Friday, August 03, 2007

Things that are messed up. Example 1: My bank

Although you'd think a bank would have an incentive to run efficiently and maximise convenience to their customers, thanks to competition and market forces and all, my bank is less efficiently run and much more irritating than any government department I have ever had the comparative good-fortune to deal with. This makes no sense to me.

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Last time I went to the bank there was an impatient queue of eight people, and only one person serving. There were, however, four other staff members efficiently employed in hanging balloons and streamers around the room. You can imagine how I felt about that after my 53 minute wait to get to the counter.

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The tail-end of today's bank experience:

The teller: "Thank you. Goodbye."

Me: "Before I go, can I just say that every other time I come in here, whoever I have dealt with has tried to sell me something. I really appreciate that you haven't. It drives me mad when I want something simple, and have to fend off unwanted information on insurance, mortgage rates and financial advice."

The teller: "Oh no! I forgot!"

Me: "No! It was great! I was going to write and complain about all the unwanted pressure to buy extra products, but now I'll be sure to mention how much more relaxing my visit today was."

The teller: "No! Please don't tell them I forgot to try to sell you a new product! I could get fired!"
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:29 PM

    That didn't really happen. Did it?

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  2. Ianqui12:47 AM

    Well, I guess it's back to the first letter, then.

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  3. Anonymous3:45 AM

    good god.

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  4. Badaunt2:22 PM

    My bank doesn't try to sell me anything, so I suppose I should be grateful. On the other hand, they don't seem to like doing ANYTHING for me, much. The one and only time I ever tried to use Japanese travellers' cheques, I got them from my local branch (after a great deal of fuss, because nobody seemed to know what to do), and after I came back from my trip I still had one travellers' cheque, for ¥10,000, left, so I took it into the bank to change it.

    It took over an hour. First I had to persuade them to do it at all ("Sorry, we don't deal with travellers' cheques...") and when I explained that they had issued the travellers' cheque themselves they looked at me as if I'd sprouted an extra head. After a great deal of shouting and carrying on they insisted on seeing my passport, which I had to go home for. I had my BANKBOOK with me, and my CARD. I was their CUSTOMER, and THEY had issued the travellers' cheques. But they didn't know what it was, and had to have a meeting to decide what to do about it. It was amazing.

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