Your recent article on the demise of Santa Barbara Bank and Trust reminded me of the run-in I had with then-CEO Tom Thomas. I had been a customer since the bank’s inception and mostly banked by mail, always receiving a receipt. Suddenly receipts stopped. I called every customer service line available only to find out no one knew what I was talking about, not even main branch, or the manager of my local branch. So finally I wrote a letter to Tom Thomas, informing him of my “adventures” and pointing out that, in my opinion, the bank had gone corporate and no longer cared about the individual customer and since that was the way they chose to operate, I was removing my trust from Santa Barbara Bank & Trust. Turns out I made a wise decision.
