1st world country , 3rd world banking system ?
Sometimes I wonder how the whole banking process works especially here in the UK. Today I went to a bank to bank in some company cheques for the company I am working in. Is a long and even longer journey. Quite alot of business trades as other name or we call them trading name, for example McDonald is the trading name for company XXX or so and so. Recently my director changed the company bank and some how along the process the Bank Business Manager thats deal with our business bank accounts somehow misses to put down our company trading name as part of our banking details.
Let just put my company lawful name is PCK Ltd. while our trading name is Phua Chua Kang so supposingly our bank details should appear as PCK Ltd. T/A Phua Chu Kang so that we can bank in cheques payable to Phua Chu Kang. As I said the Bank Business Manager missed out the important details and all our cheques book, pay in book ,online banking and etc only appears as PCK Ltd. My director sort of sort out with the Bank Business Manager and somehow I mean somehow there can put a note somewhere to tell some of the branch that we can bank in cheques payable to Phua Chu Kang and not only PCK Ltd.
Thats where the nightmare begin, as a responsible guy I walk into the bank to bank in the cheques, after queing for around 15 mins is finally my turn. I pass over the cheques and pay in book to the lady at the counter, after she inspected the cheques, she said that the pay in books doesnt say the trading name as Phuc Chu Kang so I am unable to bank in those cheques,then I told her I manage to bank in cheques before even is payable to Phua Chu Kang, so she checked in her system, to my suprise she said the branch I am at that moment had limited access to details for business accounts so she asked the branch manager to check the details for me from the business accounts center.
After waited for around 20 mins, I got more suprises as the lady told me that nobody is picking up the call at the center so asked me to be patient. I was like WTF nobody to answer a call in business accounts center for so called the bank with the most branches in the UK, we are not talking about some takeaway business here. Suprisingly never once any takeaway restaurant failed to take my call. After waiting for another 15 mins , the manager come and tell thats there is no note or what so ever in their system so I can’t bank in the cheques.
I then gave my company director a call explaining the situation, then he said give him 10 mins and shall give me a call back after clarifying with our bank business manager. I waited for his call, after that my director give me a call saying that that particular bank sort of changing their system while transferring the data over somehow someone oversee the note and didnt transfer it over so thats why there is no note in the system.Then my director ask me to wait around another 10 mins before try to bank in again.
I repeat the whole process of queing ,waiting and getting clarifying from their business account center. The whole process takes another 30mins. As there are not many customers around I had a little chat with the lady at the counter, according to her the branch i am in had only limited information on business account available to them so they have to call the main center for further information while there are some other branches can easily access those information. I mean how come different branches were treated differently ? what we call this kind ism ? we got racism and stuff so I guess this must be branchism. Finally everything sorted out and the whole process takes me nearly 1 and a half hour just to bank in cheques mind you and not getting money out. I wonder what will happen if I have the authority to withdraw money,I wonder what kind of hassle I have to go through
Anyway this is not the first time I had bad experience with the banking here. Somehow for such developed country the banking system seems a little bit 3rd country. In Msia I can go to most branches that have those cheque bank in machine where you key in the account number using touch screen then put the cheque in then you will get a photocopy of the cheque you just bank in as the proof of the transaction. Here no such machine were made available, everyone have to bank in cheque over the counter or put in the old fashion cheque envelope. Even cash deposit machine seems rare and sacred here, it seems everything and I mean EVERYTHING have to be done over the counter so banking can be a hassle most of the time. I guess people here either doesnt have the confidence with machine or simply ignorant in learning how to use them.
The bank logo below is definately not the bank I mentioned in this posting.
