Banking

[Old_Geezer]

Thought I'd pass this information on. Maybe everyone else already knows, maybe they don't care, but :

Over the Xmas break I had a need to visit a bank to both pay a bill, and pay in a few cheques too. I had one of the staff assume I was an idiot and insisted she showed me the way to pay in cheques at the ATM. As if I couldn't do such a thing for myself were I foolish enough to want to. She said she was sure I would be pleased with it even though I insisted it can not stamp my cheque (or paying in book) so there was no chance I'd be pleased with it. But I allow myself to get pushed around too much so let her do her thing.

After a few goes (the cheques were too pristine to be recognised until crumpled apparently) the cheques were finally accepted, and she presented me with this damned till receipt which I now have to ensure I don't lose, when doing the job the proper way would have ensured a counterfoil in my cheque book which was very unlikely to be lost. Clearly an inferior method, much less convenient. Another drop in service it seems, which is all too common, day after day after day, these days.

But the one incident aside, after all I had just been proved right, the staff had proved she had no idea, and I could ensure I don't let them show me that an inferior lack of service is not something to be pleased with on any future occasion. But for one thing she said.

She said that all banks were doing away with paying in slips in the future and words to the effect of so I'd just have to lump it because clearly as customers, the public are just dregs to be pushed around as the almighty banks see fit. I'm sure she put a better spin on it, but that was the gist. Blow you unimportant lot, you'll just have to put up with it because we all connive to act as a group to do what suits us, not you.

It took a huge fuss to stop them doing away with cheque books. Is there no campaign to stop this secondary attack on the public's banking services also ?

[Buenchico]

I was paying in cheques at Abbey National ATMs 20 years ago, so it's not exactly new technology!

I paid in a cheque this afternoon at Barclays. I could have used a machine but, as there was no queue, I went to a counter. I didn't need a paying-in slip; the cashier simply swiped by debit car, typed the amount on her keyboard and handed me the printed receipt. The whole procedure took under 30 seconds.

[Jackdaw33]

A friend of mine insists on cashing cheques over the counter rather than use his ATM card. When pressed as to why he replied that if everyone did as she suggested she would soon find herself on the dole. He was preserving her job.

[Old_Geezer]

And for saving a bit of time you accept all the disadvantages ? Not for me.

It's as bad as the self service tills at supermarkets where you aren't even important enough to expect service. At least there they are a choice, as long as you accept the longer queues at the fewer till left, and the mechanical "unexpected item..." chatter coming from them. But I digress to a comparative situation.

I'm unsure this method having been around a while makes it any more palatable.

[Old_Geezer]

Given how few 'man' the counter these days I think most have them have already been given the push. Disgraceful.

[woofgang]

I have used the new scanning system for paying in cheques and was very happy with it. So far as I am aware, both methods are currently available at my local bank, you can also pay a cheque over the counter in using your ATM card.

[Buenchico]

I will happily queue for several minutes to use a self-service till in a supermarket, rather than go to a staffed one!

[TheWinner]

I've had this too. I was tut tutted at, and made to feel very uncomfortable in front of the queue when I said I didn't want to learn how to use a machine to do my transactions. If they don't want to serve us, why are they there?

[Gavmacp]

We have this with our central Post Office where instead of dealing with a human being and being reassured it has been posted correctly you are sheparded to a machine. Then have to wait a very long time for the assistant to help you as it is so easy that she will have to deal with 2 to 3 other 'confused' customers.

[Tilly2]

Our local Lloyds Bank has recently been refurbished. Now, we have two instead of five assistants and a whole new wall of paying in, withdrawing machines. If you have a query, it takes at least 20 minutes in the queue, where you meet with and talk and grumble to people you do not know.

Progress?

[tonyav]

Same in our recently refurbished HSBC branch.

[Maydup]

There is no longer a counter in our bank nor the one next door. Just machines and people to help us use them, or to make an appointmnet to see an advisor.

[Cloverjo]

I used one of those bank machines to pay in a cheque a little while ago. The machine mashed up the cheque so it wasn't accepted, but was "retained" by the machine. The person with the key had gone for lunch, so I had to accept the assistant's promise, with no actual receipt, that it would be paid in later. It was, but I was paying it in for someone else, so I was rather concerned.

[VHG]

I wonder how much old_geezer you pay to have your bank account and pay in all these cheques?

If, like me, you probably pay nothing to have a bank account.

And yet you expect the banks to fill their branches with staff handling all this mundane stuff that can be done by a machine.

We all fill our cars ourselves with petrol and yet years ago a person would come out the booth and fill your car up for you.

Nowadays we are encouraged to do all the work at a till in a supermarket or other large store (the other day I went to B&Q and they had nobody on the till and you had to do it all yourself)

Get used to it, it is the future.

[Jackdaw33]

...and the advisor will either say, "Computer says,yes", or "computer says, no". Long gone are the days of a private appointment with the branch manager.

[Gavmacp]

What we call 'the future' is for the masses and not the individual. I once watched an old man buying cheese and I could tell what he was thinking. It was a family pack and he was thinking will I be able to eat this before it goes off? It maybe the future but not one I am relishing!

[Tilly2]

I have a friend who works in a bank and she now hates her job. She is expected to meet targets for sales of the banks products. So s he now has to ask people she has been dealing with for thirty years inane questions about their finances and their insurance requirements and their savings targets. She cannot wait to retire.

Banking has changed.

[Gavmacp]

My cousin worked for the BoS for 30 years but got so fed up she left and works on the tills in tesco.

[TheWinner]

VHG, what about those of use who have more than one transaction to deal with. Like pay in a cheque, organise a direct debit. and get some change? Whilst being made to feel like we are a pain in the ****?

[Jennykenny]

I hate the fact that my local Barclays have removed the counter staff and now have about six people trailing around the area with iPads to 'help' people instead.
They are there to 'train' us to use the machines and then they, the staff themselves, will be done away with. If you actually want to speak to someone about a problem you have to make an appointment later in the week. As a retired person I find it infuriating but what must it be like for people who are actually still working a normal week I can't imagine.
Recently I have had to write to the head office twice because no-one in the local branch could tell me why I was suddenly getting about £20.00 a month paid into my account or why a large amount had gone 'missing' from the same account. I would change banks but they all seem to be the same useless lot.

[Peter Pedant]

those supermarket boopers are another machine of the devil

sorry to hear that the pay in slip will soon be a thing of the past
inevitable change Old G old chap

someone will tell me when they did away with tally sticks ....

If you pay in more than one cheque at a time ( frquent for me coz I rich see ? ) then you have to keep separate records as the stub is not sufficient

also I scan with my copmuter scanner every cheque I have written and every cheque I pay in