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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To want to go onto my local bank and deal with a human being, not a machine?

23 replies

HangingBasketCase · 21/08/2014 10:24

I bank with Barclays. A few months ago they closed our local branch, without warning I might add, for a month to "make changes". When it reopened they'd taken away all of the cashier desks and replaced them with paying in machines and only one cashier desk for business banking.

This has caused chaos as whenever I go in there most of the machines have broken down, meaning a huge queue and the few staff they have left stressed out running about like headless chickens and trying to des, with stroppy and frustrated customers who only want to pay a cheque into their account! The last time I went in there an elderly man said it had "taken away the human touch" and he's completely right.

Why are banks and supermarkets and god knows what else replacing human beings with computers and machines?

OP posts:

jellybelly701 · 21/08/2014 10:29

Probably because you don't have to pay a Machine £6-£10 an hour to work. Well that's my theory anyway.

Original poster

HangingBasketCase · 21/08/2014 10:52

Probably, I've been getting more and more fed up with Barclays recently anyway their online banking frequently goes down and if you need to speak to them urgently you have to phone India! I mean even if you have an appointment in your local branch and want to cancel you have to phone sodding India!

Where is the logic in that?

OP posts:

londonrach · 21/08/2014 10:54

I'm considering changing banks at the moment due to this. Barclays always said they gave people and now they worse than hsbc.

Edieandkoala · 21/08/2014 10:59

I went to pay a check in to Dhs account at Barclays yesterday, what a pain. Took 20 mins, even the guy working there couldn't get the machines to work properly!

Thankfully our joint account is at natwest and his Barclays will be gone when this check clears to pay off his old overdraft!

Original poster

HangingBasketCase · 21/08/2014 11:00

Their Online banking is appalling. Not long ago they set up an app for the Ipad, but there was an issue with it and lots of people ended up being thrown out and had to get new banking details which can take up to a week to come. Not good when you need to be able to access your banking regularly.

OP posts:

iggymama · 21/08/2014 11:05

I have sympathy for the staff too. Their jobs are disappearing and they are made to bully customers into using the machines and are just as unhappy as the customers but dare not say so.

In my town Barclays is the only option as all other banks and building societies have long gone. If there was an alternative I know a lot of customers would be voting with their feet.

Original poster

HangingBasketCase · 21/08/2014 11:15

It wouldn't be so bad of the machines worked, but the amount of times I go in there and they are out of order is unreal. Either that one they don't want to accept the cheques I pay in, because they "don't recognise them".

If your going to get rid of your staff and replace then with machines at least make sure they work properly.

OP posts:

Poledra · 21/08/2014 11:18

DH had a somewhat heated discussion with an employee of Barclays about this (employee got heated, DH was obstinate and calm). DH was paying in a large cheque (a few thousand pounds), and was not happy to do it via the machine - if the cheque went missing, where was the evidence that he had ever paid anything of that value in? Only a banking slip completed by DH himself, so, in DH's opinion, open to challenge that the amount on the slip did not match the real value of the cheque. He wanted to pay the cheque in at the counter - they refused as there really was no counter and it wasn't a business cheque. Dh then asked the employee to countersign the slip, to endorse the cheque value. The employee was not happy, but DH (the immovable object!) just stood there and asked to see a manager. The manager did eventually countersign the slip, but the amount of time (and therefore money) wasted was not insignificant.

We are looking for a new bank...

LurkingHusband · 21/08/2014 11:41

poledra

Nationwide (our bank of choice) machines read the cheque, fill in the amount for you, and print a photo of the cheque on the receipt.

We dumped Halifax in 2010, after they introduced their "streamlined" overdraft charges, which managed to cause us £60 in 2 weeks, because we briefly lost track of spending/income timing.

That was bad enough. What did it for me was when I phoned up to enquire (not complain) about the details, the snotty cow I spoke to said (in the most Jean Brodie accent) "well, you can't expect to borrow money, and not pay it back".

Bad move. I just said "You're quite right. Oh, and by the way, how are HBOS going to pay me back all the money I've lent you ? Oh, and can I close my account please ?"

Nationwide are OK ... no less incompetent than Barclays, HBOS, TSB, Lloyds, Nat West, and Midland (all banks we have used over the years). At least they haven't got shareholders to pay.

Ilovenewts · 21/08/2014 12:12

Lloyds are HBOS btw.

Original poster

HangingBasketCase · 21/08/2014 12:48

Poldera my parents run a business and when all of the cashiers were removed and replaced with the machines they complained to the bank manager who told them that he also hated the new machines and agreed that it removes "the human touch", but he was powerless to stop it because the big wigs at the top (aka the overpaid robbing wankers who caused the financial crisis) are intent on introducing the paying in machine everywhere.

OP posts:

sheepgomeep · 21/08/2014 12:52

We have the same issues with Barclays. Machines often out of order, unable to pay a cheque in unless you do it by machine.

Are all banks going to be like this in the future?

Original poster

HangingBasketCase · 21/08/2014 14:33

I think they probably will be sheep. I know that HSBCC have been pushing customers towards the paying in machines for even longer that Barclays have.

OP posts:

capant · 21/08/2014 14:37

Agreed. I just changed banks because of this.

threepiecesuite · 21/08/2014 14:40

The thing is, you queue up for the machines, and you get a cashier going along the queue asking what service you require, then showing you how to work the machine, then begging you to fill in an online survey about how brilliant the service is in your bank. Why don't they just sit down and serve people?

They must hate it as much as the customers do. The fat cats at the top really have no clue what their customers want, nor do they care.

Tikimon · 21/08/2014 14:41

Hopefully this doesn't catch on in America. Idiots here can't even figure out how to use a self check out at the supermarket.

We do have options on our atms to deposit money though which we just take advantage of because it's quick and convenient for us.

Also, considering people here are fighting for a living wage, I think people would have a melt down if they saw people fired and replaced with machines. It's salt in the wound from the banks who are partly responsible for this mess in the first place.

Halsall · 21/08/2014 14:41

The HSBC machines are shit. I've whinged complained about them on here at length before (sorry). You used to put the cheques and paying-in slips into an envelope and drop them into the machine: easy.

Now you have to feed the cheques into a tiny slot with the paying-in slip on top, all aligned, not a millimetre out of sync because then it will spit them back out. I've had cheques jammed in the machine and staff have to come and open them and fish the cheque out. If your cheques have previously been folded (as pretty much everyone must do, surely? to get them in your purse), they won't pay in. Any cheque the machine deems too large will be rejected, too.

Presumably they got rid of the easy envelope system because they had to employ someone to open the envelopes. Now they have us, the customers, working as their unpaid bank tellers.

And don't get me started on the new home PIN machines we all now have to fiddle with before we can log-in to online banking.....

Patrickstarisabadbellend · 21/08/2014 14:42

I demand to speak to someone in this country when I ring my bank. I have hearing problems and I can't understand what they are saying.

I've been accused of racism for this before.

capant · 21/08/2014 14:43

Could mumsnet get someone senior in banking to have a web chat with us about the changes happening in banks?

BiddyPop · 21/08/2014 14:51

We had a discussion about this over coffee the other day at work - of the 5 different banks and building societies being used across our group, all but 1 were forcing people along the machines route and reducing cashiers.

But when the 4 remaining banks in Ireland have gone that way, and the only remaining non-Irish bank is fully internet based anyway, what can one do to combat it?

I have been in tears, despite asking the cashier twice, after queuing for 25 minutes, when I was forced to do an international funds transfer on the machine with someone "very kindly showing me how to do it" - I will only ever do that transaction once and couldn't do it on internet banking myself because it was international - when I am paying heavily for the priviledge of using a bank, I would like to actually get some banking services from them. The poor guy showing me was upset, the manager was called over, and agreed that if I asked twice the cashier should have done it herself, but she is being told to force people to use the machines and ignore their requests. In the end, we had to go back to the cashier as the machine couldn't finalise the transaction.

larry5 · 21/08/2014 16:07

I have to pay in money for both the church and scouts. One is at Nat West and the other is TSB.

The local Nat West has been redone so that the cashiers are at the back of the bank and the queue for them has got longer and longer. We have to pay the money into a cashier as we have to get the book stamped for bookkeeping purposes but every time that I go in there they ask if they can help me use a machine.

At TSB they have up to four cashiers on duty depending on the number of people waiting but again I have to have proof of paying in even though they do have one automatic till. They are much better organised.

KnackeredMuchly · 21/08/2014 16:13

Have a look in your other local banks, see which one you like the look of - and then swap.

Vote with your feet, but also keep an eye out online there might be a good deal to switch your current account. You can get up to £100 cashback so it might coincide nicely.

KrisBH · 21/08/2014 17:47

Vote with your feet, change banks. I've done it a couple of times when banks annoy me. They make switching v easy these days and you may even get an incentive (Halifax and first direct both give you £100 for switching a current acct). No need to put up with poor service. They (corporations) don't listen to complaints, they look at their profit margins.

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