To think this service was just terrible? This man was on a power trip

Hysterical 😂 😂 😂

Definitely YANBU complain! You may get a survey through about the visit to the branch by email, mark it negatively and request a call back.
It's easy to make a complaint on their website as well though.
Understand he may have had paperwork to do but manners cost nothing.
Also, not everyone wants to use mobile banking. For a sum like 20k I'd go into a branch there's so much noise about scams these days and I'd make noise after if this happened to me!!!

As an older person I really dislike the sort of ageism that dismisses “old biddies” or makes silly assumptions. I think this person is very silly though, shooting herself in the foot. I would be grateful for an enhanced customer service. I would only use it if I was stumped by something. Life is getting complicated and there are a few things I just don’t know how to do. I can try googling “How to do X on your iPhone “ but it becomes a giant pita.

I can see both sides tbh. Have had to transfer fairly large amounts as an Executor of a will and made an appointment to do it. The staff were lovely. Told me that they had two romance scams in the last month which they tried to stop. The two elderly people left without the transfers being done and saying they would just do the transfers themselves over a few days. I hope that the bank flagged something on their account if they did.

Yes, banks branches are reducing all over and I am not at all convinced that what you are told by a call centre is always correct especially when they are based offshore. I got a significant amount of compensation when I was given incorrect information by a untrained call centre agent as they listened to the call recording.

Whenever I had been to a branch there are always people who take up an awful lot of time with simple queries i.e paying in cheques and one elderly women was asking the staff member to take out £200 using her PIN which she would give to her! It was written on a post it note but she felt as she was at the branch someone could do it for her.

I do think they should do something to help elderly people do banking though. It's unrealistic to expect Joe in his 80s to remember three passwords and then know how to set up a payee on his app.

They should have a simplified version.

Yes I see your side.

But what if the companies don't want to provide face to face customer service.

They don't have to. They're running a business and they can choose to do whatever they want to do, to make their business the most efficient.

If you want to book a flight with any of the major airlines most people do it online now. Most people book hotels online now.

A lot of companies - you'll find it very hard to get through to a person. It's all chat bots and Web apps.

It can be inconvenient for us, but businesses are going to to whatever is most efficient for them at the end of the day.

Human customer service us being phased out altogether. It'll be chatbots

The banks could just respond to what customers ask for and provide what many see as a basic level of service.
For example, there is no reason to offer the likes of my folks ‘enhanced support’, or to make them feel vulnerable or patronised with such an offer. If the banks simply allowed in person banking for those who want it, they might avoid insulting their customers.
So many dreadful examples of the way people are treated, with no acknowledgement of customer preference as a simple guiding principle. People who can use the app/digital options may also have good reasons to chose not to, and some sort of respect for customers isn’t actually a huge ask.
The current shift means yet more risk for the most vulnerable - such as the examples of elderly people having to discuss withdrawal of large sums and take from cash machines in front of a queue - or loss of independence and privacy as they are forced to prematurely hand over their affairs.

I do agree with you in that there should be a better banking system for elderly people .

However the banks hands are tied in a way.

If they started to provide a different service just for elderly people, they would be sued for being agist by some older people.

The bank that I was working in, tried to provide what they called an 'enhanced customer service support ' for a lady that was deaf.

She then went on to sue the bank, because they called her a "vulnerable customer", in their dealings with her.

I think they said to her "we provide enhanced customer support for vulnerable customers".

And she took huge offence at the word vulnerable , as she didn't think deafness made her vulnerable.

So if the bank provided special services for older people, they would get sued by some old people who don't feel "old" or "vulnerable" .

It's hard

But who decides if the customer can ‘quickly do it on the app’? My parents’ bank decided they should do pretty much everything online. Like a lot of people in their late 80s, they struggle with that system.
And they are extremely vulnerable to online fraud and messages that look much like their bank. The only workaround left for us is for me to do all their banking for them, online, during visits. But they are proud, independent people who are perfectly capable of visiting their local branch and doing their own banking, if only a basic service remained. Stripping people of tasks they are able to do is a really harsh way to make people feel useless, when they aren’t. A civilised society shouldn’t lock people out, and it’s disturbing to see how blind those in thrall to the system can be to this

I wouldn't necessarily conclude that the person who served OP was being deliberately unhelpful. He was probably doing what he had been told to do.
I find it worrying that there seems to be a plan to close branches and put everything online.
I am in my 70s. I do use the bank app but I wouldn't know what to do if I was told to use facial recognition. I don't want to start asking family to help me manage my money etc. People are going to start losing their independence and privacy sooner than necessary.
It does depend what job you did but I had never used a computer until I was 55. I still know a few people who don't have smartphones.
People in their 70s could live another 15 years and are going to be excluded, as are people with disabilities. I don't see why anyone else should be forced down the DIY route if they don't want to be either.

Oh for goodness sake. I'm out, this is getting repetitive.

Where does it say anywhere that bank branches do offer that particular service that the Op wanted though? (Funds transfer)

If anyone wants to do a funds transfer , no matter what bank they are with, they will be told to do it on the app.

Customers 'preference' doesn't really matter.

I could ring booking.com and tell them I want their customer service Advisor to book me a hotel, and give her my card details over the phone to do it for me .

they won't do it for me, they will direct me to do it myself on a website.

Impossible to tell

Ok Kellyanne, we get it. You used to work in a bank, and you would have no problem using the app. But this isn't about you. Some customers prefer to do it differently. You seem unable to understand that some people want to do it differently than you do. And if a business claims to offer a service then they should provide it. Even the presence of customers makes it slightly less efficient. Pesky customers eh, getting in the way.

Bank threads interest me obviously as i used to work for one.

I can understand the customers point of view, where they get frustrated, and they think the banks are rude

I would also like customers to see it from the bank worker's perspective.

When I was working there in the bank, the overwhelming majority of customers were rude abusive demanding and nasty. I'd say about 70%. 30% of people were nice and polite

And i dealt with hundreds of them a day. I dealt with people coming into branch and I was also dealing with customer calls and emails.

I got multitudes of questions per day that were ridiculous.
For example. I would get about twenty people telling me a day - that they had locked themselves out of their online banking and could I get them back in.

This was a thing that they absolutely had to do themselves online. I literally couldn't do it for them. The security system is set up so only they, not anyone else can see their new temporary password.

I would direct them where to to do it on the website and explain to them over and over that they had to choose a new password themselves online , that I couldn't do that step for them.

I would get answers all the time like "oh but I'm not good with technology" (eh didn't you just tell me what you booked flights with a card online, choosing a new password isn't any harder."
And
"I have to do that myself? Will you not just do it for me"
And
"Oh I'm not good at things like that, will you just give me a handhold at that step? "

And "will you not just tell me the new password here at the counter? "

Then you get the abusive customers. If they had done something wrong like locked themselves out of their app by putting the password in wrong , they would come in and shout at me and tell me "you locked me out of the app again".

I had people coming into do things, with absolutely no details.
They'd say "will you send 5000 to my brother".
Yes what's his account number? "Eh i don't know but I know he banks with barclays and I can give you his name. Will you not find him that way".

I had so many customers demanding that things be done right now .

I had people shouting and swearing at me every week.

I had at least one person every week threaten to me that they were going to leave the bank if we didn't do what they wanted to do.

Like who cares. You're free to go wherever you want. We dont force you to stay and bank with us.

They would say wth ia big dramatic flourish "well i'll go and join another bank"

Like I care in the slightest if they leave and go to another bank. Its their choice. It doesn't hurt me.

If they are a particularly abusive customer I would actually be thinking "great, please do leave".

But I would always say to them "of course. Its your choice where you want to bank"

If you think bank workers are incompetent, go and work in a bank, and see how hard it is dealing with abusive threatening customers every day.

It was an experience and I learned a lot. I wouldn't do it again though!

Do you also need someone to cut up your dinner and feed you?

What is this bizarre obsession with having someone else do something you can do yourself in five minutes.

Why do you need another person to open savings account for you when you can do it yourself though?

I don't really understand that genuinely.

I bank myself with a different bank then the one I used to work for. I have a current account and two savings accounts.

I opened all of the accounts myself on the app. I couldn't think if anything worse than going into a branch and waiting around for ages getting someone else to do it for me

I tried to open a savings account in a local high street building society, I got turned away and told to do it online. There was no queue and 3 members of staff doing nothing when I advised I wanted to open the account in person they told me it was quicker and easier to do it online and they were so unhelpful I walked out, it is ludicrous.

It's not really comparable . I used to work in a supermarket ages ago, like I'm sure many of us have done.

A supermarket worker will have different tasks throughout the day, but when she is assigned to be on till, she will be told to stay there for set amount of time.

While she is at the till, she is only assigned one task to do, scan shopping.

Bank workers have hundreds of tasks to do when they are in branch, customers come in with multitudes and all manners of questions and queries. There are absolutely thousands of issues that can happen with current accounts, joint accounts debit cards, credit cards, savings accounts, fixed term accounts, term loans, mortgages etc etc

Banks need to prioritise tasks.

So banks prioritise by doing what actually needs to be done for customers in the bank, and telling other customers what can be done quickly by themselves on the app

That makes no sense.

how would they be doing themselves out of a job, when they are doing what they are told to do by their employer.

Employees have to do what their employer is telling them to do. We are employed by them.

By telling customers to do it on the app, they are following company rules, and in fact keeping their job safe

It was literally written in my bank training manual when I started my bank job,the following

"If a customer has a query, if it is any function that a customer can do on an app themselves , you must direct the customer to do the function on the app.

If you don't you will marked down on your quality performance reviews. This can lead to discipline and eventually contract termination"

People who work in most places don't get to choose what they want to say to you, they have to follow company rules.

I try and avoid bank branches because of the relentless pushing by the staff ( obviously they are ordered to do so) of services that I don’t want. About 6 months ago I had cause to visit my nominated branch, which was their major city centre branch, on 2 separate occasions both times it was for something I actually need a person for. The branch has greeters who do their utmost to not have you join the waiting queue but most of them do it politely enough not to cause offence on the maybe 2/3 occasions I have visited the beach in the last 5 yrs or so. The 1st time I was visited I was asked what I needed to do and when I explained they directed me to join the queue, all well and good but the queue for an actual person was so long the greeters kept going up and down the waiting queue asking everybody time and time again what they needed to do. On the 3rd time of asking by the same greeter I finally snapped and said you know I have to be in the waiting queue stop asking me, if anyone had changed their mind about waiting they could have easily stepped out of the queue and asked the greeter for help. The 2nd visit I made I had a different issue but still needed to speak to an actual person and the greeter agreed and directed me to join the queue I must have had a grumpy look on my face so they didn’t harass me in the queue but they did keep asking an older lady what she needed to do. It was hard for me not to hear what was going on and apparently she wanted to withdraw money which they suggested she could do at the machine she said she didn’t want to use the machine she wanted to speak to a person. Up to this point okay then they start asking her how much money she wanted to take out as the machine was a better option, she said it was a large sum, they kept asking her how much until in the end she told them, it was a reasonably large sum. She looked in her 70’s maybe 80’s and probably just felt more comfortable speaking to an actual person at a desk and having the time and space available to put the money safely in her bag. So by then everyone in the queue knew that an older possibly more vulnerable woman was going to be leaving the bank branch with a considerable sum of money in her bag. I finally got served and asked to speak to a manager and told her about the “customer service” this older lady had been given and that everyone within earshot now knew she was walking about with money in her bag. I said if they had been concerned about the customer, that maybe she was being coerced to withdraw the money in cash, they could have surely taken her into the private booth and spoken to her there. The manager really couldn’t have cared less.
i say it was their major branch as it’s now getting closed down. I find it hard to feel sorry tbh. It was not a NatWest or Barclays Bank branch but NatWest is it’s parent company

You can do one off transactions for large amounts on the NatWest app using facial recognition…

I don't understand why bank staff are trying to do themselves out of a job. Every time I have been to a branch in the past 5 years they have told me how to do something online. The only reason we go to the branch now is to pay in cash my DC receive as gifts. And my DC usually go to the post office instead as it is open longer hours. Our local bank is open 10-3 Mon to Fri, not Sat morning opening any more.

What an utterly depressing thread.

My smartphone wont run the updated app for my bank. I will not be replacing my phone in the foreseeable. I dont need anything more than I have. I use online banking and phone them for something 'unusual' to be done. They have on record that I am unable to use their App and dont even mention it anymore.
I am the customer and if they want my business they will accommodate my requirements!