Mechanics Bank - North Berkeley Branch

I love being a client at Mechanic's Bank. The bank tellers are so friendly and helpful. The bank also supports non-profits that are doing good work in the community..

I love this bank and their personalized service. The tellers are friendly and go above and beyond to help you.

I used to love Mechanics bank. People knew me (and greeted me by name) when I came in the door. The service was good. The online banking system (outsourced to intuit) is good for a small bank. They were bought a few years ago, however, and things have been going downhill since then. My last visit, there had been 100% turnaround of the staff, the teller was texting when I came up to the window and made me wait until she was finished. They've always been conservative with respect to loan qualifications, and if anything, have gotten even more so, so my 20-year relationship to the back counts for almost nothing when it comes to applying for a business loan.

Don't bother.
I made the mistake of opening a personal account at a local Mechanics branch. That has turned into a headache. Despite the poor experience, I really wanted to get my business accounts out of felonious wells fargo, and hoped that experience with a business account would be better at Mechanics than my experience with the personal account. I will never know, because the staff at the Albany branch are next to useless, and the ones at this branch never return calls. They are clearly not interested in new customers. The one in downtown Berkeley was helpful, but since my goal was to keep it very local, it doesn't make sense for me to open an account at a branch I won't use when I already know how frustrating it is to deal with the closer branches.
Oh, and they charge non-waivable monthly service fees for accounts that are free elsewhere. I'm not keen on paying for the "privilege" of letting them use my money and waste my time. Amateur hour at its worst.

NOT A SMALL BANK. The people who work here are basically brain dead. If at any point they are called upon to apply some nuance and understanding to a situation they instead just repeat the same memorized lines over and over. Hours are also terrible.

The ATM does not have selection for what cash bills you prefer when withdrawing.
Went inside to exchange cash for the bills I needed, and they would not exchange the cash for me because I didn’t have an account with them (regardless their ATM charged me a fee of course). Bummer customer service.

Dont call people at 8am on a Saturday.