Shanda S.

In June of 2018 I had my grandma in my care and after 3 months I realized I can't take care of her. During this time I had to help her with her banking. She can't hear, has a strong French accent, forgets her passwords daily and has no clue how to pay bills, I felt like we were on the phone daily with BMO. My grumpy grandma gets very rude very fast so the lady from the BMO call center suggests to grumpy grandmother to open a joint account with me so I can help her with her banking. It sounds like a nice thing to do for your grandma but do NOT do it! Once my grandma moved to her son's in September I tried to close the account but was told my 85 year old grumpy grandma that can barely walk had to do it... btw that's not true. You can cancel even if you're not the prime card holder. I did follow up and was reassured it was closed by my grumpy grandma cause she is not sharing an account with a thief! Oh good graces... Apparently it was not true she only changed the mailing address... ugh. Some time in November 2019 the Brooks branch manager attempted to help me access one of my accounts and unknowingly added grumpy grandma joint account onto my portfolio... not good... at all... and now it is placed as my primary account... fabulous... I stand in line for 20 mins, ask the bank teller to withdrawal all my tax free savings into my checking account. Even showed my ID and it reads Shanda... she puts it in my grumpy grandmother's SENIOR account. When I saw what happened I could of moved the money. I even saw it was put into this unknown account but thought to myself "I said put into my checking account "so I let her actions lead me to believe this unused account that held my money belong to me. Just one of my many accounts. I literally have 11 which I now see is a huge problem cause it I had the normal 2 this would of been a big red flag. I own that one... So 8 days later on my birthday March 27/2020 my grumpy grandma with the help of someone transfer all my savings to a BMO master card... Happy flipping birthday to me!... I caught it right away and phoned thinking it was a banking error. Literally had no clue, on the phone for over 2 Hours only to find out that mystery account is my grumpy grandmas... I literally begged them to reverse the payment as it had not been 24 hours and they said "no... there's nothing they can do "... Sunday I'm on the computer and making an appointment for Monday to talk to branch manager. Told him what I believe happened and that brave soul phoned my grumpy grandma who yelled so loud he held the phone away from his ear at arms length lmao... She said she doesn't care that's it's my savings, it never should of been put into her account and why is BMO letting me open accounts up with her name on them... wowww not only grumpy but very confused... grumpy grandma even said "I am okay if it is stealing"... I'm not even exaggerating, she said those exact words lmao... the branch manager then looked at me and said "well my hands are tied"... I'm sorry what!... I then contacted BMO executive office and today, April 13 got told that it's a family matter. Oh oh and when I asked if he spoke to my grumpy grandma he said "I rather not". Hahahaha... I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry. Im gonna do both I'm not letting this go. They are not off the hook but seriously have the tellers show you and read out the bank account number so this doesn't happen to you. Stay safe and healthy :) Shanda