d-i-y banking but still 5 days to clear a cheque😬

littlerock

I had to pay in a cheque today and nipped into my local branch of Barclay's. For a minute I thought i had wandered into Smith's next door by mistake. All the counters had gone and in front of me was a row of 4 D-i-y automated teller machines. A young Chinese woman in a grey trouser suit (no sign of the Barclay brand blue) stepped forward and directed me to them. I asked where the cashiers had gone and how long the machines had been there but she did not seem to understand and said: "here please. will take 5 days to clear.".

I fed my cheque into the slot available and entered my pin and in due course it whirred away and a receipt with a tiny scanned copy of my cheque appeared. The girl repeated" will take 5 working days to clear" and I realised she meant the cheque. Over in a distant corner I could just see a conventional single person counter with a big sign saying business banking only so I don't know who would answer queries.

I suppose it is efficient but really I prefer to interact with staff. MORE IMPORTANTLY why does it still take five days to clear a cheque paid in at my own bank?

Herbalus

littlerock wrote: »

I suppose it is efficient but really I prefer to interact with staff. MORE IMPORTANTLY why does it still take five days to clear a cheque paid in at my own bank?

It takes 5 days to clear because....it's always taken 5 days to clear.

Getting rid of the staff doesn't change that. It's like supermarket self-checkout stands. They take money from your debit card at the same speed as if it were an assistant taking money from a debit card.

The machine registers the cheque (like a person would), and it ends up in a pile at the bottom of the machine (like at the bottom of a person's desk), and then is collected at the end of the day for processing.

Archi_Bald

littlerock wrote: »

I suppose it is efficient but really I prefer to interact with staff.

There was "staff" there to deal with any queries you had. Whose problem do you think it is if you cannot interact with a young Chinese woman in a grey trouser suit (no sign of the Barclay brand blue) ?

xylophone

There was "staff" there to deal with any queries you had.

But the member of staff in question (assuming this was the young Chinese woman) was either hard of hearing or didn't understand English?

I asked where the cashiers had gone and how long the machines had been there but she did not seem to understand and said: "here please. will take 5 days to clear.".

System

It was a scam. Fraudsters put an entire fake building frontage in front of the bank, with a row of machines for taking your money.
Go back today, and the old Barclays will still be there.

Archi_Bald

xylophone wrote: »

But the member of staff in question (assuming this was the young Chinese woman) was either hard of hearing or didn't understand English?

Yes, very likely and convincing story (not) that Barclays would have someone like that in a customer-facing role.

littlerock

where do you live as I can pm you with the branch in question and you can see for yourself.

bengal-stripe

littlerock wrote: »

I asked where the cashiers had gone and how long the machines had been there but she did not seem to understand.....

xylophone wrote: »

But the member of staff in question (assuming this was the young Chinese woman) was either hard of hearing or didn't understand English?

On the contrary!

As the OP was about to let off a rant about "modern times" and "in my days everything was better", the young woman was very astute and ignored the question, as she knew full well the OP was only interested in an argument.

Now we get the OP's rant on the forum here.....:D

Archi_Bald

littlerock wrote: »

where do you live as I can pm you with the branch in question and you can see for yourself.

You don't need to know where I live and you don't need to PM me. Just post the name of the Branch on the forum.

xylophone

,

the young woman was very astute and ignored the question,

Of course another possibility is that she thought she had heard him ask "How may I deposit this cheque as I am not familiar with using machines and there is no cashier available?":)

xylophone

http://www.help.barclays.co.uk/faq/accounts/statements-balances/cheque-clearing.html

A fuller explanation from the horse's mouth (or do I mean the eagle's beak) - I think Barclays mean "drawn on" rather than "from".