Upon returning from vacation, I discovered notices of four certified letters at home and at our business address, all from KeyBank, notifying me that they had closed all four of our accounts with them, one over two decades old and another dating back more than thirty years.
The reason given was, "as permitted by the Deposit Account Agreement and Funds Availability Policy, but I was invited to call 1-800-625-3256 with any questions.
Upon calling that number, and of course waiting in queue for the eventual wasted effort of listening to an arrogant young woman officiously inform me parent-to-child, that they legally did not have to give me a reason for canceling our accounts.
Who thought for a moment they weren't covered with legalese? I spent the effort and time holding on line to ask as a business person, after decades of good relationship, if they might feel the slightest moral obligation to share.
When I pressed, she simply said that they didn't want my kind of business, leaving me to wonder which kind of business she was implying, but unwilling to vocalize.
Was it the in-your-face Skunk Pharm Research, LLC site, oriented toward medical cannabis and whose income is from presenting legal instruction classes to legal medical marijuana patient, or presenting world class scientific lecturers to the general public, on related medical subjects like the endocannabinoid system and the medical properties of plant terpenes?
No cannabis or cannabis products bought or sold, and no state or federal laws broken there. In fact, no sales of anything but education, covered by the First Amendment. No bounced checks or disruptive activity.
Is KeyBank attempting to use their financial clout in an attempt to control what education is available to us on the subject of cannabis?
How about our now closed manufacturing engineering program management consulting services company account, which manages facilities and equipment design, manufacture, and installation? It also doesn't sell cannabis or cannabis products, nor violate any Oregon or federal laws, or have bounced checks or disruptive activity.
Is KeyBank against small start up consulting engineering businesses?
Of course, they're refusing to say, but closing my 65 year old wife's personal account of thirty years, where she simply deposited her paycheck from working as a legal assistant and paid household bills certainly doesn't set off any alarms, as she doesn't bounce checks, and has an excellent credit rating. Of no business of theirs of course, but she also doesn't use cannabis
Neither does closing our household account where we process the money from our rentals and accumulate our property taxes for November tax festivities. Another decades old account with no bounced checks or unwarranted activity and a clear audit trail as to exactly where the money comes from.
No cannabis grown at any our rentals and there is no secret how we acquired the properties.
We've had them for 20 to 30 years and got them the hard way by investing income from salaries, bonuses, and stock options before professionally retiring in 2005, as well as sweat labor remodeling them. Again a clear audit trail.
KeyBank closing Skunk Pharm Research might be accepted as a conservative business decision, but heavy handedly closing things not remotely related to Skunk Pharm Research, makes it clear that it is not our kind of business that they eschew, but our kind that they are actively taking action against.
I challenge KeyBank to show a list of any rules or law that we violated, or that they have similarly shut down all other legal assistant's 30 year old personal accounts, and all accounts dealing with rental properties and tax escrows.
I perceive their action as using their money to make a political statement, which is their right, as is my equal right to answer that political statement with this posting making everyone aware of KeyBank's abusive actions against our common cannabis interest.
Before revealing my suggested response, may I further add to ya'll brother and sisters perspective just how low and arrogantly petty KeyBank upper management really is?
Setting aside the minor "inconvenience" of suddenly losing a bank account with international business wheels in motion, and throwing away expensive, but now unusable business checks, stamps, etc, can you possibly believe that after telling us they were closing all our accounts at their whim and our inconvenience, they still charged me $45 early closing fee to close my most recently opened account??? A policy that is un-negotiable at a branch level, regardless of circumstances............
I swear to god, I have the receipt and why would I make something that bizarre up, given how hard it is to believe????
We all know that it doesn't help to yell at the nice folks at the branches, when it is the arrogant voices on phones, telling you that their policies aren't up for discussion.
What I've found especially gets the attention of arrogantly omnipotent bullies, is simple numbers, followed by multiple zeroes, so I officially challenge everyone who uses KeyBank and cares about how they abusively use their financial leverage to thwart legal medical cannabis, to move their accounts to a different bank and tell Key Bank why.
I also encourage all of ya'll who don't have KeyBank accounts, to call or write KeyBank and tell them why you never will and that you will be telling your friends not to as well.
I will post this on forums around the world and encourage anyone who finds KeyBanks actions offensive to copy it and pass it on.
Lastly, I encourage you to join me in contacting our legislators and tell them why we want them to present and support legislation preventing banks like KeyBank from using their financial might to casually trample those whom they choose at their whim, under the thinly veiled guise of legitimate business decisions.
The reason given was, "as permitted by the Deposit Account Agreement and Funds Availability Policy, but I was invited to call 1-800-625-3256 with any questions.
Upon calling that number, and of course waiting in queue for the eventual wasted effort of listening to an arrogant young woman officiously inform me parent-to-child, that they legally did not have to give me a reason for canceling our accounts.
Who thought for a moment they weren't covered with legalese? I spent the effort and time holding on line to ask as a business person, after decades of good relationship, if they might feel the slightest moral obligation to share.
When I pressed, she simply said that they didn't want my kind of business, leaving me to wonder which kind of business she was implying, but unwilling to vocalize.
Was it the in-your-face Skunk Pharm Research, LLC site, oriented toward medical cannabis and whose income is from presenting legal instruction classes to legal medical marijuana patient, or presenting world class scientific lecturers to the general public, on related medical subjects like the endocannabinoid system and the medical properties of plant terpenes?
No cannabis or cannabis products bought or sold, and no state or federal laws broken there. In fact, no sales of anything but education, covered by the First Amendment. No bounced checks or disruptive activity.
Is KeyBank attempting to use their financial clout in an attempt to control what education is available to us on the subject of cannabis?
How about our now closed manufacturing engineering program management consulting services company account, which manages facilities and equipment design, manufacture, and installation? It also doesn't sell cannabis or cannabis products, nor violate any Oregon or federal laws, or have bounced checks or disruptive activity.
Is KeyBank against small start up consulting engineering businesses?
Of course, they're refusing to say, but closing my 65 year old wife's personal account of thirty years, where she simply deposited her paycheck from working as a legal assistant and paid household bills certainly doesn't set off any alarms, as she doesn't bounce checks, and has an excellent credit rating. Of no business of theirs of course, but she also doesn't use cannabis
Neither does closing our household account where we process the money from our rentals and accumulate our property taxes for November tax festivities. Another decades old account with no bounced checks or unwarranted activity and a clear audit trail as to exactly where the money comes from.
No cannabis grown at any our rentals and there is no secret how we acquired the properties.
We've had them for 20 to 30 years and got them the hard way by investing income from salaries, bonuses, and stock options before professionally retiring in 2005, as well as sweat labor remodeling them. Again a clear audit trail.
KeyBank closing Skunk Pharm Research might be accepted as a conservative business decision, but heavy handedly closing things not remotely related to Skunk Pharm Research, makes it clear that it is not our kind of business that they eschew, but our kind that they are actively taking action against.
I challenge KeyBank to show a list of any rules or law that we violated, or that they have similarly shut down all other legal assistant's 30 year old personal accounts, and all accounts dealing with rental properties and tax escrows.
I perceive their action as using their money to make a political statement, which is their right, as is my equal right to answer that political statement with this posting making everyone aware of KeyBank's abusive actions against our common cannabis interest.
Before revealing my suggested response, may I further add to ya'll brother and sisters perspective just how low and arrogantly petty KeyBank upper management really is?
Setting aside the minor "inconvenience" of suddenly losing a bank account with international business wheels in motion, and throwing away expensive, but now unusable business checks, stamps, etc, can you possibly believe that after telling us they were closing all our accounts at their whim and our inconvenience, they still charged me $45 early closing fee to close my most recently opened account??? A policy that is un-negotiable at a branch level, regardless of circumstances............
I swear to god, I have the receipt and why would I make something that bizarre up, given how hard it is to believe????
We all know that it doesn't help to yell at the nice folks at the branches, when it is the arrogant voices on phones, telling you that their policies aren't up for discussion.
What I've found especially gets the attention of arrogantly omnipotent bullies, is simple numbers, followed by multiple zeroes, so I officially challenge everyone who uses KeyBank and cares about how they abusively use their financial leverage to thwart legal medical cannabis, to move their accounts to a different bank and tell Key Bank why.
I also encourage all of ya'll who don't have KeyBank accounts, to call or write KeyBank and tell them why you never will and that you will be telling your friends not to as well.
I will post this on forums around the world and encourage anyone who finds KeyBanks actions offensive to copy it and pass it on.
Lastly, I encourage you to join me in contacting our legislators and tell them why we want them to present and support legislation preventing banks like KeyBank from using their financial might to casually trample those whom they choose at their whim, under the thinly veiled guise of legitimate business decisions.
