Sad news.  Sad -- not surprising.

You might remember that I have been active in a long fight with CIBC over the damage caused in my life due to the bank's loss of my Confirmation of Enrolment forms in 1997.  I have followed the proper complaint process, even though the CIBC Customer Careless Centre has done an amazing job of adding extra procedures and lengthy delays.

I have made a couple posts on this topic, which you can read if you're interested:

"http://www.markomeara.com/csd/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=4&TopicID=28&PagePosition=2">Not giving up on my concerns"

"http://www.markomeara.com/csd/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=10&TopicID=161&PagePosition=1">Sadly, I’m back in the game. :-"

I must say that I have been extremely reasonable with the CIBC throughout this process.  "More flies with honey than vinegar," they say afterall...

I haven't been looking for a large cash settlement or anything like that.  Just PLEASE help me repair the credit rating damage which was caused by bank error!  I have suggested solutions that would repair the problem without any cost to CIBC.  (In fact, they would make money on the deal, but they won't, because it will look like they are admitting that they made a teenie-tiny mistake in 1997.)

Yesterday, I received the (standard, expected) response from the CIBC Ombudsman:  "There is not enough evidence that the bank made a mistake."

You might remember that one of my complaints was that the bank did nothing to contact me before changing the loan to interest bearing status, then to repayment status, and even while sucking my chequing account dry.  A few months ago, a CIBC employee observed that two "pre-consolidation" letters were sent, even though I mysteriously received neither of them.  Some people at CanadaStudentDebt suggested that I should be a little suspicious about this new claim.  After all, they initially said that they didn't send letters because they didn't have to send letters -- it's the student's responsibility to contact the loan centre.  And then, they said they sent two letters?  It's a puzzle.

In the recent PFO letter from the CIBC Ombudsman, they observed that they had sent three letters, so surely I must have received at least one!

So now it's three?????!?!!??!?!?!!?    Good Gawd!!

Anyway...  That's the last word from CIBC.  Their ombudservice has ruled that their internal records do not show evidence of their misconduct, so they have closed the file, even though they have not reviewed the copies of letters and receipts that I have sent to them.  They had asked for more materials from me, but they had already mailed the letter closing the matter on the same day.

What next?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  I feel the crushing dispair that people feel when they first believe that they will get a fair chance, only to learn that no fair chances exist when you're dealing with a bank.  I followed the complaint process that the banks created, only to be ignored, delayed, and eventually dismissed without a complete review.  If they admit that they made a mistake with me, then they would be admitting that there might be other students out there with mistakes in their records.  And that's just not going to happen.

I hesitate to say this, but I have to tell you:  I finally understand why people go nuts and walk into banks with bombs or guns.  I mean, I won't do that, but I certainly understand the urge to do it.  The CIBC has nothing to fear from me, because there is absolutely no chance that I would ever harm people in my fight against a bank.  However, I have some insight into why some people resort to such things.

The banks have created an arduous, tedious, frustrating complaint process, and then bend the rules as far as they need in order to wholly discourage further efforts to seek fair treatment.  The executives at CIBC are not concerned with whether or not I feel a sense of fairness or justice.  They are not concerned at all about my complete lack of confidence in the security of my money or property in the bank's care.  I'm just a lowly wage-earning schmoe, so my feelings don't have any impact on the tally of billions of dollars of profits.

That's it.  I'm out.  I'm not going to let a fight with a bank (especially a rigged fight) ruin my life.  They got my money, then they got more of my money, and now I'm screwed.  The fight won't improve that situation, and will only bring more resentment in my life.

So I'm done.  Yeah, I think I'll send my last summary to Sue Bailey, the CIBC president, and whoever else will listen.  But from now on, it's all past tense.  It is a waste of my effort to attempt to repair my relationship with CIBC.  Done.

--Sean

Sean,

Very sorry to hear this news... but perhaps you might consider that you now have the ability to write to and file a complaint with the Canadian Banking Association.

I know its a tough place to be... wish the world er I mean banks were fair and compassionate... but all I've seen so far is greed. 

Mark

My hesitance to take this to the Canadian Banking Ombudsman...

My complaint within CIBC has recently included some suggestions on how we can resolve the problem. For example, they might not be able to totally clean up my credit report, but they could help me through this bad-credit phase by approving a credit line for me. They can see my income and my debt service history, and then recognize that my only problem is the one large smudge on my report from of a situation that was at least partly their fault.  It's all about the bank and the customer working together toward useful solutions.

But it is ABUNDANTLY clear that the CIBC head office has no interest in this sort of a "shake hands and make up" type of solution.  The staff at CIBC aren't looking for friends, or even customers to some extent. I offered them a working customer-bank relationship, and they gave a polite no-thank-you. The bank is doing just fine, thank you very much, and my upcoming lifelong boycott of CIBC won't hurt them one little bit.

So in this context, I'm not sure what to expect from the Canadian Banking Ombudsman.  The ombudservice would not force a bank to enter into a business relationship with a customer who they have rejected.  I'll probably still send them a copy of my last summary I had written, and I'll answer the questions in the one phone call, and then wait for the next PFO.  I suppose I'll do it, but with near-zero workload.

--Sean