Santander Bank

Leila and her associate were both friendly and efficient when addressing all my banking needs over multiple visits.

I have been a customer of this bank for years and years. Since it changed from Sovereign to Santander I have noticed it going further and further downhill. I had been thinking of taking my banking elsewhere but had no imminent reason to. They weren’t great, their corporate customer service was a bit lacking, but it would have been a hassle to change.
Well, today was the last straw. I needed to have a very common, very brief (6d) real estate document notarized. So I called the bank earlier in the week to ask which days there would be a notary available. I then made arrangements to meet with the other person who also had to sign the document, as well as with the real estate broker. Mind you, this document isn’t even for me, but for a third party.
This morning I double checked that here would be a notary available at 2pm and I was told yes, there would be. When were arrived the bank at 2, we were told that the notary was at lunch, but that she was only downstairs and it wouldn’t be a problem to get her.
So she came upstairs to meet with us, said she had never heard of such a document, but proceeded to have us sign it. Then she entered information and she realized she had done so incorrectly. She said the document was now no good and we’d have to rearrange getting it signed and notarized. She said she couldn’t do anything else to help us, didn’t offer to try to get it reprinted, didn’t apologize and just said as she was walking away «and I can’t type it for you because I’m on my lunch break and I shouldn’t even be doing this.».
We didn’t ask her to type it up, but now when I think about it, it would have been the right thing for her to do since she was the one that ruined the document in the first place. I apologized for interrupting her lunch and explained I did call this morning to double check that a notary would be available at 2pm. She just said «Yeah, she didn’t know what time I’d be taking my lunch». No apologies, just nothing but rudeness.
How can a bank like this stay in business? How can they hire such inconsiderate, incompetent people? There was another banker named Kelly who sort of witnessed what had happened from the corner of her eye and offered to help if she could. But we didn’t have a way to get a new copy of the doc to her and we weren’t about to ask her to type it us since it was not her fault or problem.
Instead, I made another appointment to get the document notarized with the bank next door. They were very nice. So, while I’m at it, I am going to switch my banking over to that bank and break up with Santander forever!!! I thought writing this would make me feel better but I’m still feeling upset and frustrated. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!