Bank Telephone service

[AllanY2525]

I totally agree with you, Towntalk.  The phrase "Customer Service" has become a
contradiction in terms in this country....especially since so many service rep jobs
have LEFT the country for India, Malaysia, The Phillipines, etc.  They are so cheap
they cannot pay American workers to staff the call centers.

InfoCision (sp?) may not pay a whole lot, but I can think of about a thousand people
at 20 Federal Place downtown that needed a job - and GOT one - because InfoCision
chose to locate in Youngstown - and even lower paying jobs like these can help a young
person build a resume or pay their way through college. 

Banks are notorious for cutting corners until everything is "round".  My bank
recently built a brand new branch in my neighborhood - TWELVE teller windows....
and NEVER more than two or three tellers working at any given time.  They
spent millions tearing down what used to be at the location, and building a
brand new bank, but they won't pay enough tellers working at $9 or $10
an hour to STAFF more tha  two or three of the 12 teller windows - even on the
busiest of days. All of this while making huge profits on exhorbitant credit card
interest rates, ATM fees, checking account fees, loan origination and settlement
costs, etc, etc.

When I call and the bank and the first thing the agent says when they pick up
the phone is "can you hold?" I quickly say "if you were'nt ready to give me some
time to speak with you, why did you answer the phone?   No, I can't hold."

[Towntalk]

I very seldom use my bank's phone service, but every time I do, a call that could take 2 minutes to complete suddenly takes 10, because the bank person has a script that they must read. When you walk into the office the teller gets you through your transaction very quickly without all that talking about how they appreciate your business etc. (By the way, most of the phone tellers are foreigners with thick accents most likely Mexican who insist on mispronouncing my name which also drives me up the wall. To make matters even more difficult they insist on having you repeat the simple question over a couple of times. Example: What do you show my balance to be? Phone Teller: Now let me see if I understand what you are asking. Me: What is my balance? Phone Teller: We at (Bank Name) appreciate your business and are here to help you so what is your question? Me: What is the current balance in my account? Phone Teller: You would like to know the balance in your account, is that correct? Me: Yes. Phone Teller: [Long pause while they look at the computer screen in front of them] [My name] Your balance is ****.**. Me: Thank you. Phone Teller: [Long commercial about how much they appreciate my business.] Is there anything else I can help tou with today [again mispronouncing my name] Me: No thank you. Good bye.
I've been a customer of that bank since 1951 so it is obvious that I like that bank so I don't need all that useless jabbering.
So what's my point here? TO VENT MY ABSOLUTE FRUSTRATION WITH USING THE PHONE TO DO BUSINESS.
By the way, I nicely asked the man I was talking to to please leave off all the fluff in his script as I was pressed for time and very upset as it was, and didn't need all that fluff talk yet he insisted on going by the script.
If I call the branch I do business with asking for the same info it takes 2 mnutes, my name is pronounced correctly and there is no script read, but they prefer that we use the 1-800 number so I don't opt for this solution as I know how busy the tellers are. At best there are only 2 tellers at the branch I use.