Monday, 7 May 2012

I Take it Back

We lived in London for four years and about halfway through our time there we came back to Australia for a few weeks. When we got to Sydney, we realised we'd both completely forgotten our bank account pin numbers. The next morning, with heavy heart, we set off down Crown Street, Surry Hills to try to persuade the bank to supply us with new ones. Imagine our surprise when we walked through the door and were greeted by a smiling young woman who provided us with new numbers without fuss or complication. We gave her a  few bits of information, she cheerily sorted things out for us and we went on our way.

So I shouldn't be mean about the Commonwealth Bank for a single millisecond. They are so much better than the British banks we dealt with, where our experiences mirrored pretty closely those recounted by a man called Parsons on the BBC's Now Show the other day:


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3 comments:

  1. Ha! We've all been there. In my case it was a worker at a Telstra call centre. they'll never see my business again regardless of how much they beg and plead. And surprisingly they still do.

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  2. I'm afraid I'll need some proof of identity before I can reply to that comment, Nurse

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  3. The Now Show monologue is very funny - I particularly like the bank's 'is there anything else I can help you with today?' after the extended obtuseness.
    The only thing I'd give the British banks higher marks for compared to their Australian counterparts is that at least last time I was there you could use any of the major banks' ATMs without paying a charge. Whereas in Australia it'll cost you an irritating $2 if you're not using your own bank's machine.
    Our British bank was quite alert to credit card fraud, several times blocking the card to prevent attempted fraud - which seemed to be a bigger risk in the UK than in Australia. On the other hand, they tended to fall down in the communication department, leaving it to us to contact them to find out the reason when the card was unexpectedly declined.

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