Stealing our time
by Bushy Van Eck
2009-11-04 09:26
Dear Editor,
I'm sick and tired of having to fall in line at banks for unreasonable lengths of time. The other day I stood in line for 35 minutes before reaching the cashier. There were at least forty two people in front of me and when I finally left, the line had grown even longer.
I made a quick calculation and estimated that more or less about 150 customers lined up in that hour all paying a penalty in time of say 30 minutes. This means that in one hour the banks are stealing 75 hours from customers.
The irony is that this is time taken away from our employers as it was early morning hours. Lunch hour line-ups are even longer.
The government should do research and as a result they will fall over backwards when they realise just how much time is lost due to the ignorant attitudes of banks in this regard.
The cherry on the cake is that while you are forfeiting your own time the banks have the audacity to say that those customers are not even allowed to use their cellphones.
Many years ago, the banks had the same amount of staff but probably only a third of the customers. Some of the profits they make are nothing other than money in time being stolen from us, the customer, by them saving on employment costs.
I plead to the government to catch a wakeup call and do something about this by enforcing the banks to employ staff in relation to their customer database. It is very clear to me that their staff is working under pressure and dare not voice their concern in fear of being hauled over the coals.
And please don't tell me I can make use of internet banking. When I see the annual profits the banks make for their shareholders it makes me sick to the stomach, not about the shareholders' profits, but the way the very clients that enable those shareholders to profit is being treated by the arrogant disrespectful attitudes of those in charge of the banks that can make a difference.
Fortunately this does not hold true for all the banks, as their most certainly is a bank that really cares, but then their clients know that too well.
Bushy Van Eck
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