Vancity

Clearly I've been out of the loop and my bank no longer carries visa gift cards, so luckily Vancity does so I came here. I was helped immediately and got the three gift cards I wanted.

The sole reason I knocked down a star is because they charge a monthly fee for the gift card from when the gift card is loaded. I absolutely hate that they do it like phone cards that you're dinged from the day you start. I feel like since I had to pay $2 to even get a blank gift card, surely they could roll in the fees in that $2 or make the initial fee higher. I don't want to gift these to my clients and be like "FYI, you want to use it quickly or else every month they ding the balance of the gift I gave you". My bank's former card charged a flat fee for the person purchasing the gift card and no monthly maintenance fee gets taken from the balance.

I have been a member of Vancity for six years and NEVER in the multitude of experiences Ive had at various branches have I come across such utter uncaring and incompetent staff and management. I love Vancity but this branch is certainly not living up to the 'helping people and communities' that Vancity is all about. I had a cheque gifted to me for my birthday that the staff would not put through despite having gone through a rough month and it being the end of the month, and knowing that this money was to be for bills rent etc. The staff was aware of this and also aware they were putting me in the position where i had to go to a cheque cashing business in order to get the funds I so desperately needed. In all my 6 years of transactions and doing business with Vancity, have I never encountered this. The staff always takes into account my good standing and looks through my history to see that I have cashed cheques from the same people, businesses etc. This was never taken into account. My experience here has been horrible and I will never go back. Even though this branch is more conveniently located, I will certainly go out of my way to make sure I never have to go here again.