Union Bank members upset by technical issues with depositing or withdrawing money

Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Union Bank members upset by technical issues keeping them from depositing or withdrawing money
Union Bank members up and down the coast-- including here in the Valley-- are having issues with depositing and withdrawing money.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Union Bank members up and down the coast-- including here in the Valley-- are having issues with depositing and withdrawing money. Action News spoke with a frustrated member who said he went to purchase some shoes Tuesday morning and his debit card was declined at the store.

Union's Banks system issues have since been resolved as of 6:00 p.m on Tuesday

Lester Gomez said when he was told his card wouldn't go through at a Fashion Fair store he drove straight to the bank to find out why. When he got there he was told it was all because the system was down.

"Two hours to two days. Comforting huh."

Gomez said that's how long a Union Bank employee at Fashion Fair told him it could take before he could take out more than $200 to pay his bills. An inconvenience linked to a serious problem.

Union bank-- headquartered in San Francisco-- owns close to 400 branches in California, Washington, and Oregon.

A company spokesperson released a statement saying in part, "During a routine back office update, we experienced an unanticipated delay in overnight processing that affected various systems-- including online banking and ATMs."

Alicia Vance was unaware of that problem when she went through the drive through ATM Tuesday morning.

"The machine said, 'this machine is not taking cashing deposits' so came around the corner and saw the other ATM on the end and tried it and it took half of my money, and so, it's just a little inconvenient."

And the frustration was flooding social media. People on Twitter tweeting Union Bank, one person saying, "Union Bank needs to give its customers a visa gift card or something for this outage. No access to funds for hours is wrong."

Another on Facebook letting the company know she's so upset and that she's ready to close her accounts and move on.

Gomez said the outrage is even more intense inside the branch.

"There's people in the lobby waiting, like looking at them every time they move. Yeah-- I feel for them."

Action News reached out to Union Bank to see if it could take up to two days for this problem to be fixed and the response we got was that they are working hard to resolve this problem.