Netbank Small Business' Customer Service Sucks

Banks generally appreciate your business. Well, not Netbank. They seem to think that it's okay to treat a customer (one that has been with them for 4 years) like dirt.
Last week, I decided to open a small business checking account for my web marketing consulting services to separate it from my personal finances. I had been using Netbank for my personal banking for a few years and was confident in my decision to open a business account with them.

I fill out the online application form, and the next day a "relationship manager" e-mails me, asking me to send him a copy of my drivers' license. Standard procedure.

I e-mail the guy a scanned image of my drivers' license, and then I don't hear back from him. After a couple of days, thinking that it's strange that I haven't heard back I check the application status on Netbank's website. "Application Denied" or something like that. I call up the guy who initially contacted me and ask him for an explanation. He reluctantly tells me that there was a problem with my drivers' license. I have to virtually pry this out of him because he apparently thinks that I'm engaged in fraudulent activity. After about 10min. of pulling teeth, he informs me that the copy of the drivers' license that I had sent him had been visibly altered. This is news to me. I got my drivers' license from the DMV - how could it be altered?

Netbank somehow thinks that if they receive ID and there appears to be something wrong with it, that it's okay to not even inform the customer about it and flat out turn down their application and not notify them. That's world class customer service there.

I'm then informed that I need to contact someone in the "Risk Department", since these are the people who apparently verify the IDs. I get a hold of someone, explain the situation, and am told that I need to go to the DMV and obtain proof that my license is legit. I'm told that I need to have the DMV write a letter to Netbank verifying the ID and have it accompanied by the name and phone number of the person writing the letter. If you've dealt with the New York State DMV before, you know that they're not going to do that.

I go to the DMV anyway, I'm told that there is nothing wrong with my license, and I pay for a copy of my driving record, which has all the same information as the license on it. I call the risk department guy back, leave a message, then call him again the following business day. I tell him what I got from the DMV, and he asks me to fax it over. At this point, I'm positive that either Netbank or the DMV made a mistake when verifying my ID (apparently Netbank calls the DMV to verify) and I tell this to the guy. He tells me that he'll call the DMV back and try to verify it again. He sounds like he will get to it right away, and I would like to think that they would give this issue a priority. I don't hear back from him that day, so I follow up with a phone call the next day, and leave a message. I never hear from him again.

I have never been so frustrated with a financial institution before in my life. You may wonder why I was so persistent - why didn't I just take my business elsewhere. Well, my previous experiences with Netbank were good, and I thought that this issue could be easily worked out by working with their reps. I guess I had faith in them, but now whenever anyone mentions Netbank, I won't be able to help but think of this atrocity. So in the end, I did take my business to another bank, but still a little bitter.

Just an addendum - while turning down my application, they also decided to close my personal account as well. And I was a loyal customer of 4 years, eager to give them more business when my service was disrupted because of a mistake in the verification process which they refused to confront.