Man, so these last two weeks have just been NUTS and I’m about to rant about it so bare with me. Back in April I started working at the bank as a Teller and don’t get me wrong, I really like my job. The people are nice, the atmosphere, unlike the last place I was working at, is drama free, they provide me with free coffee and my managers and supervisors are really invested in doing the right thing for customers and their employees.
I have no complaints on the operational end, but man some customers can be absolute shitheads. Now, I don’t know if a lot of people understand how banking works or how workers at a bank are trained to understand and relay messages to customers when it comes to fees on their accounts, but just in case there are people who don’t get it, here ya go. At the bank I work at, and I’m sure many other banks as well, if you overdraft your account and you didn’t set up a system where money is automatically pulled from another account to cover the overdraft, you will get hit with an “overdraft fee”. Now the nice thing about this (trust me, there is something nice about it) is that the bank gives all customers who don’t have “overdraft protection” in place on their accounts a 24 hour grace period where they won’t hit your account with the fee and instead allow you those 24 hours to let you fund your account so that you don’t get charged.
Now, I get. There are a lot of different people out there when it comes to banking. There are people who check their accounts every day, there are people who will check it every week or so just to make sure that every thing is looking good, and then...there are people who never check their accounts.
Now, this absolutely ASTOUNDS me because even before I worked at the bank, I was taught by my parents to always watch my money. Make sure you always have enough in the bank to get you through the week and to pay your bills, make sure to get a receipt every time you use an atm so you can check the balance status, and always carry an account register and track where your money is going, especially if you write checks. Now, I will be the first to say, that I don’t do a lot of the stuff my parents do with their bank because I do all my banking online, but if you do your banking online, then there is no reason for you to not understand what is going on with your accounts because with smart phones, you practically have 24/7 access to your accounts.
Technology has made it incredibly easy to keep track of what is happening to your money. Now, I get it, some people don’t understand what the deal is with the fees the bank charges you and some of them are downright expensive, but if you were paying attention to the person who opened your account, at least where I work, they give you a disclaimer as well as an option when it comes to overdraft protection. Actually, I bank at two places and both places told me before setting up my accounts that I was allowed to set up a system in which if I, for some reason, gobbled up all my money in my checking and went into the negative, the bank would automatically pull the funds from my savings account and not charge a fee. I said “No, I don’t want to touch that money, and besides, I always check my money and I won’t overdraft.” And for the last decade, that has always been the case. I have had my accounts at two banks for 11 years now and not once have I ever overdrafted because again, I check my money.
Now, people who come into the branch, like this one man who came in today, who have overdrafted their accounts (yes, plural) don’t seem to understand that the bank houses your money, but at the end of the day, we are not responsible for where that money goes (with the exception of fraudulent activity of course)....at the end of the day, you are responsible. So if you transferred money on a Monday into your account and made several debit card purchases throughout the week, like this man did, the obvious is going to happen. Your money is going to be deducted because, shocker, you made the purchases, therefore you chose where your money went throughout the week. Now, interesting thing, if you decide to make debit card purchases and DON’T have a system that automatically pulls money from your savings account when your checking account is all spent, then buddy, your account goes in to the negative. Funny how that works...you spend money, therefore you have less money... but I digress.
Also, what’s really interesting is that if you bow out of the overdraft protection offer, the bank also provides a service that alerts you when you have overdrafted your accounts. That alert signals the 24 hour grace period your accounts have just entered for you to get to a bank and put cash in so you don’t get hit with a fee. Again, I am detailing this all out to you guys to indicate that an overdraft fee that is charged to your account is a LAST RESORT option when it comes to people’s accounts. The bank doesn’t want to charge a fee because what that indicates is that the bank has essentially lent money to your accounts, again---money that a customer did NOT have---to someone who has now shown themselves as not handling their finances “well”. That my friends, is called a service, and because the bank is essentially a business, there are certain services that come with a price tag (hence, an overdraft fee).
Clearly, this man that walked into my branch today did not understand that because he wasn’t paying attention to his accounts throughout the week, that not one, but TWO of his accounts went in to overdraft on Tuesday morning (mind you, this was a Wednesday afternoon when I interacted with him, well over the 24 hour grace period for combating an overdraft fee that is about to hit your account).
When I told him this, he looked shocked and said, “I don’t understand why my accounts are in the negative, I put money into my checking account on Monday to avoid being overdrafted, what happened?”
I looked at him and said, “Well sir, if you look at the history on your accounts, you made several purchases on Tuesday morning online with your debit card and that is what caused your accounts to go into the negative.”
He said, “That’s impossible, I just put money in on Monday to make sure that didn’t happen, you can’t just hit my account with an overdraft fee when I put money in the accounts.”
Again, I said, “Well sir, I’m showing you your accounts right here, and what YOUR activity shows is that you did transfer money, but your purchases on Tuesday morning exceeded the amount you transferred on Monday, and since the 24 hour time period to fund your accounts without getting charged has passed, that’s why you are seeing that overdraft fee in your account as well.”
The man, high and mighty as he was (with a pretentious name like the one he had, and the way he sauntered into my building like he fucking owned the place, I knew I was about to get yelled at) he said, “You people can’t just charge my account and steal my money like that! That’s retarted! I transferred money on Monday, and it’s IMPOSSIBLE that both my accounts went into overdraft, and I want you to get rid of it right now!”
Me: “Alright sir, so you have two options then if you want to fight the overdraft that hit your account. I suggest the first option, which is to sit down with a banker to review your accounts and they will then be able to discern whether or not they can waive the fee. I have a few available right now, if you would like to sit down with them.”
Dickstick: “I don’t WANT to sit down with a banker, I’m frustrated and I’m hungry and I don’t have time to sit down with someone, I just want you to take off the fee!”
Me: *internal and infinite sighing* “Sir, I do not have the authority to do that for you, there is absolutely no way I can waive that fee for you, but I can sit you down with someone who CAN. That’s where my ability to service you ends if you want to fight the fee. If you don’t want to sit down with someone, the second option is to call the 1-800 number on the back of the card and the representative can help you there. But like I said, if you want the fee waived, you will have to speak with someone else because I physically cannot waive fees, I am simply the teller.”
Bag of Dicks: This is FUCKING RIDICULOUS, you people can’t just steal my money like this and then tell me I can’t get my fee waived (and in case you weren’t reading, I never said that). YOU KNOW WHAT? Just close all my accounts. I can’t believe you guys are about to lose a fucking platinum customer with a business account over a fee like this. Just fucking close my accounts.”
And this, my friends, is where I really had to hold in my laughter, because in order to close an account...you have to sit down with a banker...
Me: “Well sir, that ALSO has to be done with a banker. Either way, what you are looking for is a BANKER. I am a teller, I cannot physically close accounts or waive fees. And honestly, I am not liking the tone you are taking with me. This is a place of business and you cursing at me is disrespectful and disruptive to the customers who are behind you in line.”
Mind you all, not once did I raise my voice to this idiotic man who was clearly looking to just yell at someone that day, and it’s because I don’t get mad. In fact, I am someone who is more prone to bottling up my anger, and believe me at this point, this man was just another bullet point on the very looooong list of things that had made the last two weeks two really shitty weeks. But whatever, I knew that at the end of the day, if I kept calm and told him what I was trained to tell people, and he ended up still wanting to complain to someone over the phone, I wouldn’t be in jeopardy because the person on the other end of the line would have told him exactly what I told him.
At this point though, because the man was yelling at me, his voice carried all the way to my manager who then decided to step in when he saw that I was getting nowhere with this guy.
Manager: “Sir, I understand that you are upset, but you cannot talk to her that way. She has told you exactly what you need to do, and the fact that you are not listening to her and yelling at her is not going to fix the problem. All you’re doing is disrupting my customers and disrespecting someone who has already given you a solution to your problem. And you’ve decided not to take it. Now, if you continue to speak to her in that way one more time, I will ask you to leave, so stop cursing at my employee.”
Fucker: This is retarted! (again with that word---Using that word in front of someone who has a mentally disabled cousin and friends, I do not like that word being tossed around). You people are all thieves and you can’t touch my money like that. Just take all my money out right now and I’ll deal with this later.
Me: Fine, here is all your money.
AND THEN THIS IS WHERE IT REACHES LEVELS OF ABSOLUTE HILARITY.
Dude points to my manager and says, “I’m gonna need your business card.”
And guys, this is my favorite part of the show that was this afternoon. Whenever someone asks me to get my manager or asks my manager for their card in hopes of getting their name to complain when they call over the phone once they leave, we are more than happy to do that. Again, like I said at the way beginning, I work at a branch that is very by the books, we say what needs to be said, we aren’t involved in shady business and we follow a system of dealing with customers the way corporate always wants us to handle these kinds of situations. I saw my manager get subtly excited and said, “Sure! Here you go!”
Then the asshole has the audacity to say to my manager, “How long have you been working here?”
Dude: “And you like your job?”
Manager: “I love my job, just don’t like people disrespecting people who do not deserve to be disrespected.”
Dude: “Well I don’t like people like you working in banking” (oh, because you are soooooo well versed in the art of banking...you can’t even get yourself to keep track of your money home-skillet) “And I’ll make sure to tell them that when I call to complain.”
Manager: *laughs* “Well that’s your prerogative. Have a nice day!”
After that, I helped the line that had stacked up during this debacle and afterwards I looked at my manager and asked in a joking manner, “So, you scared of big ol’ Platinum Mr. Customer who is going to have your job?”
My manager rolled his eyes and said, “Please, I’ve dealt with that guy before, and I still have my job. Clearly he doesn’t remember me and thinks he can still pull that ‘I’m so badass’ card when he’s got nothing.”
Me: “Oh I know he’s got nothing on us, we didn’t yell at him and told him what he could do and he just wanted someone to yell at.”
Man, if you stayed with me throughout this horrific trainwreck that was this customer, I applaud you. That interaction took about 10 minutes and after that, when I went back to helping the line, all my customers were super sympathetic saying, “I can’t believe you didn’t get angry, you handled yourself so well.” I simply shrugged and said, “Some people are just angry and want a punching bag. That doesn’t mean you have to be hurt by their words, or at the very least show them that you aren’t hurt by their words. If anything I was just offended by his out-of-style haircut, and his pretentious wannabe badass persona. I’ve dealt with people a lot more scary than that wimp.”
Which is all true, but again, when it is all said and done, don’t be a little bitch to your tellers at the bank. In that case, I literally had no transactional authority and I told the man what he could do, why he was hit with a fee and yet he still somehow felt the need to use foul language towards me, yell at me, “threaten” my managers position and act like we were responsible for HIS debit card purchases that put him in the negative at the end of the day. Overdraft fees don’t put people in the negative; the inability to monitor your accounts and make purchases with money you don’t have does.
So, moral of the story: don’t be an asshole. Take responsibility for your money. The teller isn’t a babysitter for your accounts. We just tell you what is going on.
