Alternatives Federal Credit Union, Ithaca, NY

Long time member, and was blown away by how unprofessional my last encounter with them was. 90% of the time I've had good experiences with them but that 10% knocks them down to 1star for me. A bank or credit union is not the place to be unprofessional. Changed to Tompkins trust and feel much better doing business with them. There are better options.

The loan person won't return my calls. My buyer client has been put off for weeks. Not happy.

Spent 20 minutes on their phone line waiting for a customer service rep. After the system just hung up on me I called back hit the call me when the first representative is available, that was 2.5 hours ago a "1 location small town bank" has a 2.5+ hour call backlog? Is it the 1 sloth from Zootopia answering the phones?

I love this place. The workers are always helpful and very understanding. Definitely a lot nicer than other banks I've banked at. They saved my life by helping me navigate the very stressful process of debt consolidation. Literally, I was at my last straw and felt so defeated. They picked me back up and gave me confidence and helped me to achieve my goal of financial wellness.

Im sick of this bank.. The tellers on the line and via drive through are great, but forget about getting any help via phone, email or at all. If you call you are placed on hold for 20-minutes, with a prompt to have them call you back every 30 seconds. (with a loop of the same string of notes between them) If you still don't get someone after a little under 20-minutes they hang up on you. If you are lucky you will get a call back in a few days. We are trying to pay off a loan and close out that account.. If you want a local back go to CFCU or Tompkins County trust, just stay away from this hot mess of a bank. I forgot to add to the above - Don't trust their on-line hours. We went down on a Saturday to go into the lobby and it never opened. When we called using the phone in the lobby we where told that it was only the call center that was open. We where not the only members that got nailed by this as there was 3 of us waiting for the lobby to open. When we told them the site was wrong we where told that there was no mistake, and the lobby had never been open on a Saturday.

Although the tellers are nice, the rates are good and they have a good vision, THE CUSTOMER SERVICE IS BETWEEN HORRIBLE AND NON-EXISTENT. Nobody answers the phone and it takes over a day to get a call back. Last week I emailed the “new accounts” email address that the teller gave me (because no one was available to help me open an account, and requested an appointment, but after 7 days nobody called or emailed me back. I had to send a second email and then also send a secure message on the app complaining that I never got a call back before getting a call back.

Credit unions historically were community oriented banks. This credit union used to be a great place to bank. Now customer service is non existent, you can call all you want and will never get anyone on the phone, even their call you back feature is broken and you can’t get to anyone to tell them. The loan officers only reply to things that they want to, they don’t seem want to work with their members to help them qualify or advise them, they just take forever to get back to anything. I’ve been without my card for months now, have left multiple voicemails and they won’t answer my requests to get a working new atm card. Sadly I won’t be sticking around this credit union much longer.