Saturday, March 24, 2007

Royal Bank of Scandalous (aka Scotland)

Regular readers of this blog will know that I made atrocious experiences with the Royal Bank of Scotland. For the record, the stuff-up the bank caused months ago during a stay in San Francisco has still not been rectified. Even my branch manageress thinks that the organisation's conduct has been shameful at best.

Having declared my personal conflict of interest, I should probably also mention that I continue to monitor this record profit making organisation for further evidence of truly scandalous conduct. And indeed, given half a chance, the Royal Bank of Scandalous (as a reader of this blog renamed the organisation) will almost certainly jump at it.

Well, here's what's happening. Just like other organisations, the company requires that its staff also buy its products. Any of its staff members caught not having a bank account with the Royal Bank of Scotland will be subject to disciplinary procedures. I don't understand why the company's staff would be so recalcitrant. Is it because they know better than most of us how crappy the bank's customer (dis-service) really is? May be they don't want to wait months to see an apology for bad service and some kind of compensation? After all, the bank pretty much instantly charges the living hell out of you if you overdraw your bank account. If they (by their own admission) mistakenly drain your account of money, they quite happily charge you (yes, you!) instantly. They then fail, months after having punished you for overdrawing an account that they accidentally drained, to compensate you or fix the mistake.

Of course, I shouldn't be unfair. There are plenty of other companies requiring their staff to buy their products. Rolls Royce for instance demands that its staff drive only Rolls Royce, and so do Bentley, Jaguar and Mercedes Benz. Come to think of it, thousands of Lufthansa staff were recently disciplined for flying other airlines. Worse, McDonald's staff seen with a Burger King burger in their hand will be shot on the spot by McDonald's Staff Monitoring Services. - OK, I guess you realise that I made these stories up. I also hope you get the point that I am trying to make. Take the opportunity to cancel your account with the RBS when you have a minute. As a bank it fails to provide decent customer services, and as an employer it undoubtedly sucks big time. Move on while you can.

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