Manners cost Nothing! (Royal Bank of Scotland)

Member Name: rosiesmum

Product:	Royal Bank of Scotland
Date:	16/06/02 (810 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: free banking for a year

Disadvantages: rude staff

I had a business bank account with a well known high street bank for twelve years, but due to them piling on the huge bank charges I decided to move to another bank.

I looked around and decided on The Royal Bank of Scotland because they were offering free banking for the first year even though I was not a new business, this would save me quite a lot of money over the year.

I phoned my local branch in Barrow in Furness Cumbria and asked for an appointment with their business manager, I was told that he would telephone me to arrange a convenient time, and he did just that within ten minutes. I was quite impressed with that because it is not very often that you get a quick response from any bank manager.

I had to take my last six months bank statements from my existing bank and a passport for proof of identity, apparently the rules have become quite strict when opening a business account not like it was twelve years ago.

He was a very nice man; he filled all the relevant forms out with me, arranged for all my direct debits to be transferred across, and ordered my chequebook to be with me within two days. I was really pleased, although I was with him for over an hour, the form filling was really tedious. Still every thing was organized and I left feeling quite happy that I had found a decent bank.

The following week I nipped out from work to do my banking.
10.30 am entered bank, brilliant no queue.
Handed moneybag to teller with folded paying in book all filled out nice and neat.
10.35 am teller had finished clearing every piece of paper off her work top and emptied my hard earned cash onto her worktop.
She looked at me as if I had crawled from under a stone, didn’t utter a word just tutted and then proceeded to smooth every single note out. I couldn’t believe it, she took absolutely ages and I really do mean ages.
10.45 am she had finished counting the notes, now I am not talking thousands he
re just about four hundred quid, and she proceeded onto the bags of coins for weighing. This procedure was good, she left her desk and went to a back wall where the scales were and weighed each bag about four times.

By this time I was getting slightly irritated and she could see this but I never said a word and nor did she.
10.55 am the smartly dressed teller put all the money in her drawer with all the notes the same way up and started to smooth my paying in book out, she really made a meal of this one and then looked up at me and sharply said,” Please would you not bend the book because it is awkward for us to handle when it keeps curling up.”
I apologized and she then went away for five minutes and came back with a plastic cover so that my book would stay flat.

11.00am I was handed my empty moneybag and paying in book back the transaction was finally over.
Only one problem now I needed to set up a new direct debit.
I smiled at her nicely and asked to do just that. Three times I had to ask her she just did not seem to understand what I wanted.
She went away and asked another colleague and then came back and I had to explain it all again.
I eventually managed to set up the direct debit; she did it on her computer screen and gave me a copy of it for my books.

I got out of the bank at 11.22 am, fifty-two minutes to pay in my take and have a simple direct debit organized.

I was not best pleased it would have taken five minutes tops at my old bank.

The following week took ten minutes to take my money even though I had made sure that all the notes were smooth, I had them that smooth that you would have thought I had steam ironed every one of them.

I will be changing my bank yet again because this bank is definitely not very helpful

Summary: