Last night, I had a UK retail banking moment. It was frustrating, disheartening, yet strangely familiar. It lasted about 10 minutes. Eventually, I left a message on the apparently unmanned call centre ansafone. They have not yet called back. Welcome to 'Customer Support', UK banking style.
Contrast this with my first experience of NZ retail banking. In November 2003, I walked into the ASB Bank Meadowbank branch in Auckland, clutching my British passport and freshly stamped NZ Residents visa. 20 minutes later, I left the branch with a bank account, a cash card and $NZ100 in the account. I was shocked. Almost 30 years of banking experience in the UK had not prepared me for this.
In New Zealand, I have enjoyed real Internet banking, EFTPOS and 'relationship bankers' at my local branch. In the UK, the manager's authority at retail branch level is best summed up by the sketch in Little Britain that invokes the memorable phrase; 'The Computer says No'. For all my comments in blogs about telecom and other infrastructure in New Zealand, in the field of the customer retail banking experience, NZ leads the UK by a distant mile.
So tonight, it is back to the phone for another chat with that ansafone. Gritted teeth are at the ready.
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