Boston Customers feel bumps in bank conversion

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Customers feel bumps in Fleet conversion

By Anthony Flint, Globe Staff, 5/13/2000

After months of preparation and with thousands of employees working around the clock, FleetBoston Financial Corp. promised a smooth transition in the conversion of 1.2 million BankBoston accounts that got underway Thursday night and continues this weekend.

But don't tell that to Frances Shashoua of Brookline, who went to the Coolidge Corner BankBoston branch yesterday morning, pressed for time and needing a bank check for a real estate closing. Computer systems being converted as part of the $13 billion merger were stuck in limbo between Fleet and BankBoston, and Shashoua could not get at her money.

''There were layers of confusion,'' she said. ''The woman next to me needed a check for a 1 o'clock closing. It took four hours. They finally just wrote it out manually, the way they used to do it.''

The Fleet-BankBoston merger, which created the largest divestiture of bank branches in US history, has generated criticism from disgruntled customers for planned fee increases on some accounts and for glitches in accounts that Fleet sold to Sovereign Bank. Now that the real spade work of the merger is underway - the actual conversion of accounts, branches, staff, and ATMs - life for some consumers is getting difficult in different ways.

''We continue to ask for patience and apologize for any disruptions,'' said Fleet spokesman Jim Schepker. ''People understand we may not have 100 percent smooth service. But it's nothing we had not anticipated and publicized.''

The bank plans for the conversion to be all over on Monday morning, when the company says that 187 BankBoston branches and their staff, plus 858 ATMs, will all officially be FleetBoston. The finishing touches, such as signs and logos, will be in place in June.

The conversion of branches in Eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire is the first phase of a hugely complicated undertaking, to be followed by a second phase for remaining branches and ATMs the weekend of July 7.

Fleet officials say the operation is unprecedented in the industry, in part because Fleet and BankBoston branches are marbled together in an overlapping market, and because Fleet also had to turn over 1.5 million customers and 315 branches to Sovereign Bank, as part of the government-ordered divestiture plan to ensure competition.

''With so much divestiture of branches, we've had to do this in smaller steps, more manageable steps,'' said Schepker. ''We thought doing it in thirds was the best approach.''

In the BankBoston-Fleet conversion, BankBoston customers do not have to do much while the changeover is completed, Schepker said. ''It will all be automatic and behind the scenes,'' he said.

Customers need only use the new FleetBoston cards sent to them in the mail at ATMs, and they have until May 19 to get into that habit; BankBoston cards will work in Fleet ATMs until that date. Customers' personal identification numbers will remain the same.

Fleet will have 125 ''meet-and-greeters'' at branches starting Monday, plus 1,400 people handling customer service telephones, and 500 coaches to help familiarize former BankBoston staff with the Fleet policies.

This weekend, however, customers may not be able to perform all transactions, such as deposits, at ATMs that are being converted, Fleet officials say; customers should be able to withdraw cash. In addition, those who bank on the Internet may not be able to access the bank's Web page over the weekend.

Yesterday was perhaps the toughest day of transition. On Thursday night, BankBoston computer systems were converted to Fleet systems, in preparation for ''accepting'' the accounts. The changeover - the equivalent of rebuilding a car while it speeds down the highway - has been more difficult than any issues posed by Y2K.

''From time to time in branches, some customers might encounter a period where branches are operating in offline mode,'' Schepker said.

High-anxiety mode was more like it, said Shashoua and other customers who also needed bank checks for real estate closings at the Coolidge Corner BankBoston branch yesterday morning.

''They had a hard time verifying the money in my account, and the computers wouldn't let them type out a bank check,'' she said. ''The whole thing took a lot of managers, and everyone was working very hard, but it was like there was nothing they could do.''

Shashoua and other customers were instructed to go down the street to a Fleet branch, but that branch was converting to Sovereign Bank. They were then sent to a Chestnut Hill BankBoston branch, which had the same problem. For a moment Shashoua considered going to an Andover branch that was not being converted in Phase I, until managers scrambled and manually generated the check.

''Everyone's disgruntled about this merger. We will eventually go into a different bank,'' Shashoua said. ''We're moving anyway, we're not interested in the new fees, and we want a smaller bank with better service.''

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/134/nation/Customers_feel_bumps_in_Fleet_conversion+.shtml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 13, 2000


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