Gobsmacking.(but they have every right to do what they are doing, stupid move publicity-wise, but it's their company)
12 April 2007
Word of the Day (It's Always the Same Word)
Gobsmacking.(but they have every right to do what they are doing, stupid move publicity-wise, but it's their company)
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3 comments:
The HSBC branch caused fury by saying “not everyone in the world is equal”.
Well, isn't that always the case? You just don't often see a company be so upfront about it. Not that this is news. Banks have been pushing customers away from reps for at least 20 years. There was a major U.S. bank back in the mid-90s that charged customers for speaking to a teller instead of using an ATM. I'm seeing more banking kiosks that instead of a warm body provide phones to call the central help desk number if you have a question or problem. Tellers and customer service reps make their bonuses pushing new services and cold-calling for insurance products, not depositing checks and opening checking accounts. Or, even worse, taking 10 minutes to help someone balance their checkbook.
Any bank customer should realize that the more money you give the bank the more free stuff you get. Having worked a few years in banking--both customer side and operations--I can tell you that poor people are mainly tolerated for the service charge fees they generate.
On the other hand, I'm sure this policy will appeal to plenty of customers who will appreciate not mingling with the riff-raff.
Not that there's anything wrong with avoiding the riff-raff. I'm not expecting the Lamborghini dealership to start selling the Ford Focus out of a sense of egalitarianism.
More on banks -- the front and back of the bank are usually in a struggle against each other. In the branches, when actually trying to provide customer service, operations is nothing but a rule-spouting blowhard trying to screw over the customer. On the operations side, the branches are seen as a huge liability just giving away the bank's hard-earned money. I worked with loss prevention and fraud, who really hated the branches.
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