Letter to the bank manager!

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JayBird
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Letter to the bank manager!

Post by JayBird »

Below is an actual letter sent to a UK Bank. The Bank Manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the Guardian (National British Newspaper).

Dear Sir,

I am writing to thank you for bouncing my cheque with which I endeavored to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations some three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his presenting the cheque and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honor it. I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire salary, an arrangement which, I admit, has only been in place for eight years.

You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account £50 by way of penalty for the inconvenience I caused to your bank. My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways.

You have set me on the path of fiscal righteousness. No more will our relationship be blighted by these unpleasant incidents, for I am restructuring my affairs in 2003, taking as my model the procedures, attitudes and conduct of your very bank. I can think of no greater compliment and I know you will be excited and proud to hear it. To this end, please be advised about the following changes:

I have noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, ever-changing, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become. From now on I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person.

My mortgage and loan repayments will, therefore and hereafter, no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank, by cheque, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your branch whom you must nominate. You will be aware that it is an offence under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope. Please find attached an Application Contact Status which I require your chosen employee to complete. I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative. Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Notary Public, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof. In due course, I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me. I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modelled it on the number of button presses required to access my account balance on your phone bank service.

As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Let me level the playing field even further by introducing you to my new telephone system, which you will notice, is very much like yours. My authorized contact at your bank, the only person with whom I will have any dealings, may call me at any time and will be answered by an automated voice service:

Press buttons as follows:

1. To make an appointment to see me.

2. To query a missing payment.

3. To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.

4. To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.

5. To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.

6. To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home.

7. To leave a message on my computer, a password to access my computer is required. Password will be communicated at a later date to the authorized contact.

8. To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 9.

9. To make a general complaint or inquiry. The contact will then be put you on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service. While this may on occasion involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call. This month I've chosen a refrain from "The Best of Woodie Guthrie: Oh, the banks are made of marble, With a guard at every door, And the vaults are filled with silver, That the miners sweated for."

On a more serious note, we come to the matter of cost. As your bank has often pointed out, the ongoing drive for greater efficiency comes at a cost which you have always been quick to pass on to me. Let me repay your kindness by passing some costs back. First, there is a matter of advertising material you send me. This I will read for a fee of £20 per page. Inquiries from the authorized contact will be billed at £5 per minute of my time spent in response. Any debits to my account, as, for example, in the matter of the penalty for the dishonoured cheque, will be passed back to you. My new phone service runs at 75p a minute. You will be well advised to keep your inquiries brief and to the point. Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement.

May wish you a happy, if ever-so-slightly less prosperous, New Year!

Your Humble Client,

(Name Withheld)
d3ad1ysp0rk
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Post by d3ad1ysp0rk »

:lol:

Nice find.. :)
kettle_drum
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Post by kettle_drum »

Very good.
McGruff
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Post by McGruff »

Vey funny.

Last time I got hit with a nit-picking charge like this I refused to pay it. The £50 escalated to a four figure sum quicker than you would believe, in part because of the bank's delightful habit of charging me for each threat they issued. I held my nerve and eventually got away with it.

PS: don't try this at home. It's much more likely that you'll wind up entertaining some bailiffs, briefly, before they make off with your most valued possessions.
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patrikG
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Post by patrikG »

Rings too true this letter - wonderful read. Apart from the utopian charges, what I find most annoying is that banks in the UK (NatWest in my case) take 3 days(!!!) to process a cheque from their own bank. I was given the reason: "You see, it's from a different branch" with a straight face.

They have to undergo some training to not find this ridiculous.
qads
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Post by qads »

3 days? mine get clear same day most of the time, if not, next day for sure, and mine are mostly international cheques.
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patrikG
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Post by patrikG »

qads wrote:3 days? mine get clear same day most of the time, if not, next day for sure, and mine are mostly international cheques.
How is that possible? Does you bank actually make use of this "electronic revolution" sweeping the globe?

Seriously: which bank would that be - mind takes three days and it will take three days until Judgement Day.
qads
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Post by qads »

lol, its natwest, i dont know what they do, I went to the bank on wensday, the money was in my account on thursday, and i was able to move it to my saveings account aswell :).
Grim...
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Post by Grim... »

Natwest will clear an Natwest cheque to a Natwest account by close of business.

They do for me, anyway.
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patrikG
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Post by patrikG »

Grim... wrote:Natwest will clear an Natwest cheque to a Natwest account by close of business.

They do for me, anyway.
Then my branch is operated by cheque-eating banker-monkeys.
qads
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Post by qads »

maybe it depends on where you live? :?
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patrikG
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Post by patrikG »

Yeah. Possible. If I had been born in the sixties, I would have become a member of a radical anti-capitalist movement that would rob banks and blow up bank-branches. Thank god I wasn't, which makes me a peacnik and accepter of my bank's exploitation. Now that's the start of a happy live.
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