Robert Erlandson felt vindicated on Tuesday, Sept. 8, about his strategy to take time to pay all his bills online before Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp completed its acquisition of Comerica Bank on the day after Labor Day. Why? Nothing worked for him as of Tuesday afternoon.
Erlandson, who lives in Birmingham, said it was simply a mess trying to set up his online banking account.
As much as Fifth Third talked a smooth transition, several customers told the Detroit Free Press that they found online banking to be anything but smooth. They expressed much frustration about being unable to access their online accounts Tuesday even after they did what they thought they were supposed to do.
Major bank merger 'most complex undertaking'
A Fifth Third spokesperson said the conversion was the "culmination
of the largest and most complex undertaking in the shared history of our two companies."
The bank said it sent customers information to help them prepare for the change and know what to expect beginning a few months ago.
"Because the Tuesday after a holiday is typically one of the busiest times for any bank — and given the scope of this transition — we anticipated higher-than-usual call volumes and branch traffic, and we staffed accordingly," the bank said in a statement sent to the Detroit Free Press.
The bank said it planned to extend its hours at its call center on Tuesday evening to work with customers who had concerns and issues.
The bank reached out to Erlandson to fix the problem after I shared his name and concerns. Erlandson said he is meeting with a bank representative Wednesday morning to get the assistance he needs. He reiterated on Wednesday, Sept. 9, that employees at the branch were doing their very best on Tuesday, Sept. 8.
Erlandson said he followed the instructions sent by the bank on how to handle the transition. He used his phone, went through the required steps and set up his online account for shortly before 11 a.m. on Sept. 8. He thought it worked.
"Everything worked fine and it came back and said: 'You are now registered,' " said Erlandson, who is a professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering at Wayne State University in Detroit.
He went to his appointment at noon, thinking that everything was done.
Yet he's not been able to access his account online. "Their system did not recognize me," he said.
Erlandson went through the process online about eight times, he said, following the instructions and it just kept recycling.
He stopped by a Fifth Third branch in Birmingham, but he discovered maybe 20 customers or more at the bank. "Every teller was filled," he said.
He talked to other customers who had trouble with their online banking. He decided to go home and call an 800-number but could not get through, saying he thought that number even appeared to be disconnected.
"I think the system just got screwed up," said Erlandson, who is 83.
"What I found most frustrating is there should have been more ways for people to get help," he said.
Oakland Township man, others share online banking woes
David Boike, who lives in Oakland Township, expressed similar frustrations about the online banking process.
Boike, 75, said he retired from a major financial services firm where he was a senior manager in the IT function for 22 years. He acknowledged that he's likely sensitive to these types of conversion issues since he once had responsibilities to cover projects that included new system implementation.
"Contrary to the assurance in 5/3's Welcome Package that this would be a seamless transition — it is a major headache from the banking customer's perspective," Boike said.
He outlined some specific complaints that he experienced.
"The online banking portal did not allow access to my account," Boike said. "I had to go to the branch and have bank management enable my account access."
"The bill payment function did not migrate the historical data for all the payees we do business with," he said. He explained that included utilities, car payments, credit cards, and medical providers.
And he said he found no record of online deposits or payments prior to Sept. 4, 2026.
Boike planned to go to a bank branch on Wednesday, Sept. 9, to see if he could get more help.
I stopped by a Fifth Third branch on Main Street in Royal Oak after 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 8, to randomly talk to customers. The lobby wasn't jam packed then. But some customers I talked with in the parking lot had complaints about online banking.
One customer who declined to give his name said he found difficulty setting up the online banking transition after following the steps first on Saturday, then Sunday and then Tuesday morning. Nothing worked. He said he went into an old Comerica branch, now branded Fifth Third, on Woodward Avenue in Bloomfield Hills on Tuesday, where he saw many customers with issues.
After some 45 minutes at that branch, he said he was able to resolve his problem and get the online account up and running.
Two customers outside the Royal Oak Fifth Third branch complained that the ATM would not allow them to deposit their checks. They went into the bank to deposit the checks.
A Fifth Third spokesperson told the Detroit Free Press that ATM issues at the Royal Oak branch during the afternoon on Tuesday, Sept. 8, were unrelated to the conversion. A tech was dispatched and the ATM was repaired by Tuesday evening, according to the spokesperson.
Technical conversion involved 600,000 customer accounts
On Sept. 8, Fifth Third Bancorp completed its technical conversion of approximately 600,000 customer accounts and 293 banking centers across Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Texas from the Comerica franchise. All Comerica consumer and commercial customers shifted onto Fifth Third’s platforms.
The technology and brand conversion over the Labor Day weekend completed the integration that began when the two bank powerhouses merged on Feb. 1, 2026. Fifth Third is now the ninth-largest U.S. bank with more than $300 billion in assets. The bank says it has "operations in 17 of the 20 fastest-growing large U.S. metropolitan areas, and a retail footprint that reaches more than half of the U.S. population."
According to a Fifth Third spokesperson, Tuesday was spent "helping a lot of people with first time login questions."
"Anecdotally across our footprint today we’ve encountered lots of happy customers in branches after we’ve helped them," the spokesperson said.
Jamie Leonard, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Fifth Third, said the ultimate goal is to create a better banking experience for customers.
"Success for us is measured one customer at a time," Leonard said in a statement provided to the Free Press.
"While a conversion of this size can create challenges for some customers in the first few days, our branch and call center teams are fully engaged and committed to helping every single customer transition to our Fifth Third platform. We appreciate our customers’ patience and apologize for any inconvenience.”
Contact personal finance columnist Susan Tompor: stompor@freepress.com. Follow her on X @tompor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Fifth Third-Comerica merger leaves some customers angry over glitches
