This is a review that is difficult to write. For the past twenty years, I did all my banking with PNC. I took out car loans. I have a home equity loan. I have one credit card and two debit cards. Everything has been humming. I have been supremely happy with the professionalism and the humanity of PNC personnel.
But, as a result of the past two weeks, I am bitterly disappointed. PNC put me into a precarious situation and, even after pleading on my part, the higher management reps turned a deaf ear. I will tell you my story and let you decide what you want to do about it.

~~~~~How my #1 debit card got cancelled
It all started on 15 Jan 2021. PNC sent me an email alerting me to a suspicious charge that was turned down by my #1 debit card. I called the number given to me and together we decided that the charge was not initiated by me. Hence, because my card #1 might be compromised, I agreed to cancel it and to rely upon debit card #2.
Four days later, I used card #2 for an online purchase of $1 for a trial news service. My card was declined. I called "customer service for credit cards" and Sophie took my call. What she discovered hit me hard. "Your debit card [#2] was cancelled on 01 Dec 2020 because it was not being used."
"I don't understand this. I gave this debit card to my wife in order to allow her to have access to monies in the case of an emergency. Since, in the past four months, no emergency arose, she had no cause to use it."
Sophie: "That makes sense to me."
"What I don't understand is why PNC cancelled my card #2 without consulting with me and without notifying me."
Sophie: "This was due to a software transaction whereby inactive cards are automatically cancelled."
"I can't believe this. This automatic cancellation has caused me great harm. I am here in Shanghai without a debit card that allows me to use a Chinese ATM to convert and withdraw the local currency. I have been doing this for over four years. I routinely convert and withdraw more than $1000 every month from my Social Security direct deposits. Now I am stranded without a working debit card. I am left without any source of monies to pay my rent, my groceries, my club fees, etc."
Sophie: "I see that you are hurting. What can I do to help?"
"I need you to send me a new debit card by federal express [overnight service]. Send it to my address on record. This should get it to me in 2 to 4 days tops."
Sophie agreed to do this. She gave me a reference number, and I hung up with the satisfaction that "while PNC got me into a mess by cancelling my debit card #2 without notifying me, now Sophie assured me that they would correct their machine ERROR by going the extra mile to rush a new card to me." I slept well that night.
~~~~~All seemed to be going well until a new PNC mail arrives
Three days later, I receive another PNC email saying that I need to contact them [letter shown in pic below]. Now I am talking with Stacy, a specialist in conflict resolution. "I am going to do everything I can by way of resolving your problem." When I describe my problem as described above, however, I notice that Stacy is very clear that she is there "to help me" but that she is unwilling to say that PNC was at the root cause of my distressful situation when they cancelled card #2 without notifying or consulting with me. I figure that she is highly trained and, as a consequence, highly cautious and wants to prevent a possible lawsuit in the future.
Then 15 minutes are used to ascertain that I am the true owner of the account and that I am not impersonating the true owner. Well and good. I like the fact that Stacy has been careful to protect my monies. But then I discover that Sophie did not send out a new debit card. Rather, she decided to bring Sophie on board and have her resolve my dispute with the bank. NOW I RECOGNIZE WHY STACY WAS SO CAUTIOUS IN NEVER ALLOWING THAT PNC DID ME A DISSERVICE WHEN THEY CANCELLED CARD #2.
~~~~~Now the tone of our exchanges gradually changes.
Stacy explains that to FedEx a card to me, "we need additional confirmation of your identity as the account holder." I express my puzzlement at this. "If PNC was willing to send a new card to me by surface mail, why does FedEx require additional identity confirmation when FedEx is used? What is the critical difference between these two cases?" In over ten minutes of polite give and take, I came to the conclusion that Stacy has no logical reason for an additional identity confirmation beyond "this is what PNC regulations require." So, in frustration, I decide to go ahead with "the process required for additional confirmation."
~~~~~Contents of the machine-generated and machine-corrected identity test
As it turns out the additional confirmation took 30 to 40 minutes. All in all, it consisted of ten multiple-choice questions regarding my former addresses, my former homes, my vehicles owned. Nothing is asked regarding former auto loans, home equity loans, former transaction with PNC. It's like someone had used one of the "public records research" software programs that gave them access to my history with homes and vehicles. Here is an illustrative question (constructed from memory):
Q5: Which of these dates (if any) represents the time period when I sold my home on Queenswood Dr.?
R1: August of 2011
R2: June of 2008
R3: May of 2015
R4: June of 1998
R5: None of the above
I immediately reply, "I never sold my Queenswood home. As part of a court ordered divorce settlement, I signed over the home registered in my name to my former wife." Tracy responds: "I don't know if that interpretation is true or false."
"You mean that you don't ever know which of the five responses is correct?"
Tracy: "That's right. All I am doing is reading the multiple-choice questions given to me and recording your responses. Only at the end will the software decide whether you have passed or failed."
Now I become irritated. "I frankly don't know whether I should choose NONE OF THE ABOVE because I never sold my home or whether I should take the transfer of ownership as the real question."
Tracy: "I can't help you with this. But the clock is running and it is quite possible that you will exceed the time allotted for this test."
"How much time is left?"
Tracy: "This I don't know."
~~~~~Now I see the INDIGNITY of this whole process.
It has now come down to making decisions as to the real intent of the question. I also have trouble, quite frankly, recalling the month and year that the transfer would have taken place. I cannot remember the date on our divorce settlement, and I cannot remember whether this was an item where my Ex was dragging her feet and deliberately stalling the implementation of the court order. So it has come down to being a memory test. Ask me the first names of my grandmothers. Ask me the make and year of my first car. These things I can answer. The question asked in this machine-generated test, I cannot answer. I choose R1 in order to beat the clock and to finish the memory exam in a timely fashion.
At the end, I ask, "What does the software say, did I pass or fail?"
Tracy: "It says that the test was invalidated because you exceeded the allotted time."
~~~~~My final outburst of indignation
"What!? This is absurd. First I have to suffer the indignity of discovering that my debit card #2 was cancelled by a software program that is not accountable and has no link to "customer service." Next, I have to suffer the indignity of being told that Sophie never followed through on our agreement. Third, I have to suffer the indignity of having a 30 to 40 minute software program inform me that I have FAILED and that it cannot be repeated or challenged due it its ERRORS."
Then I proceeded to tell Stacy that I could send her a copy of my passport as a mark of my true identity. I could tell her the names and ages and locations of my brothers and sisters. But no! Stacy says, "This is not part of the identity test designed for this purpose. You failed that test. My hands are tied."
~~~~~A final appeal to the fine tradition of customer service at PNC
Then, as a last ditch effort, I explained to Stacy the tradition of "customer service" at PNC. I deliberately told her that "customer safety" and "customer service" are conjoined twins. Neither side can be allowed to suffocate the other. "Surely you can allow that PNC software has become an unanticipated cause for suffering on two distinct occasions. So you decide that software cannot be allowed to stifle customer service. You decide to go the extra mile to remedy that suffering. The Bank depends upon you. I depend upon. So you faithfully FedEx the debit card I urgently need."
Then Stacy said, "I would be afraid of losing my job if I ignored the software test that is required."
~~~~~In the end, Stacy is a broken human being
At that moment, I felt sorry for Stacy. She was afraid to think outside the box. She had been indoctrinated by her trainers to believe that her personal judgment was not to be trusted. I could be a con-artist, after all. It made no difference that a debit card could be sent out by surface mail but not by FedEx. It made no difference that the debit card, in either case, would be sent to my address in Shanghai that has not changed for four years. No amount of simple common sense could penetrate her indoctrination. No amount of suffering on my part could give her second thoughts. No amount of suffering on my part could penetrate the blind obedience that she had to give to the regs. Customer service be damned! "I'm afraid of losing my job."
I was completely silent for three to four full minutes. These were the sad thoughts I was having. Stacy's humanity had been curtailed and crushed by a system that prides itself on infallible identity tests administrated by a machine. She is afraid to think or do otherwise. She has a ready answer for every contingency. I am just a thorn in her side. I am a clever prevaricator and manipulator.
After we hung up, I can imagine Stacy consoling herself, "The software saved the Bank. The software put him in his place. If you don't follow the regs faithfully, you can't survive here!"
Sincerely,
Aaron Milavec

PS: I too am a broken human being. But I am aware of my brokenness and am actively working alone and with others to heal my brokenness.
PPS: I tried to relate the events and to reconstruct the dialogue as honestly as I was able.