Banks

Well, in fact, RBS. Specifically, RBS Giffnock. Again.

I was in the bank last Monday and I got a request from them afterwards to fill in a 'brief' questionnaire. I was delighted. Saves me the bother of writing another furious letter.

It looks as if every RBS branch around Giffnock has been closed down apart from Shawlands (where you can't park). That means a couple of things: it is inconvenient for customers who would like to bank locally in places like Newton Mearns or Barrhead, but it's also a total pain in the arse for those of us who use the Giffnock branch because there are always extra customers waiting to be served. Add to that a 're-vamp' of the branch, which reduced the number of tellers from 4 to 2 (although last Monday I noted a 3rd teller was on duty) and the removal of all - och, I don't know what they're called - people who used to be there to talk to you about your account/lend you money/set up ISAs, etc. Those people have gone. The tellers do it all.

Last time I wrote a furious letter in July 2017, I complained about a few things:

- queues - okay if you're well and young and able to stand for up to 20 minutes, but not so good for  me. Last week there were a few chairs dotted around (as I'd suggested) but nowhere near the queuing point. I've now suggested RBS should just go the whole hog and make the branch like a reception area of A&E or a doctors' surgery with rows of seats. Maybe even issue tickets, like at some supermarket delis, so you know when your turn will come. Last time I complained, the manager phoned me. He wasn't very taken with my suggestions...

- over-extended tellers: I can't explain it any other way. I don't go into the branch that often (for obvious reasons) but every time I've been there I've heard a teller (1 of 2, remember) suggest a customer should get involved in some scheme or other: have a review, put funds into an ISA, etc. That means the teller has to shoot off into the back office to get the paperwork and, when she (it's almost always a she) comes back, she's tied up for a long time with one customer. I also object to the fact that their conversation is not private.

- useless ATMs. Every couple of weeks, I need the sum of 55 quid for my cleaners. The RBS machines don't do fivers. The manager assured me way back in July that machines that did fivers were coming but there's no sign yet.

- service: I'm not going to start banging on about how we the taxpayers own RBS, although we do. But something has gone drastically wrong with RBS's concept of service in the last few years. I'm a customer - have been for 52 years - not that that matters. But my bank account is not free: I pay a fee monthly to keep it running.

I do want to make it known to RBS: I am not here to meet the needs of your shareholders. The bank is - or should be - here to meet my needs as a customer. And it isn't doing that.

Then I read that RBS is closing its branch in Barra. I suppose that's one way to avoid the queues and the useless ATMs. But if I lived in Barra I'd want to know what the hell kind of service is this? When I was in Islay in August last year and in October the year before, the only place we could get cash from an ATM was Bowmore - ironically at the RBS branch there - unless the post office was open. Time was when RBS in Islay had branches at Bridgend, Port Ellen and Bowmore. So do people just routinely drive to Bowmore these days from all over the island?

I'm sick of this. I've spent years refusing to deal with companies that don't treat their staff or their customers well (the two go together in my experience). So why should banks be allowed to get away with such treatment of their customers?