Lacey James K.
Ameris Bank
Ameris Bank. Stay Away! We have been doing business with Ameris Bank for over 29 years! We’ve never once had any fraudulent activity with our accounts at all within that timeframe. That all changed, and the bank then treated us terribly! Recently, two fraudulent transactions appeared in our online banking. Each was over $7,000. Both transactions were extremely suspicious, and the bank should have easily caught them: 1) They were posted as Bill Pay which we have never used. 2) The transactions were posted at odd times of the day, approximately 3 a.m. in the morning. 3) Both large transactions were posted a day apart, two days in a row. 4) The transactions were both to Apple Pay, which we’ve never used. 5) Both were in amounts we had never paid out, and also never in two days in a row. One of these circumstances should have been a RED FLAG to the bank. We had 5 red flags! The bank should have caught this immediately and flagged them as possible fraudulent transactions. They did not! I am not sure what their security measures and protocol are, but they should have caught these fraudulent transactions. We contacted the bank immediately when we noticed these transactions, in fact it was on the day the second fraudulent transaction was going through. We talked to Michele Johnson, the Branch Manager of the Roswell, Crabapple location. She assured us that she’d stop the second transaction from going through and that she’d report the first one so that we could get our money back. She said, “don’t worry about this, we’ll get through this.” She came back a couple days later and said she wasn’t able to stop the second transaction from going through. The bank did their “Investigation,” without gathering any information whatsoever from us. It was a one-sided investigation. Ten days later we received a “Notice of Final Determination” letter from Ameris Bank, informing us that these fraudulent transactions were our fault and they were not going to refund our money. The letter then stated that we could request “copies of the documents that were relied on to make their determination”. We requested to see these documents. We called Michele Johnson asking her several times for the documents. She did not return our calls. She had her regional SVP Sam Crowe call us instead. We asked him for the documents they based their decision on and he said he’d email them to us. After several more phone calls, texts and emails to Sam he still did not provide the documents we asked for. We also called back Michele Johnson again asking her for the documents and she said she’d have someone contact us. At this point it had now been over two weeks since they wrote the letter denying our funds and we were still unable to get any information from them that would indicate why they refused to refund our money! After getting nowhere and getting the runaround from everyone we spoke to, we told Michele Johnson we wanted to file a formal complaint with the bank. She said she’d have someone call us to process our complaint. We received no call or contact from the bank. We emailed her two additional times within a three-week timeframe to have someone contact us. We received no response from her whatsoever. And no one from the bank contacted us at all! Ameris Bank has an obligation to provide documents to its customers that it relied on to determine refusal of a refund for a fraudulent transaction… and within a timely manner. Ameris Bank also has an obligation to provide its customers with security measures that will protect the funds entrusted to the bank. However, in the end, Ameris Bank laid the blame on us for the fraudulent transaction and takes no responsibility whatsoever. After doing business with the bank for 29 years, this is how they treat us! Buyer beware! This bank has no concern for you as a person, a human being or even a customer. You’re just another dollar sign in their eyes. Stay away… and run far, far away from this bank!!