Banks Passing Their Customers On To The Post Office

oldagetraveller

ShelfStacker wrote: »

I would also say that going to a cashier for a small sum of money, when you could get the same cash out of an ATM far more easily, is absurd - which is probably what the banks you mentioned are doing. Presumably they are referring customers to you because "they want a person", which the PO will give them. The silly woman queuing at the post office for 20 minutes is, in my mind, just that; silly. But then, that's just me.

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And no doubt if all these absurd and silly people stopped using your branch because they're not wanted there and staff were being made redundant because of that you would then, no doubt, be looking for sympathy?

ShelfStacker_3

oldagetraveller wrote: »

And no doubt if all these absurd and silly people stopped using your branch because they're not wanted there and staff were being made redundant because of that you would then, no doubt, be looking for sympathy?

Cashiers have far more to do than pay peoples' bills and do small withdrawals, I can assure you. That argument doesn't fly.

ShelfStacker_3

BarclaysManager wrote: »

If everyone just settled on direct debit, card payments or sortcode/account/reference, financial losses would be down by millions. Then maybe we'd pay more interest...

I always try and get people to switch to Direct Debit for things like BT bills, gas, electric etc on the basis that it'll save them money (which it will, they tend to discount on this basis) but are sometimes met with a pause and a "...I'll keep doing it this way." Some people are just bloody stubborn.

We had two put in and six months later, we still had people who would come in on a Saturday without an appointment and wait up to two hours to see someone to cancel a direct debit and look at their entries. Rather than use the machine.

Personally, I could think of much better things to do with my Saturday.

Me too. We have the same machine in our branch, and we regularly have customers coming in and asking for statements, then when they're directed to the machine insist they want to see a person. For their statement. Which will be the same as if they'd just gone to the machine.

Some people mystify me, I swear.

Do you take HSBC BGCs with cash if they're not an account holder? The real problem is people who insist on printing "pay this at any UK bank" on their BGCs.

If you're referring to HSBC credit card/invoice Giros then yes we do. If it's just the Virgin/Capital One/whatever ones with "HSBC Bank plc Collection Account" across the bottom then no. The point isn't to make up the costs of paying the Giros - it's more to try and stop other banks' customers from using the counter for their sundry bills full stop.

And yes, we do get a steady stream of people who insist that "pay this at any UK bank" means they can do so for free. Always fun that one.

rb10

ShelfStacker wrote: »

And yes, we do get a steady stream of people who insist that "pay this at any UK bank" means they can do so for free. Always fun that one.

That's just rubbish for people to say that, "pay at any UK bank" doesn't give any indication of the cost & you are entitled to charge what you will. I don't know why companies still insist on putting that statement on when there are plenty of big UK banks where it is just not physically possible to pay it (e.g. Abbey, Halifax, ...). That statement is just wrong!

olly300

ShelfStacker wrote: »

I always try and get people to switch to Direct Debit for things like BT bills, gas, electric etc on the basis that it'll save them money (which it will, they tend to discount on this basis) but are sometimes met with a pause and a "...I'll keep doing it this way." Some people are just bloody stubborn.

Lots of people are scared of change and have also heard of the trouble someone has had with a direct debit payment.

For example if you had read the new articles about utility companies taking out large monthly direct debits, know someone this happened to and you paid your gas bill when you received for no problems for 50 years would you be tempted to change to direct debit?

ShelfStacker wrote: »

And yes, we do get a steady stream of people who insist that "pay this at any UK bank" means they can do so for free. Always fun that one.

The words "there may be a small fee for this" are always hidden in the small print. Maybe you should have a large sign up stating that paying your bills here will cost you.

ShelfStacker_3

olly300 wrote: »

The words "there may be a small fee for this" are always hidden in the small print. Maybe you should have a large sign up stating that paying your bills here will cost you.

We do. It gets ignored.

custardy

olly300 wrote: »

The words "there may be a small fee for this" are always hidden in the small print. Maybe you should have a large sign up stating that paying your bills here will cost you.

isnt it usually on the back of the bill in the same font as the rest of the payment options?

Inactive

ShelfStacker wrote: »

Cashiers have far more to do than pay peoples' bills and do small withdrawals, I can assure you. That argument doesn't fly.

But isn't that just part of your job description?

If a customer chooses to use any method provided by the bank, it surely isn't up to a cashier to make critical comment about a customer's choice, or am I missing something?

olly300

custardy wrote: »

isnt it usually on the back of the bill in the same font as the rest of the payment options?

It is but looking at some of my recent bills the amount of information they have on payment methods is like an information overload and as people in this country tend not to read contracts I don't expect them to read bill payment methods.

Strangely in my case lots of them miss out the option that you can pay them via online banking from your bank account.

custardy

olly300 wrote: »

It is but looking at some of my recent bills the amount of information they have on payment methods is like an information overload and as people in this country tend not to read contracts I don't expect them to read bill payment methods.

Strangely in my case lots of them miss out the option that you can pay them via online banking from your bank account.

thats how i do all of mine
so i dont even look at the other options