Think it Through

[thehippie777]

If I've mentioned some of these before, forgive me and spread the word.

What not to do at a bank:

1. Don't hang around before or after opening. We can call the cops if we don't feel comfortable. We have no idea what your intentions are. If you see employees entering that door you are at, then please vacate the area until opening.

2. When in a drive through, speak towards the speaker. Do not look down, mumble, or look across the vehicle away from the spreaker and expect us to hear you clearly.

3. Do not stand right behind another customer in line. It's intrusive, freaky, and rude. Stand behind the line cord or if the financial institution has one, the sign that says to wait there. I know, reading is hard!

4. Do not just walk up to a window, EVER. Wait until you are asked to approach or someone says, "come on over" etc. There is a lot of private information, and odds are you haven't been asked to come over for a reason. That, and just walking up to an empty window does not mean someone is currently working there. You could be there awhile.

5. Do not throw things across to the teller, ie deposits, checks for cash, etc It shows disrespect and that kind of treatment is not in our pay grade.

6. Tellers love to help you the best we can, but we are not personal assistants or accountants (well, most of us). I do not get paid nearly as well as those people to be doing all of your bookwork. $12.59 an hour barely covers my background check and constant audits. I am entrusted with delicate information about a great deal of people, and I am part of the lowest paid group in a bank. I have to be the one who catches a fraudulent check if people try to deposit them. I will get written up for being a penny over or short, for taking an stale-dated check, for not IDing a person, for stealing (immediate dismissal), for complaints about my service, for missing supervisor approval on certain items, think of it and banking and that is on my shoulders. I have a lot of responsibility and pressure, and get paid dick. Do not add to it be making me to do all of the work for you.

7. That being said, I can help with a great deal of things. Having me do your deposit and me thanking you as you go to the new accounts area to ask for a print out of your transactions just wastes your time. I can do that. I have the power!

8. When I say hello, it's polite to acknowledge me somehow.

9. Try your best to fill out paperwork completely. I know it's scary, but if you follow what the lines say I swear it won't be that bad. Errors can be fixed. I know I don't make a big deal of out adding/subtracting errors. It's a simple fix. HINT: if you have a cell phone, use the calc function, if all else fails.

10. I can't put the cash just directly in your hand. It is the custom to count it out to you. Put your hand away for a moment.


I'm sure there's more, but that is just today.

[wolfie]

4. Do not just walk up to a window, EVER. Wait until you are asked to approach or someone says, "come on over" etc. There is a lot of private information, and odds are you haven't been asked to come over for a reason. That, and just walking up to an empty window does not mean someone is currently working there. You could be there awhile.

Even if someone is currently working there, don't approach until signaled. The person could be doing work other than serving customers, or they could be doing some final "housekeeping" between their last customer and break/going home. Either way, they won't be serving you.

[Deserted]

3. Do not stand right behind another customer in line. It's intrusive, freaky, and rude. Stand behind the line cord or if the financial institution has one, the sign that says to wait there. I know, reading is hard!

More than once, I've told someone, quite rudely, to back the fuck up, my banking is none of their business. If I do this, I also turn my back on the teller and face squarely at the person. (You never know what's going to happen. I'm fairly certain the teller isn't going to drill through bullet-proof glass and attack me, but the guy standing at my shoulder?)

7. That being said, I can help with a great deal of things. Having me do your deposit and me thanking you as you go to the new accounts area to ask for a print out of your transactions just wastes your time. I can do that. I have the power!

8. When I say hello, it's polite to acknowledge me somehow.

I often try to get the person I'm dealing with -- bank teller or otherwise -- to laugh a bit. Sometimes I even succeed.

[thehippie777]

I agree with both of those^^^

Another one!

11. Do not just try to go wondering around a bank. This is a huge security risk and privacy issue for other customers/clients/members! Wait. As much as it pains you, please wait. Also, in some financial places, we at the teller line can help you not have to wait! Come to us for help. For example: I am certified in safe deposit boxes. I can help you get into your box, I swear. Unless, you like to just stand in the middle of the bank, waiting for someone to get free to help you all while possibly hearing private information that is none of your business. Course, that might be your goal you slimey, shady shade.

[Deserted]

I am certified in safe deposit boxes.

Just out of curiosity, what's involved in that certification? (I didn't even know such a thing existed...)

[drjonah]

The bank I go to has a giant sign now saying to go to the teller FIRST and then if necessary they will direct you to the proper person if they can't help you.

[thehippie777]

Just out of curiosity, what's involved in that certification? (I didn't even know such a thing existed...)

Ah. Well, because we have to identify the customer and understand we can not ever know what is in a box and know how to help the customer protect their items, it's a bank thing. I had to be observed following policy in order to be able to help people in safety deposit boxes. I also have to know about the disclosures we give to customers about what they can not store in the boxes (even though we can't know what's in there) i.e. explosives, working guns and other weapons (replicas and guns that do not fire because of age, collectables are allowed), illegal drugs. Also, people can not be left alone in the safe deposit boxes. Banks often offer "privacy rooms" if items need to be shuffled. I can also not be in sole possession of a customers key, and they can no have our keys in their possession ever.

Are you testing me? lol

I once had an elderly couple at a bank I previously worked at talking to each other while I waited. They were discussing putting their gun in the box. I would have had to tell them that is against state law. They luckily decided against it.

[thehippie777]

The bank I go to has a giant sign now saying to go to the teller FIRST and then if necessary they will direct you to the proper person if they can't help you.

I like that! Perhaps that is in our future as well.

[thehippie777]

Another one!!

12. Debit cards are not an I.D. I know some finance places offer a card with your picture etc on them, but we do not. Our bank doesn't offer the ability to swipe a debit card etc either at our stations. The cooperate board wants us to be more personable, I think. btw, people copy debit cards often. It is not a reliable form of identification.

13. DO NOT EVER share your PIN for your card with me, nor your internet banking password, or anything I should ever know. Pretty much keep passwords/codes to yourself at all times! Yall wouldn't believe how many people just throw out their entire numerical histories to me out loud, with others listening. Identify theft seems sometimes too easy.

[wolfie]

the disclosures we give to customers about what they can not store in the boxes (even though we can't know what's in there) i.e. explosives, working guns and other weapons (replicas and guns that do not fire because of age, collectables are allowed)

So a Volcanic pistol (company went bankrupt in the 19th century, one major investor thought the mechanism had potential, bought the patent from the trustee, and hired a gunsmith to adapt it to a more powerful cartridge - his name was Winchester), which fires a cartridge which has been out of production for well over a hundred years, would be OK (even if it were in working condition, it couldn't be fired due to a lack of ammunition), and a Glock would be prohibited. What about an 18th century dueling pistol? Would the "very old collectable" override "it's in working condition", or vice versa? How about the "patent dodging" Colt revolvers that were offered for a few years back in the late 1800s? They were adapted from cap-and-ball models, and the cartridge was loaded from the front of the cylinder (to get around a patent on bored-through cylinders - as soon as the patent expired, these were dropped). They could be back-converted by replacing the cylinder with a cap-and-ball cylinder, for which ammunition is still available. Would they be OK with the "oddball" cylinder in place and the cap-and-ball sitting beside it as "spare parts", but not the other way around?

[Lovecats]

The bank I go to has a giant sign now saying to go to the teller FIRST and then if necessary they will direct you to the proper person if they can't help you.

But, but, we know that SCs don't read signs (or anything else for that matter)!

[thehippie777]

So a Volcanic pistol (company went bankrupt in the 19th century, one major investor thought the mechanism had potential, bought the patent from the trustee, and hired a gunsmith to adapt it to a more powerful cartridge - his name was Winchester), which fires a cartridge which has been out of production for well over a hundred years, would be OK (even if it were in working condition, it couldn't be fired due to a lack of ammunition), and a Glock would be prohibited. What about an 18th century dueling pistol? Would the "very old collectable" override "it's in working condition", or vice versa? How about the "patent dodging" Colt revolvers that were offered for a few years back in the late 1800s? They were adapted from cap-and-ball models, and the cartridge was loaded from the front of the cylinder (to get around a patent on bored-through cylinders - as soon as the patent expired, these were dropped). They could be back-converted by replacing the cylinder with a cap-and-ball cylinder, for which ammunition is still available. Would they be OK with the "oddball" cylinder in place and the cap-and-ball sitting beside it as "spare parts", but not the other way around?

It has to be unable to work or a reproduction for decoration only (aka collectible). Consult your financial institution for more information.

[thehippie777]

Two more for my crazy list:

14. Teach your children that when a teller is counting out their money, they have no right to reach over and start to grab coin or otherwise until the teller presents them with their money. I don't care how much you fear forgetting the quarter. Yes, this happened yesterday and the young lady reached entirely around the counter nearly to my keyboard to get to the quarter.

15. Please don't start with a request, make another request, ask a question, and then wonder why your first request hasn't been fulfilled yet, then ask another question all in one breath. I swear I can help you, but give me a change.

16. I ALMOST FORGOT A HUUGE ONE! Don't attempt to find the largest container you possibly can and fill it entirely with coin and expect people at the bank to lift that and count it for you in their coin counter. If you can't bring it into the bank on your own safely without a little red wagon, trust me, you don't want a teller attempting to lift it and then sue your ass when they hurt themselves. I go and get smaller containers and get that huge one emptied into smaller ones and people think I'm being silly. Our coin counter is also behind the teller line and locked up, so those customers who say they want to do it themselves....um no.

[wolfie]

It has to be unable to work or a reproduction for decoration only (aka collectible). Consult your financial institution for more information.

Would "It's been over a hundred years since anybody made ammunition for it" qualify as "unable to work"?