Written by A man walks into a branch of Bank of Scotland.
Man: “hello, I’d like to pay in £40 please”
Man hands over bank-card and two twenty pound notes.
Cashier: “ah, you know that you have to fill in this form now?”
Man: “No?, I don’t usually fill out a form, I just use my card”
Cashier: “We are one of the first branches onto a new system. You have to fill in this form. I will fill it out for you, this time”
Man: “Oh, thanks. It just seems odd that I used to be able to use my card”
Cashier: “it’s because we are migrating to a new system now that we have merged with Lloyds TSB”
Man: “I thought you just merged with Halifax?”
Cashier: “That was before. It does mean we’ll be able to offer a lot more products”
Man: “Great”
Form is filled.
Man: “Isn’t this a bit daft – given that I didn’t need to fill out a form before?”
Cashier: “We’re not allowed to say that”
Man: “Yes, but I am a customer and I’m allowed to say it?”
Cashier: “hmmm. I don’t actually know where the forms go.
Reader, that man was me.
And before that man, a woman had a similar encounter while depositing two cheques. That woman was me. It’s the bank that likes to say “don’t ask me why”.
This is why I gave up on high street banking years ago. Internet banking is the way to go: faster, less confusing and best of all, nobody trying to sell you stuff while you’re queuing to get at your own money!