Customer service from hell

My complaint here isn't actually about me, although I certainly have had my share of issues, but it bothers me nonetheless.

I used to have my bank accounts with a credit union that served Social Security employees and some other federal agencies. Most of their branches and ATM machines were in the Baltimore/Washington area, but some were located here. Over a year ago they began closing or cutting back hours at their Philadelphia branches, removing ATMs, etc. While it's now possible to do so much bank business online or by phone, if there's a problem extreme enough that I want to go into an office and speak to someone in person, I want an office available. Since they were moving away, I moved on. I opened accounts with a regular bank, in part because of their heavily-advertised no-fee ATM card (besides not charging a fee for using their own machines, they refunded any fees charged by other institutions' ATMs), but also because they did not charge fees should you not keep a minimum balance.

Not long after, they merged with another bank. Then, a couple of months ago, they sent me information about changes as a result of the merger. Among them: maintenance fees that would only be waived if you kept a minimum daily balance: $4 per month for savings, and $15 per month for checking. So I've switched again, this time to another credit union.

Thus I found myself at a bank branch yesterday, closing out my old accounts. There was one customer service rep at a desk speaking with a customer, and a few others speaking to tellers or waiting for a customer service rep. Two different people in the bank at the time were there regarding the same issue: they couldn't get their ATM card to process a transaction, and then the machine kept their card. One of the tellers said it had to do with their PIN number: if you enter an incorrect PIN three times, the machine keeps the card. The customers spoke broken English so there may have been a miscommunication.

I closed my accounts and left. When I got outside an elderly woman was at the ATM, and she stopped me. She said she put her card in, and the screen kept showing the usual ads for the bank instead of asking for her PIN. When she pushed the "cancel" button to try and get her card back, nothing happened. We pushed pretty much every button, to no avail. She was concerned about leaving the machine with her card still inside, so I offered to stand there and keep watch while she went inside to get some assistance.

A few minutes later she came back outside, alone. She said she was told there was no one who could get her card back, and she'd have to call her own bank (her card was from a different bank). I was really shocked that no one could open up the machine and get the card. Clearly the machine was malfunctioning -- three different people had their cards eaten in a matter of minutes!

There used to be a TV ad for a different bank in which a woman rushed in, saying she had to catch a flight in an hour and the machine ate her card. The scene then cut outside to the ATM, where the woman stood and her card came out of the machine. The woman is grateful, and you hear the voice of the man helping her (from inside the bank, his voice coming through the machine) saying, "You're welcome, have a nice day." At that moment an older man is coming up to the machine, so, because old people are depicted as feeble dolts on TV, he starts talking to the ATM: "I'd like to make a transfer...hello?"

So, unless the TV is lying to us, there seems to be no reason that someone at the bank could not have gotten that woman her card back yesterday. It just made me think that I closed my accounts there just in time.