Do local financial branches really help?

Today I had a busy morning running around until 2:30 pm.

First stop: Ross store
Purpose : returning items

I actually like shopping at Ross, who does not like bargain hunting? Yes some complain that things get dis-organized and true they don't have all the sizes, colors and styles. But that's where the discount comes from, right? They've surely got shoppers around. I wonder if it's related to the bad economy. But makes sense for the assumption. So I made my trip before noon in order to avoid long line, and I picked the store on Homestead. I compared the 2 on El Camino Real, and on Homestead, and found return is easier/faster for the latter. For the one on El Camino, they try to scan the item, find it on the receipt and cross it out with a pen. With the computer technology, I wonder why they need to do that. After the scan, it should log which item is returned. The store on Homestead does not bother to cross out items manually, nor does Home Depot. Home Depot is even easier that they could scan a few receipts at once, then scan all the items. It automatically finds items on one of the receipts!

Second stop: Wellsfargo bank, the branch around the corner of Homestead and Kifer.
Purpose : opening a rollover IRA account

First there was this woman greeted me and tried to redirect me to someone helpful. I was not impressed that she was not quite sure who could help me in terms of opening a rollover IRA account. She made 3 attempts trying to bring me to the right person. At the end, I was sitting there waiting for their specialist getting off the phone. About 10 minutes later, I finally got to talk to her only to find out she was a full service consultant. She could not help me open an account. I was given a phone number to call instead... I thought local branch would be easier to just fill out the forms on the spot and get my account number right away. Guess I was quite wrong :(

Third stop: TD Ameritrade on Stevens Creek Blvd.
Purpose : get wire information for 401k rollover and check my current account schedule

I told the front desk why I was there and waited for someone to help me for about 5-10 minutes. Then I repeat my purpose to her. I got half way through --- got the wire information sheet. And was told it was bad timing, she needed to run. Asked me to talk to her manager for account schedule thing. I waited again for her manager to get off the phone. While I was waiting, the first guy who welcomed me asked if I needed anything else. I repeated again about checking my account schedule. He then told me only manager could change schedule setting. Finally I talked to the manager, I REPEATED why I was there again...

The manager looked at my account on her computer, and I was quite surprised that even she could not see everything. She told me she had to call to ask about the 'special setting' for my account.

The thing is, I had accounts with TD Waterhouse and Ameritrade respectively. Later they merged. The good news was, they dropped the stock trading commission to $9.99; however, they raised the mutual fund commission from $17.99 to $49.99! That was a killer to me. I do buy mutual funds, and definitely not willing to pay the hefty fee. So back then I talked to the customer service through the phone, in order to keep me staying with them, I was offered to keep my old fee schedule. That information was just told to me, there was nowhere to be seen online after I logged on. Later I called again asking if I open an IRA account, could I have same old schedule too? And you bet they told me, "yes, just go ahead and open it, we will set it up for you."

The manager called in, and the line was busy, so another waiting time. About 5-10 minutes later, manager got off the phone and told me the bad news. There was nothing specially set for my account. The commission schedule is no different than anyone else. I was pretty upset as you could imagine. The manager was saying, we could discuss about it, while another guy approached her and could not wait to ask her about some trade he made this morning... I left without further 'negotiation'. I think I was ready to dump TD Ameritrade. Terrible experience.

A few hours later, I thought about it again. I wonder if the manager was telling me the truth. I mean, how would I know? She could play a strategy, telling me one thing, then trying to give me what I already have as part of her 'offering'. That would make her final offer sweeter, ha! Well, if that's the case (she lied to me now), I wouldn't trust them anymore; if she told me the truth, I still wouldn't trust them anymore (they lied to me before, or they screwed up the setting). So I guess it does not matter then.