(WXYZ) — This past weekend, Fifth Third officially converted 600,000 customer accounts over from Comerica Bank. For several local customers, the merger has turned into massive frustration.
7 News Detroit spoke with some of those customers, as well as Fifth Third Bank leadership, about the challenges.
Tosha Willis said she banked with Comerica Bank for 15 years.
“I just felt like it wasn’t a smooth merger. It’s not a smooth merger," she said.
“I tried to log in to the banking app today, and that’s when I got a long notice about the app is no longer available because of the merger," Willis said.
Hear Customers' Concerns in the Video Player Below
She said the notice directed her to head to a physical branch.
Jacqui Gretzinger told 7 News Detroit, “I felt like I was coming to a concert."
She said the old Comerica Bank branches are busy. Gretzinger, who banked with them for 31 years, said her frustration is with the online bill pay feature or lack of it.
“How do you shut off people’s bill pay for 8-plus days when they have bills coming due? And I had some auto pays set up, and fortunately I called the main branch but had I not called the main branch, I would have had payments not get paid and then I would have had late fees because the auto-pays were completely canceled," Gretzinger said.
“Obviously, when you do a merger there’s some growing pains and stuff but the way they handled it was not good," she said.
Steve Davis, Fifth Third Bank regional president, told 7 News Detroit, “We’re very sorry that our customers have not had a great experience. We want to improve that for them, and we want to get this solved for them."
"But I am really confident that when we get them to other side, they’re going to love it and it’s going to be great for them," he added.
Davis, who met with us outside of a branch in Southfield, said of the merger, "Overall, I’m thrilled with how it went. It went really well, really well for the vast majority of our customers."
"We have had some that have had some intermittent issues here and there. Obviously, we want to get it fixed as soon as we can and deliver on a great service for them," he said.
