Picking a bank

For those who live here in Park City (or anywhere in Utah), I can offer a comparison of two local banks, one very large and one more local.

When we first came to Park City, we were only going to be here part time but we wanted a local bank. We went with Wells Fargo. Most of our transactions were at the ATM machine, either grabbing cash or depositing checks. That was all fine. However, any time you needed to do anything more, it was always a royal pain in the ass. It took 45 minutes to get a safe deposit box. Any time I needed to wire money, I was left waiting for 15-20 minutes before I was even helped. Finally, Julie and I went in to get a document notarized. After about 20 minutes, we still didn't have any hope of being acknowledged, much less served soon. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. (Poor camel)

We went down the street to Mountain West Bank. We had no money there, but they notarized our document, for free, within about one minute. We sat down right then and there and opened an account, which we funded by writing Mountain West a check from our Wells Fargo account. I have been back several times since and they are always well staffed with happy, helpful, skilled people.

It just reinforces the lesson of how important good customer service can be. I have to say that Wells Fargo just doesn't care about its customers. I could forgive one bad experience or even a sudden employee turnover problem, but this was persistent and consistent. They just suck.