Does the Bank of Ireland not want customers

ben101

Very ,very bad experience with BOI.Messed me around with mortgage application,wanted to remortgage and switch from PTSB about 3 years ago.Cost me a large amount of cash as they accepted me application but withdrew at the last minute.Did the same thing to a friend of mine.I reckon they were "accepting" loan applications all over the place to make the books look healthy when they were under close scrutiny during the bailout but had no intention of granting any of them.

Chipboard

Prometheus wrote: »

Had the unfortunate experience of having to deal with the BOI over the last few days. The whole system in my local BOI is completely customer unfriendly.
They are trying to automate the whole system there, no human contact or as little as possible. This is how they treat the small guy, and take the sham that owes them millions out to dinner!
Anyway upshot is, changed to a bank that appreciates its customers.

I didn't go through this entire thread to see if anyone else already posted the explanation for the above so don't shoot me if I repeat what someone else has said.

I had occasion to go into my local BOI a couple of times lately and was totally perplexed at first at the new set up. Where the Customer Service desk used to be has now been replaced by two little offices. The Cashier points have been reduced from 6 or 7 to just 3 and they have been pushed way back into an alcove. Apart from that there is just a load of offices where the various advisers (I use the word cautiously), lenders etc do their work. I wandered around the branch for a couple of minutes hoping to find a staff member who would tell me where I could get what I wanted (I knew it was not a job for the cashier). I couldn't find any staff and began to think that that they were going to think I was casing the place for a robbery so I left. I made a second attempt a few days later but again just wandered around the branch like a gob****e before leaving.

I thought at first that this was part of their big campaign to push customers towards online banking but it just didn't make sense to me - there is more to it than that, and then the answer hit me;

Bank of Ireland know that the whole banking lark is basically fncked and they are not going to make any money for the next 5 to 7 years. Ideally what they would like to do is close alot of their branches - certainly any branch in a small town which is within (what they would call) a reasonable distance of a larger town, but because they have taken the taxpayers money to survive they can't do that. Instead they have done the next best thing.

They have reconfigured their branches so that they can be manned by a lot less staff. The service will be practically non existent of course but when you consider that they want to close these branches this isn't really a consideration. They get no heat from the government on the issue as they can dress it up as 'change' rather than a step backwards which it undoubtedly is, and if at some point in the future banking become profitable they can reconfigure the branches and re-open to the public.

The reason I am sure that the above is the explanation is that I am absolutely certain that this could not be part of a move to online banking. If it was only that it would have been done in a way that protected the business and their ability to cross sell (you go in to lodge a cheque, they sell you a credit card / you go in to lodge cash, they sell you an investment product etc). Given they way they have done it I am certain that it has destroyed a lot of their business.

I feel sorry when I see some 75 year old man or woman in there - its total crap sh1te to expect a person who was born in the 30's or 40's to adjust to all that technology.

Its a real crock of sh1t that the banks don't have the decency to provide a service to the people who pulled their sorry asses out of the fire. It rubbishes the claim that these banks were saved because they were systemic - even if they were systemic in 2008 they have ceased to be now. They are now nothing but a drain on the tax payer. Lets face it if these banks had been let fail and we were all back to using cash and the credit union/post office but still had our €64 billion we'd all be better off. These banks were saved because the rich and powerful were afraid that if they let them go it would cause a chain reaction and their wealth (which after the property crash was all tied up in the other three asset classes - cash, bonds and equities i.e. the financial system) would be wiped out.

UCDVet

It's easy to complain about banks. I am a BOI customer and I'm not too impressed with them myself.

But look at it from their perspective. If I'm just some typical (not wealthy) kind of guy, what do they get from keeping me a happy customer?

I wrote some stupid software app that is ad-supported. Each 'customer' of my free app - earns me PENNIES. But every week or so, I get an e-mail from someone wanting support or new features or help installing or questions about this or that and the other thing. I could give GREAT customer support - but it costs a lot of money.

With overhead/taxes/training/etc/etc... figure every hour of an employee helping a customer with something costs them 40 euro. But a typical customer who just gets a paycheck deposited, pays some bills, and takes money out of an ATM - isn't making them much money at all.

I don't keep much money in my account and the fees I pay are pretty darn small.

And the truth is, given the choice between bank A with low fees and bank B with higher fees (but great customer service) - I'd put my money in Bank A. Because most of the time, I can figure stuff out on my own and I don't need customer support.

So that's what banks give us.

Of course, I'm sure rich people have entirely different experiences. They probably have direct lines to their own personal account managers and experience amazing customer service.

cena

I don't like them new manchines they have. I like to be able to speak to bank workers

Chipboard

UCDVet wrote: »

It's easy to complain about banks.

Fianna Fail are back on top and we love the Banks. Amnesia or what.

There's a troll on here for every post. If I said killing people was bad you'd probably do an indepth analysis of it to see if there were aspects of it which had some merit.