Nat West - Another Way?

Hello my friends, hello; just called to let you know....

What is the job of a bank? To keep your money safe and to let you have some it every now and then either through a cash machine or via an electronic payment. I suppose in its simplest form that is all we want from our bank.

Yesterday Mrs B asked me to buy $60 to give as a gift and as I had a few cheques to pay in I walked into our branch of Nat West. I had not been in for a few weeks and was surprised to see that the whole place had been decked out with comfy seats. No queues now, just lots of people sitting on comfy seats waiting to be called to the next free cashiers window by an electronic voice.

What you are supposed to do is press a button on a screen telling them what transaction you wish to undertake, it then prints you a ticket with a number and then you go and sit on the comfy seats until called - well I didn't need a ticket to pay in the cheques as that is something you do without the aid of a human being these days. Eventually got the cheques into the bloody machine and then realised that the foreign till was no longer in existence - I had to take a ticket and sit in the comfy seats.

The ticket - T100 - had printed on it a little memo which indicated that all customers should be seen within five minutes and it was after reading that memo for seven minutes that I started to get a little fidgety.

Eventually I was summoned to 'position number four please' - and made my way to the very miserable and ugly lady sat behind the bullet proof glass. In hindsight the glass was perhaps to keep the customers from just smacking the cashier.

"Good morning, how can I help you?"

"I would like to buy $60 please."

"I'm sorry Sir, but I can't sell you $60."

"Why not, pray tell me?"

"Because dollars come pre-packed in amounts of $200 and we are not allowed to split them - Sir."

I gently reminded the ugly cow that I was a customer and that the customer is always right and I may have raised my voice slightly as I turned to walk away stating "what sort of service do you call this?!"

I then found a real person dressed as a bank employee and asked if I might make a complaint - she said I could and suggested I take a number and wait on the comfy seats!

Dear Nat West - please PLEASE find another way.

I got my $60 from the Post Office without much stress, other than it was full of smelly common people queueing for postal orders and stamps.

Have a nice day and avoid Nat West at all costs.