To think that banks these days are a disgrace and couldn’t care less about their customers?

[LunaNorth]

This is long, sorry.

I needed to visit a bank today, to pick up some cash I ordered yesterday.

I had to drive 12 miles to my nearest city to do this, as every bank in my market town has closed.

The bank in question has a greeter, some tables for people who have appointments, a bunch of self-service machines, and one cashier.

There was a queue at the cashier, of course, and the man in front of me had a lot of complicated business banking to do, and was taking ages. Not his fault - there was only one cashier.

An elderly woman joined the queue behind me. She must have been at least 80, had a stick, and was leaning against a pillar as there was no seat near the cashier counter.

We exchanged pleasantries and I offered to let her go in front of me so she wouldn’t have to wait much longer. But the wait was still getting too much for her, so I walked the length of the bank to get her a chair to sit on, as she was looking quite tired.

Meanwhile, a woman who clearly had severe mental health issues had joined the queue. When she first arrived, she was managing to keep herself calm, but as the wait went on, she was getting more and more agitated, until a member of staff had to come along and try to calm her down.

When the elderly lady finally reached the counter, I heard her saying to the cashier that her local branch had closed down and she’d had to come all the way into town. The lady replied that the bank visited her area for two hours once a week, but she wouldn’t be able to pay cheques in or withdraw cash.

What good is that then?

It struck me as I was standing there that modern life is utterly shit for the most vulnerable. Some octogenarians might be able to negotiate banking apps, but very many won’t. The woman with mental health issues should have been in some form of supported housing, getting help with life admin - instead, she was in a stressful situation, and being treated like a nuisance as a result.

And how hard is it to provide two cashiers and a fucking chair?

Sorry for the rant. I ended up feeling quite sad standing there today.

TLDR - Barclays Bank - all banks - are bastards. AIBU?

I have seen a few posts saying that the banks are suggesting that people who are struggling should get their children to help them.

Fat lot of good that does for childless people!

The thing i find most annoying is every time you go into a bank for example there are posters saying do you know you than do x, y or z online. Install our app and you do these 100 things at the touch of a button...great. I do bank online, I have 3 banking apps...I don't go to the bank for fun, it's because I have a query or problem that can't be done on the app. Lots of people (the bank is normally full) will be in the same position. I'm sure it puts more pressure on staff when banks are open fewer hours and in fewer locations, then they're going to end up busier and not able to serve everyone.

The same if you call a company, you get the same pre recorded message "did you know you can do these things online, it's quick and easy just go to <insert company> .com, bla bla bla." Again I'm not calling a number and listening to 50 minutes of lift music and the same recorded messages on a loop for fun, it's because I cant find the answer online. Presumably this is the case for all the other people calling too.. .which is why I'm having to wait!

I much prefer to solve things online, it is quicker and easier when it works, but there still is a need for actual humans to answer queries, no matter how much big companies and banks want to pretend there isn't! (And the stupid bots can only answer a limited amount of questions, they are usually pretty useless)

FFS . I have banked first via telephone and . online since the 80s( phone banking was a forerunner of online and I started using that as soon as it was available)

However when my mother died and we sold her house, as her executor I had to physically go in and transfer all the money to the various beneficiaries after the house sale proceeds were paid to me.

I had to go in to do this as the 4payments were well over the maximum amounts that I could transfer using web or phone app services

This is not itself a problem, though I obviously had to take annual leave from work to do this.

I booked the whole day , despite thinking it would only take a couple of hours to do at most as I wanted to meet a friend for lunch and an afternoon off. Haa All I can say is it took me 5 hours in the actual bank to arrange all the payments . I did it all with all the correct checks and id and card authorisation etc in the branch. Then I was told I would be called by their central fraud check team because of the amounts involved and that it would be a formality .

They called while I was still in the bank and whilst I won't bore you with the details , despite the fraud team speaking with the actual branch staff as well as with me and my sister who was also there as a co executor of the will, we were on the phone for over an hour . The transfers were held up for several days as they checked( Fuck knows what) Most of the checking seemed to be about making sure we had the right details of the banks we were paying to. Since two of them were just accounts belonging to me and my sister who were actually in the branch this was bonkers .
The hold up was a problem for my sister who needed the money as she was buying a house

I had more understanding that they wanted to check the payment to my niece who lives abroad but honestly 5 hours!! to make 4 bank transfers ( admittedly very large amounts) in branch with every single thing absolutely in place and all of the information and verification documents asked for by the banch being available

Online banking is shite. It is just another way to get us to do all the work and yet to make it very difficult to do anything slightly out of the ordinary

There is another knock-on effect of this. One of my friends owns a small shop in a small market town. She would like to carry on accepting cash from customers but this is increasingly difficult. One by one all the banks and building societies in the town have closed down and the final branch is due to close after Christmas. The only place for her to deposit takings and get change will be the local post office but already the queues there are massive and she can't afford to open late or close early to join the long queue for their services. Very reluctantly she is going to have to become a card only shop.

Yanbu.
I'm tech savvy, I do all my banking online but on the odd occasion I've needed to go in ( pay child's saved up money in, change child's account, add my name to dp's account. ) it's been a farce.

One greeter, one server and you need to book an appointment in advance to actually 'do' anything except you can only do that by calling in (nearest branch is now 12 miles away). And they're only open half days.

And my bank genuinely had more pride flags up than the local gay bar during pride which felt purely performative. I don't care how liberal they are, I'd just like them to open more cash desks.

I'm not sure what the point of branches are anyway. We took MIL to our local Halifax to make, what we thought was, a simple transfer from an expired ISA into a new one. Done it every year as she always just reinvests in a new one year ISA. This year, bank counter clerk said we couldn't do it in the branch and would have to phone or use online banking.

The time before that, we took her in as she wanted a paper printout of her recent transactions on the current account. Bank counter clerk said she couldn't do it.

Not sure if the clerks are just lazy or whether those simple things really can't be done in branch anymore. But if not, there's no point in them being open anyway. Just what CAN they do??

Bank branches only having very, very few branch employees, but one of them being a 'greeter', reminds me of the old joke about the US and Russian rowing teams - where, when the Russians wanted to increase their speed, they added another rower; whereas, in pursuit of the same, the Americans would keep adding another cox!

Many companies are cutting back on training for those who work in customer service. As apparently, you learn as you do the job. Yeah right!

Somethings you need to learn before you deal with customers. Heard of call centre jobs that just have THREE DAYS of training. That is not enough. Then because the staff get fed up with customers shouting at them for not knowing certain things, they leave. If the staff were given longer period to train - then the staff would be able to resolve things quicker for customers and less likely to shout at.

The Student Loan Company I believe in from my experience on the few times I have rang them, they just employ people with the thickest Glaswegian accents, not on their CS skills.

Re your mum's dishwasher. Most manufacturers supply a sticker with serial number in the bag that has the manual in it. Or the fitter fills in the place on/near front.

Yes, ours is open when the shop is

I’m adding to this thread in absolute disbelief. My mother banks with a bank that i have to deal with as I have POA . I just can’t believe what I’m seeing and experiencing. My bank is online and very good. The staff at her bank are an absolute shambles. All the staff are young men who look like they’ve just left school. Wearing trainers and sports tops. Their attitude and manner is so casual I can’t believe I am in a bank. Staff eating their lunch in full view of customers, having casual chats, lounging around with shoes off.

I went into another branch with my mother and was dealt with by a girl chewing gum with her shoes off, swinging on her seat. Her manner was so rude . My mother is elderly and has a lot of money with the bank.

yesterday I called to sort out something quite straightforward. I was passed around from one department to another for two hours before I gave up. Staff either cut me off or disappeared or just transferred me.

I can’t believe that this is banking in this day and age. Meanwhile branches are being closed constantly:

I agree, I was thinking this the other day when I was in nationwide. There were only 4 of us in the queue, and two cashiers on, but everyone had complicated transactions (otherwise we would all have done it online ourselves) I was waiting ages. They really need more cashiers and fewer people at the front door telling you just to go online and do it yourself.

I have an old passbook savings account from about 25 years ago when those were still common. The bank I was with has closed entirely and has been swallowed up by another brand. Fine. There used to be a branch of the new bank in London. Pre-Covid I went in to try to move the money but it was proving difficult so as the interest rate wasn’t too bad I decided to leave it there for a while longer. I thought recently I should really try to do something about it and called them to try to move the money. I have online access to another account with that bank but they can’t do anything about the old passbook account online or over the phone so I looked up my nearest branch. It is in Nottingham. I live in Surrey. I cannot access that money unless I take a round trip of several hours. It is ridiculous. If they are going to close branches they have to provide workable alternatives.

Csn you jot apply online for a card?

I totally agree OP. My Mum used to be totally with it re IT and online activity then she had a scan that revealed a brain tumour. She struggles with banking now. I had to go into her branch with her last week and they were hopeless.

My Mum is in her 70s, she does do some things on her iPad, but she's terrified of scams and has nearly been caught out a few times. She's too worried to risk banking online. Her bank has closed, her building society refuses to offer most services, she can't bank transfer to other people which needs to do.
She doesn't drive and can't leave my Dad alone to make an hours journey by bus to the closest town with a bank.
She has tried phone banking, but it has voice recognition which seems to fail all the time and she wants to see her transactions written down.

It's just pathetic that banks can't handle these issues in a better way. They are multi million pound businesses who have accepted bailout and handouts from the government over years. They should be forced to find an alternative solution for their more vulnerable customers. It's not just vulnerable customers either, I've had issues with a new credit card, can't get anywhere on the phone and will have to find a few spare hours to travel to my nearest branch.

Halifax customer service is excellent and always offer me a private room just to help with inane stuff like a simple math problem I was having in the big branch in town Lloyds was horrible absolutely terrible and it was a massive showy branch.

Careful; the UK has everybody having to do their banking on their phones. But I am in another Anglophone country where I have multiple branches of my bank within 3 miles that I can actually enter without an appointment and do any kind of cashier business, speak to a higher up person about complex issues, etc etc. One of those branches is two minutes from my doorstep. I am always horrified by the situation in the UK.