It’s been many moons since I’ve been to the bank.
Internet Banking has made it possible to do most tasks without ever lining up at a branch.
Funds transfers to my parents, payments for my AIA insurance, payment for my Amex credit card, my Robinsons card – I do all of these online.
Thankfully. Because what I saw today at the OCBC Ang Mo Kio branch really irritated me.
Now, because of Internet Banking, not only can I do many transactions from my computer, I also don’t have to encounter annoying things. Which is good. For while I cannot avoid becoming an old maid, I can avoid becoming a bitter one.
My trip to the bank did not start well.
I made two false starts to get to the bank. First it was an uncooperative gate lock that forced me to re-route my trip, then it was walking halfway and then remembering, I’d forgotten my wallet (that contained my identity card).
Yes, I’m one of those people who are so used to going out of the house with just the keys and mobile phone, which is why I’ve programmed in ICE numbers, which I highly recommend you do too. Of course, it’s no substitute for actually carrying identity on you, but it’s better than nothing.
Okay, so I get to the bank and I almost walk into an old lady in a wheelchair. She’s being pushed by some other woman.
Picture this, there’s a path. I and the wheelchair group arrive at this path at the same time. I give way to them, or they almost run me down. I’m not sure. But they’re ahead of me at the path and I have to slow my pace down to a crawl.
Yes, she’s an old lady, and yes, we should be nice to handicapped / old people. But come on, I can walk faster than you, let me go first.
The thing is, we’re both headed to the same place – the OCBC bank.
I notice that this wheelchair group consists of old woman in wheelchair, the younger person pushing her, some assistant and some man who looks like an accountant who’s got this thin file of documents.
So now we’re at the bank and the woman who is pushing the wheelchair is having a tough time pushing the old lady into the bank.
So I help to lift one side of the wheelchair in. Where is this accountant-man? Just looking!
The other side, the assistant of the wheelchair-pusher, is so weak, she isn’t helping. I go to the other side and lift the chair up.
As I’m helping, I notice the woman guard, some plump Malay named Norahayati or something, from the Cisco Auxillary Police looks at us and turns away.
The old lady gets wheeled in.
The accountant-man heads into the bank.
Hey, a thank you would be nice. And if you can’t afford a thank you, at least throw ten cents my way lah.
This OCBC branch, I’ve noticed has a staff to hang around the entrance. This person is supposed to say hello to you and ask if you need any help. The kind of person who’s supposed to give the bank some personality or something. And my last two or three encounters with such staff, when I do visit the branch, have been more or less pleasant.
But today, no such luck. Today was some woman in brown OCBC jacket and skirt (very blah colour), sounded like she was talking in a wet market. “Three of you came right? We need three signatures!” she told accountant-man.
Then she went to the back office and came out again. And said from across the hall, walking toward accountant-man, “you brought her IC?”
I hate these people who start their sentence from way over there, before finishing it when they’re in front of you. Everyone’s staring: You talking to me? It’s bloody rude. You want to talk to someone, come up to him/her and talk.
What’s even ruder is this. The “her” is the lady in the wheelchair. So she’s talking across and over the “her”, as if she isn’t there.
So I’m already in line waiting for my turn with the bank teller.
Standing at the entrance is this metrosexual-wanna-be, now talking to the brown-jacket-woman.
This metrosexual-wanna-be is the new financial manager that is found in all banks now. The people who want to sell those unit trusts. He’s one of these guys who like to jiggle while they stand. It’s like an uncontrollable spasm they get. First they’re standing like a normal person. Next thing you know, they’re jiggling. Maybe they’re airing their balls or something.
The thing about dressing metrosexual is this. If you’re slim, a fitting shirt looks okay. But if you’re kind of bulky, please can you just get another shirt size up.
I notice a woman who is taking money from the ATM, her daughter is waiting in a pram outside the bank, ready to be wheeled off by some stranger. She’s lucky child-napping isn’t that big an industry here.
I look at the step that one has to take into the bank. It’s not a big step. But if they had just added a slight incline/slope in front, it would make it so much simpler for mothers to wheel in their children in prams and people on wheelchairs to be wheeled in rather than jerk-and-lifted in.
It wouldn’t have cost much. And it would’ve made it more accessible and safe for everyone.
Then my eyes fall on that Cisco Auxillary Policewoman who didn’t help us with the wheelchair. I thought, she’s right. She shouldn’t have helped us. If we were a bunch of robbers, we could’ve distracted her, taken her down, got away with the money. It’d be easy. We could outrun her. But she does have a gun. She could be a good shot. She needn’t run after us.
While I’m thinking these thoughts, a guy heads out of the bank with his wife. And dunno what he does, he spills his coins all over the place.
Metrosexual and brown-jacket-woman still talk away. They don’t see the coins, they don’t help the man and his wife pick up the coins, nothing. They’re a step away from the couple retrieving the coins, and they don’t see a thing! She talks in her low class way – thankfully she’s next to him, so she’s talking softly. And he’s standing/jiggling away.
This is the face of OCBC Bank?
They ripped away the signs of Keppel Bank for this?
But it’s not surprising. Image-wise OCBC seems so fuddy-duddy and old fashioned. Add rude and thoughtless to the list.
My e-mail to OCBC takes at least three days to be answered. The only reason why I’m still with them is because I’ve got my housing loan there.
And the other reason is their cheque books are free. Yup, that’s why I killed my accounts at DBS and converted my POSB account from a current account to a savings account. I’m not paying 20 cents a cheque.
OCBC Bank is about $7.50-$8 a share now. They’re one of the cheaper local banks to buy into. They’re asset rich. They have a lot of old shop houses in / near town.
I don’t own any shares of OCBC. But it’s probably the only local bank I can afford to buy into.
But seeing what I saw today, I think I want to disassociate myself from OCBC as much as possible.