A visit to a bank
Today, I visited the local bank of Punjab National Bank to achieve three objectives: withdraw some money, update the passbook, and surrender the safety deposit box. I entered the bank at 11:21am (just happened to glance at my watch as I entered).
My first instinct was to ask the lady at the reception about what I need to do for each of the tasks. However, she was busy helping two other customers and I had some idea about withdrawing money. So, I went to one of the three "Customer Relations Executives." This man pointed me to a different Executive who declared that I cannot withdraw money on the check I presented. Apparently, this was from an old checkbook and the design had been discontinued. When I protested about the check being officially supplied by the bank, with the address of the branch printed on it, he asked me to talk to the Senior Manager. The Senior Manager looked at it and said it looks fine, till someone else pointed out that it is the old design. He then called a different Customer Relations Executive who advised that it can be used but that we should apply for and get a new checkbook. I was back to the first CRE who checked everything and gave me a token and sent me back to the Senior Manager for approval. While the Senior Manager started to do this, his computer started acting up and he had to reboot his Windows machine. When the machine finally came up, I was surprised to see that this machine is not dedicated to banking work but had more icons on the desktop than my PC. I will not be surprised if you could surf the net on this machine. Anyway, he approved and I received the money from the teller. The time was noon. I asked the Senior Manager to help me with the surrender of safety deposit box but he told me to take care of the withdrawal first. While I was going back and forth from CRE to SM to CRE to SM to Teller, I thought that Douglas Adams must have done a transaction at Punjab National Bank when he wrote about the bureaucracy of Vogons.
Oh, and the CRE made me sign on the back of the check and asked me to write down my mobile number. However, he never once asked to see my ID. I had carried my passport in case they don't accept my driver's license but I did not need any photo ID while withdrawing money from my dad's account (the check had his signatures that were verified by the manager).
At noon, I started to wait for the Senior Manager again. I finally caught him by 12:15pm and he told me to come back on Monday because he is just filling in for the regular Senior Manager who is on leave for the day.
The lady at the reception was free and I asked her to help me with updating the passbook (the register that records the deposits and withdrawals). She said that I need a barcode and sent me to one of the CREs. He applied the barcode but informed me that there is another passbook issued after this one and unless I bring that, I cannot get the update.
I left the bank at 12:22pm, and all I accomplished was withdrawal of some cash. I think the banks had claimed that computers will bing efficiency to the system. I shudder to think what would have happened before this so-called efficiency made its appearance in the banks.
Punjab National Bank has been a part of some scam recently, and even though I do not know much about the scam, it is in the news a lot.
My first instinct was to ask the lady at the reception about what I need to do for each of the tasks. However, she was busy helping two other customers and I had some idea about withdrawing money. So, I went to one of the three "Customer Relations Executives." This man pointed me to a different Executive who declared that I cannot withdraw money on the check I presented. Apparently, this was from an old checkbook and the design had been discontinued. When I protested about the check being officially supplied by the bank, with the address of the branch printed on it, he asked me to talk to the Senior Manager. The Senior Manager looked at it and said it looks fine, till someone else pointed out that it is the old design. He then called a different Customer Relations Executive who advised that it can be used but that we should apply for and get a new checkbook. I was back to the first CRE who checked everything and gave me a token and sent me back to the Senior Manager for approval. While the Senior Manager started to do this, his computer started acting up and he had to reboot his Windows machine. When the machine finally came up, I was surprised to see that this machine is not dedicated to banking work but had more icons on the desktop than my PC. I will not be surprised if you could surf the net on this machine. Anyway, he approved and I received the money from the teller. The time was noon. I asked the Senior Manager to help me with the surrender of safety deposit box but he told me to take care of the withdrawal first. While I was going back and forth from CRE to SM to CRE to SM to Teller, I thought that Douglas Adams must have done a transaction at Punjab National Bank when he wrote about the bureaucracy of Vogons.
Oh, and the CRE made me sign on the back of the check and asked me to write down my mobile number. However, he never once asked to see my ID. I had carried my passport in case they don't accept my driver's license but I did not need any photo ID while withdrawing money from my dad's account (the check had his signatures that were verified by the manager).
At noon, I started to wait for the Senior Manager again. I finally caught him by 12:15pm and he told me to come back on Monday because he is just filling in for the regular Senior Manager who is on leave for the day.
The lady at the reception was free and I asked her to help me with updating the passbook (the register that records the deposits and withdrawals). She said that I need a barcode and sent me to one of the CREs. He applied the barcode but informed me that there is another passbook issued after this one and unless I bring that, I cannot get the update.
I left the bank at 12:22pm, and all I accomplished was withdrawal of some cash. I think the banks had claimed that computers will bing efficiency to the system. I shudder to think what would have happened before this so-called efficiency made its appearance in the banks.
Punjab National Bank has been a part of some scam recently, and even though I do not know much about the scam, it is in the news a lot.
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