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Email this1:02 am
October 5, 2009
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Maxa Financial is an absolute nightmare to deal with!
For instance, I bought a $100,000 GIC, and after taking my $100,000, they absolutely refuse to fulfill their end of the deal, by sending me the certificate I had just paid $100,000 for!! Like Duh!! If I want a the certificate I just paid a $100,000 for, it will cost me an extra $5!! And that's out and out fraud!! If I pay $100,000 for a GIC certificate, there should be a reasonable expectation that I would receive that certificate. No? But not with Maxa. After they have cashed your cheque, they demand an extra $5 to receive what you had already paid for! Like . . . I do better in buying a package of gum at Loblaws. They don't charge me anything for supplying a receipt for a mere $1 item. But Maxa wants an additional $5 for something I've already purchased!! Duuuuuuh!
But that's only the beginning of the aggravating nonsense one might expect to endure in Maxa's campgain to alienate and disenchant customers under the auspices of their most wondrous leader, CEO Kerilee Bok who does not respond to emails, nor is in anyway interested in fixing the system she has munged.
If you are unfortunate enough to have any kind of monetary accounts with Maxa, unlike all of the other money vendors, Maxa will not send you any kind of monthly or even yearly account!!!:yell:
And to add insult to injury, their online website has to be the most badly munged effort I've ever seen. While at one time you could download all of your transactions for the year, under the management of the ever so wonderful CEO (Duh!) Kerilee Bok has so ordered that customers attempting to download their annual stats, should be limited to downloading stats on all of their holdings, one month at a tine!!! So if you are attempting to download hen accessing your records, you can only access them 45 days at at time!!! :yell: Which if you have not only savings, but GICs can take hours, being downloaded a month at at time, and a day at a time!!!
Which ever way you slice it, dealing with MAXA is a major no, no! We can;t wait to avoid the continuing aggravation of dealing with Maxa; and to that end we are transferring our funds out of Maxa as quickly as possible!!
Maxa is a major no, no!!!:yell:
1:09 am
maybe you should stick with bank stocks, i hear you can earn over 1000% with them in 10 years...
1:48 pm
September 21, 2009
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I was annoyed that they charge an initial $5 fee to do monthly auto transfers into my newly opened account. Then again I didn't read the sign up sheet properly. Could have saved myself that cash and just set it to push the money from my end for free. Also $1 to change the amount or discontinue.
Again, it was my fault since I just quickly filled out the form. The website interface sucks. But they so does assiniboine credit union (when I had an account). The few times I have emailed them they get back to me within a few (business) hours.
As for the only 45 days by default viewing of history. Is that really a big deal? It's a 1 free debit a month high rate savings account. How many transactions do you plan on doing? Especially with a gic. Since they are a credit union, I would assume they all use the same software so same limited options for the web interface. I just signed up for maxa for the rates (obviously), debit card and 10(?) free initial cheques. Just put my short term emergency funds in there. Eventually going to stop moving money to them and starting investing in the stock market when I figure out my long term financial situation.
8:55 pm
I believe MAXA is a credit union. So you have to buy a "membership" to open accounts there. I think it costs 5 or 10 bucks.
I deal with Achieva Financial which is also a credit union. I opened my accounts there more than 3 years ago and they gave me the membership free at that time.
5:27 am
September 21, 2009
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It's $5 for a "share" in the company. Wish I would have read about that as well. Sent in a deposit cheque for $10 and had to ask them where the money went 🙂
3:40 pm
October 5, 2009
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Both Outlook Financial and Achieva Financial are really great to deal with.
6:40 pm
I have been dealing with Maxa, I like them, no problems , I opened Gic's and savings account, everything streamlined and I love their rates!:smile:
9:24 pm
Regarding the information provided by Stan from Toronto: Stan - If I am depositing $100,000 with any financial institution I would first read and follow the instructions carefully. Obviously you did not because if you had you would have known that a $5.00 membership fee is assessed for each person opening an account - this fact is stated in 3 places within their website 1) under frequently asked quesions 2) Under the membership agreement download under page 5 of the agreement - step by step information on how to open account and deposit funds - indicates to include your $5.00 membership fee with your deposit amount and 3) also under Sign Up Now #4 - indicates to include $5.00 with deposit. How many times do they have to indicate this requirement before you will understand ???? As for the Certificate Request for your GIC - Under the MAXA GIC's Account Info Online - it advised you that your are responsible to acquire your own information of your account - you have access by several methods - On-line, by phone etc. Do you not realize that the reason you are getting interests rates so much higher than the conventional financial institutions is that all the frills and personal babysitting is not included - why do you think the banks can only pay you 1/2 % for the same deposit - because they got to pay for all those frills that you are demanding - if you feel that you need an additional piece of fancy paper to hang on your wall or show off to friends and family saying you have a GIC of $100,000 then go back to a conventional financial institution and you will get one, but it will cost you plenty - almost all of the high rate of interest you are earing from your GIC with MAXA. The reason they can pay you those high rates is cutting overheads costs of having staff prepare those useless certificates, mailing them to you, etc etc and the personnel costs and overhead costs to accomplish this. So before you start putting someone down because you didn't take the time to read the account requirements ( or maybe you can't read !!) maybe you should know what you are talking about first.
I invested with MAXA 4 years ago and have nothing but praise for their expertise and friendly staff. I am prepared to do my own account housekeeping in return for the higher rates of interest. Plus just for your information Kerilee Bok is not the CEO of MAXA - she is an Investment Specialist who works withn the MAXA offices. So once again your information is incorrect. Just thought you and anyone else reading your comments should have the benefit of the correct information !! 😎
1:30 pm
October 5, 2009
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Regarding the information provided by Stan from Toronto: Stan - If I am depositing $100,000 with any financial institution I would first read and follow the instructions carefully. Obviously you did not because if you had you would have known that a $5.00 membership fee is assessed for each person opening an account - this fact is stated in 3 places within their website 1) under frequently asked quesions 2) Under the membership agreement download under page 5 of the agreement - step by step information on how to open account and deposit funds - indicates to include your $5.00 membership fee with your deposit amount and . . . . . . . . 3) also under Sign Up Now #4 - indicates to include $5.00 with deposit. How many times do they have to indicate this requirement before you will understand ????. . . . . . . . .So before you start putting someone down because you didn't take the time to read the account requirements ( or maybe you can't read !!) maybe you should know what you are talking about first.
First of all, although you go on and on ad nauseam about the $5 membership fee, and how I should read the account requirements; If you had actually taken the time to read what I said, you would realize that I never made any mention of the membership fee.
At risk of tedium, I very specifically stated that I purchased a Guaranteed Investment Certificate for $100,000. Although they took my cash, they refused to complete their part of the agreement, by supplying me with the certificate I had paid for!! They told me that if I actually wanted the certificate I had just paid $100,000 for, that it would cost me an additional $5, which was not part of the agreement. That's just blatantly dishonest!!
As for your snotty remark about needing an additional piece of fancy paper to hang on your wall or show off to friends and family saying you have a GIC of $100,000,
That was totally ignorant and uncalled for. When I hand someone $100,000, it is customary for me to obtain a receipt. If I go the the store and buy a $1 pack gum, they always provide with a receipt. But buy something for $100,000 from Maxa, instead of a receipt, you get a big song and dance!! In terms of ethics and customer service, I find Maxa totally disgusting!!
And when it comes to obtaining receipts, when it comes to Maxa, even more so. Although Maxa holds themselves out as an online banking, they have the most useless financial website I've ever encountered. When is comes to GICs, they provide no confirmation by paper or online as to the term or interest rate. As for online banking records, Maxa is the bad joke of the industry. They are totally munged, going back a only a few months!!
'Suppose even Maxa realizes how bad their online efforts are, since last month they revised their online banking system, but now banking records go back less than two months. As to how that will eventually play out for the customer is unknown. Maxa has a tradition of being so incredibly inept and unprofessional, that I don't have high expectations for the minor changes they have made to their system.
4:45 pm
October 5, 2009
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Just got a piece of junk mail from Maxa wishing me Happy Holidays.
What an offensive anti-Christmas anti-Hanukkah piece of crap!! If they have such ill regard for Christmas or Hanukkah, it would be prudent for the nitwits at Maxa to hold their peace, than to send an offensive greeting that would offend the majority of their customers.
Has anyone previously said: Maxa is being run by an insensitive bunch of bigoted idiots!!!
7:59 pm
Stan said:
Just got a piece of junk mail from Maxa wishing me happy holidays.
What an offensive anti-Christmas anti-Hanukkah piece of crap!! If they have such ill regard for Christmas or Hanukkah, it would be prudent for the nitwits at Maxa to hold their piece, than to send an offensive greeting that would offend the majority of their customers.
Has anyone previously said: Maxa is being run by an insensitive bunch of bigoted idiots!!!
Is it simply "Happy Holidays" that you find offensive or were there actual anti-Christmas and anti-Hanukkah messages in the mail-out?
8:33 pm
October 5, 2009
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Edited by admin: Corrected HTML so that the link shows.
9:14 pm
Stan said:
You missed the closing tag on the link, but it is an interesting link nonetheless. So, I assume that the greeting "Happy Holidays" is simply offensive because, as the link says, it doesn't "preserve Christ this Christmas".
To each his own I suppose. Frankly, I find "Happy Holidays" to be quite encompassing since there are two holidays around this time of the year: Christmas and New Year's, and then most people probably take holiday days on top of that so it turns it into a holiday block of days. Hence, there are a bunch of holidays for which one should be happy, including Christmas for those for whom it has more meaning for. I see the greeting as more inclusive rather than exclusionary.
Stan said:
insensitive bunch of bigoted idiots!!!
The definition of bigot is roughly:
A bigot is a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially one exhibiting intolerance, and animosity toward those of differing beliefs.
I do see a case of intolerance when you describe the piece of junk mail from Maxa, unfortunately, I don't believe we see it the same way.
Nonetheless, Happy Holidays to you and your family, and may you have an especially Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah!
6:27 am
October 5, 2009
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Andrew said:
To each his own I suppose. Frankly, I find "Happy Holidays" to be quite encompassing since there are two holidays around this time of the year: Christmas and New Year's,
"Happy Holidays" doesn't cut it for me, since I'm retired and have been on "Holidays" every day of the year for the past twenty years. For me, it's "Christmas", my favourite time of year; and if some commercial enterprise happens to hate Christmas, and wants to take Christmas out of Christmas, they are not going to be creating Good Will for me, nor anyone I know.
8:53 am
Stan said:
"Happy Holidays" doesn't cut it for me, since I'm retired and have been on "Holidays" every day of the year for the past twenty years. For me, it's "Christmas", my favourite time of year; and if some commercial enterprise happens to hate Christmas, and wants to take Christmas out of Christmas, they are not going to be creating Good Will for me, nor anyone I know.
Congratulations on 20 year of retirement! While you may be on permanent holidays, you may have non-retired friends and/or family who are not, so it still can be a holiday season, but I, and many companies out there, don't know your particular situation, and that's what makes it hard for some of them to say "Merry Christmas".
"Merry Christmas" for the reason of "preserving Christ in Christmas" may not cut it for others as well and that's the dilemma that company's face. It is interesting that you mention a Jewish greeting when you brought this up. I would think that the Jewish would not be so interested in "preserving Christ in Christmas" since that is one of the fundamental differences between Judaism and Christianity. While a majority of people in Canada may accept "Merry Christmas", it may alienate a minority of people, and because most companies don't really know the religion of their customers, and whether a particular demographic of their customer base provides more business than others, then it makes sense to try to cater to everyone. "Happy Holidays" should technically be an all-inclusive greeting, however, this appears not to be the case and I find this most puzzling.
Maybe you are correct, the best course of action for any company, is to probably not mention anything at all.
12:50 pm
October 5, 2009
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Andrew said:
So, I assume that the greeting "Happy Holidays" is simply offensive because, as the link says, it doesn't "preserve Christ this Christmas".
No. There is more to Christmas than Christ! Christmas is also about Scrooge! And Scrooge was a banker! 😉 There is something there for everybody.
9:55 am
Stan said:
No. There is more to Christmas than Christ! Christmas is also about Scrooge! And Scrooge was a banker! 😉 There is something there for everybody.
Well ... can't argue with that because that makes perfect sense...??? Regardless, are you still banking with Maxa despite being such a nightmare to deal with and being blatantly offensive to you? Or are you stuck because of your GIC and refuse to do any other type of banking with them?
1:39 pm
October 5, 2009
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Andrew said: Or are you stuck because of your GIC and refuse to do any other type of banking with them?
I wouldn't exactly describe any of my GICs as being "stuck"! Way back in 2008, I figured interest rates would soon be taking a dive, so I stuffed a lot of $$$ into 5 year GICs at 5.25%!! I'm good with that kind of return until 2013. I don't have that much with Maxa. Just enough for them to be annoying. Most of it is with Achieva and Outlook; and they have been wonderful to deal with. But with the new player in MB, Accelerate; I'm going to start funneling stuff in that direction.
I'm currently in the process of tossing out decades of financial records; and you know, my rate of return in 1980~ was 25%!!
4:37 pm
So surprised at the negativity about Maxa, the girls are great, online banking is fine, not to mention the great rates. I needed to complete my ladder and their long term rates are above all the rest.
I didn't mind getting a greeting either:smile:
9:04 am
This thread on financial dealings seems to have been hijacked by prophets.
As far as I'm concerned, holiday greetings are inappropriate for business dealings. I think "Happy holidays" covers things perfectly well, and I think that anyone who feels they have to get "respect" from business partners for their religion should go sit in the corner with people who believe in bombing people who make fun of their religious leaders, be they scientologists or muslims or whatever.
It's NOT a christian world, or a jewish one, or anything else. If you take offense at people who don't respect your philosophical stance (or choice of fantasy, if you're a pastafarian or Klingon) don't be surprised if they keep on not respecting you.
Back to business, please!
PS: Every credit union or co-op has to have an ownership interest - but your shares AND earnings get refunded to you when you sever ties with the institution.
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