How you react to this sot of (HSBC) bank teller experience?

She could have pocketed it I suppose.

Why not talk to the branch manager and suggest s/he set-up a meeting with you and the teller where you offer to play the recording of her actions you took on your mobile phone. Remind him that you don't expect to be charged for the meeting. See what the managers reaction is to that offer.

I suppose that you are going to complain about bank fees and charges next ?

You cant have service without paying for it :-)

You could complain, but it'll make no difference ...

Adrian Smith

You're meant to fill in the deposit slip before joining the queue. Since the queue formed before you were ready to be served, you ought to have gone to the back of it. She was right, you were wrong.

On the other hand, her antics with the stamp, apparently to teach you a lesson, were childish and only created unnecessary additional delay for you *and* for the people behind you.

Wrong. In the UK, you can't have service, put you still pay for it.

and most of what you pay is tax that goes to pay index linked pensions for ex-government layabouts.

If it were me, I would feel extremely grumpy about it, then I would remind myself that the chances of things being any better with any other bank would be just about zero. Then I'd go home and have a large G&T and forget about it.

Some battles are worth fighting, some aren't. This sounds to me like it belongs in the latter category.

FWIW, I also bank with First Direct, and when I pay anything in I just send it through the post, although I admit I never pay cash into the account.

Adam

And the proof of your argument is?

It's on usenet so it must be true :-)

But I will google for some figures tomorrow unless someone beats me to it.

There were some news stories a year or two ago about how 50% of council tax will be used to pay council pensions by the year 20xx.

I've noticed how some HSBC branches have writing stations with deposit slips positioned next to the tellers and this always baffles me. Perhaps they are afraid of people stealing them. Another thing I find annoying is queueing at post office counters for forms which could easily be left out for customers, perhaps in pidgeon holes adjacent to a desk. And then there was the Post Office in a neighbouring town which advertised currency exchange but refused point blank to change my Euros to Sterling because I bought them elsewhere - is this just a British thing?

Are you saying they didn't work and paid into their own pension scheme ?

Rumour has it that the local government "pension crisis" was caused, at least in part, by *some* councils taking part in "payment holidays" - possibly as part of a manipulation to prevent council tax going up one year for political gain.

Thanks for that opinion, but which rule says that one shouldn't fill in a deposit slip while standing in line? The way I saw it, I had been first in line, and had been filling out my deposit slip while first in line. When she had finished fiddling with papers, I was ready to be served; I was standing directly in front of her, with my completed deposit slip.

Jim D

Whatever suits you, of course, but I never do that myself, because I want a receipt for the cheques I pay in. If you send them by post, and they claim they didn't receive your cheques, where do you stand? I also like my cheques to clear as soon as possible. If I get them to an HSBC bank before 3:30pm, they register in my FirstDirect account the following day.

Jim D

I've seen people dumbfounded by the same thing in my own local post office. You'd think that since they can bother to put a big banner up saying "Foreign Currency - 0% Commission", they could also bother to add: "Sorry; we don't exchange currency that was obtained outside these premises" - but apparently not. They'd rather have you standing in line for 20 minutes catching tuberculosis. And if you're not infected by the time you reach the teller, you will be, if you lick the stamps they slide accross the dirty counter to you... No good looking for a stamp-wetting sponge; they are all dry as a bone! Good 'ere, innut?! The only saving grace is that the queue is so long these days that for 50% of the time you are in line, you are outside in the street! Out there, you're only breathing carbon monoxide and catching pneumonia, etc. That's not so bad...

Jim D

None, but common courtesy and basic queueing discipline demand that if you do so, you should accept that you are taking a gamble. It could happen that the queue moves so fast that it becomes your turn before you are ready to take it. If that happens, then obviously you should at least lose your turn, and it's debatable whether you shouldn't go back to the end, which is where you'd have to go anyway had you been filling in the form while sitting at one of the desks provided for the purpose.

It might not have been the way you saw it. If you had only just finished by the time you heard her call out, then she may well have been ready a bit sooner, while you were not quite finished. She might have used eye contact to beckon the first person behind you to come forward, and this person might have hesitated while glancing meaningfully in your direction, trying to indicate to her that you were there first, and she only called out to attract your attention. She may have been peeved that it was necessary to do so.

What other reason could she possibly have had for hitting you with her "excuse me" routine?

In message , Jim D writes

I think there is no link between the queue problem and the receipt problem.

She has probably had no training and probably holds the post of 'senior manager customer service manager supervisor' and so feels important. Hence her inability to know how to stamp a simple receipt.

Your perceived link of her behaviour to the queue jumping scandal is probably only in your own mind.

I used to have to pay money into an account at NatWest. They do not have paying in slips available on counters. I would have to queue up and ask for a slip. Go to a desk to fill it in and then queue up again to pay in the money. It was like buying a book in Foyles. I asked if I could have an extra form so that I could have it filled in ready next time but I was told that "They are not allowed to be taken off of the premises!" I was caught of guard and didn't reply. If I heard it again now I think I would laugh out loud!

One time I went into Nat West they had a large poster up just inside the branch that said "You should try a different bank!" Honest of them at least.

She could say that it was the wrong time of month and then sue you for sexual discrimination!

Exactly, although they worked, they didnt pay into a fund that funded their own retiremen benefits.

I hadnt heard that one.