They changed their call handling a while back. You will most likely never again reach anybody at that bank. It is absolutely amazing that even a bank would think they can do business like that. Another case of a company getting productivity gains at the expense of their customers, who get productivity losses. Rant over.
As for the notary shop, I've never done it because the rotations on the bank branches are 3 to 6 months and I don't want to blow one on a $15 shop when all the others pay more. I only have a handful of branches here.