simple as it goes. We’ve been using wachovia for doing business for over 6 years now. In our experience we’ve lost thousands of dollars over the years and 1 big repeat customer. When it comes to doing International Trading where you find customers overseas who wants to buy items from you in the U.S., it’s important to have a good bank that can stand behind you and back you. We had a situation in the past where we did an order for over $60,000 with one client. That client was from overseas and wanted to buy a couple containers of computer equipments. Thanks to Wachovia bank, the transaction fell through due to the LACK OF from their international trade department. This transaction required the use of a transferrable Letter of Credit that was issued. We felt so bad for the client becuase they issued the LC and flew around the world to meet with us to do this business transaction to find out after about 2 - 3 weeks that the transaction would NOT go through even after we got confirmation from Wachovia that everything was ok in the wording of the Letter of Credit. When we needed to transfer the Letter of Credit they also told us EVERYTHING WAS FINE. After about 48 hours after the transfer began, they then told us that transaction would NOT GO THROUGH due to the wording of the Letter of Credit. Now, this is from a bank that was sitting on this L/C for all that time and we told them the nature of the business along with the process. Thanks to Wachovia bank, we lost that client and repeat business every quarter… meaning the customer was to place orders like this every 3-4 months.
For those of you who knows and understands international business, not every customer will fly thousands of miles around the world to meet with you if they were NOT serious about business. To summarize, this client had to meet a deadline with a university they had a contract with. Because of Wachovia, we never heard from this customer again by email or phone. Plus they may have lost their university client that bought all these items from them.
When doing business use a bank that is NOT in financial trouble and have advanced experience in the international arena. Most of us USA business don’t do business solely in the US, we have clients overseas. With the way the US economy is right now, finding global clients is a very good idea. Using a bank like HSBC or Citibank is a great choice when it comes to anything in the international business area. They are much larger and have a better understanding where that is concerned. They may treat you differently because they are much bigger, but what we all really want is MONEY.. not customer service. We want to make money and know that the money is safe. To really look at things from a different level, we are in business to make money and not customer service. We would rather see higher interests on our money in our accounts rather than higher customer service and lower interest. When it comes to paying bills, can you pay them with money or customer service?
If wachovia does see this information posted ,we have all the proof and witnesses to show your incompetience and our loss. The purpose of you being the bank is to ensure safety of our money and to help us make more money. Ultimately, you make money when we make money.
Glen