Dear bank teller - you are a saint.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I made my annual visit to an actual brick-and-mortar bank today. I say annual because pretty much the only reason I ever step foot in a physical bank anymore is to cash in my coin mug.

The teller that helped me was cheerful, friendly, chatty, helpful and efficient. Go, bank! Who I really felt sorry for was the teller next to her.

While my teller was feeding my change into the counting machine, an old man stormed in. Probably early 70s. This was the exchange I witnessed, and it was all I could take not to bust out laughing:

Teller: “How can I help you, sir?”
Old man: furious “YOUR ATM GAVE ME A TWENTY DOLLAR BILL!”
Teller: “Oh? Is something wrong?”
Old man: “I WANTED IT IN SINGLES!”
…
Teller: “Well, I’d be happy to change that twenty for you, sir”
Old man: “BUT WHY DIDN’T THE MACHINE GIVE ME SINGLES?”
Teller: “Well, sir, most people withdraw in increments of $20. That’s all the machine dispenses.”
Old man: triumphant “HA! I WAS AT A CASINO A FEW YEARS AGO AND YOU COULD FEED MONEY IN AND GET SINGLES! WHY CAN’T YOUR ATM DO THAT?!”
…
OP Note: at this point I was thinking, “Really, you dirty old man? It was a casino? Or was it a strip joint?”
…
Teller: “I’m sorry sir, I don’t control the ATM. These days, most ATMs are twenties or tens only.”
Old Man: “BUT I WANT SINGLES!”
Teller: “Like I said, I’d be happy to change that for you.” holds out hand to offer to take the twenty
Old Man: “OH, NO, THIS CAME FROM THE ATM. I WANT TENS, FIVES AND ONES.”
…
Teller: “Um…so a ten, a five, and five ones?”
Old Man: shaking his head like the teller is an idiot “NO. I’VE GOT SIXTY DOLLARS. I WANT TWO TENS, FOUR FIVES AND TWENTY ONES.”
Teller: “Oh, so you got sixty dollars from the ATM?”
Old Man: *angry again, throws his hands up in the air, does a PSSSHTTT “NO I GOT TWENTY FROM THE ATM! I HAVE $60 I WANT IN TENS, FIVES AND ONES!”
…
Teller: “I see. If you give me the $60 dollars, I’d be happy to change it for you.”
Old Man: still shaking head in disgust, pulls out a checkbook (!) and starts writing. Angrily tears the check and hands it to the cashier.
Teller: “Sir, this check is for only $20. I thought you wanted $60 in change.”
Old Man: snappily “DIDN’T YOU READ THE MEMO LINE? THAT CHECK IS FOR THE TENS. RIGHT THERE IN THE MEMO. TWO TENS.”
…
Teller: “But what about the other $40 in fives and ones?”
OLD MAN: “DON’T BE SO IMPATIENT! I’M WRITING THOSE CHECKS NOW!”
…
At this point, I’m shaking I’m struggling so hard not to laugh. I made eye-contact with the poor teller and mouthed “I’m sorry!” and grinned widely. She gave me a nice little eye-roll and wink, but at that point I had gotten my cash for coins and was headed back to work.

Props to her for remaining friendly and polite throughout this whole insane exchange. And thanks to the old man for reminding me why I hate both visiting the bank and certain types of old people :wink:

2

I wonder whether you could write a letter to the management at that bank branch commending her?

3

She deserves chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.

4

Agreed, you should write a letter or call her supervisor. Kudos are so rare and greatly appreciated!

5

Agreed on the letter. Supervisors only ever hear the complaints, compliments are always great.

6

I’m a little confused; who was the old geezer writing checks out too? :confused: The bank, the teller, or himself?

7

Sounds to me like gramps was trying to confuse the teller and scam her. Good for her to keep calm and control of her cash drawer.

8

I agree with the letter suggestions. If you didn’t get her name, you can ID her by the time and date and where the cashier station was.

I’m a big fan of writing letters to the local bosses. If I have a complaint, I want the local folks to have a chance to fix it before I go to the main headquarters. All that does is get me coupons or whatever, the problem won’t be fixed.

So…if I think that someone has gone above and beyond, I write a letter to the local boss and send a copy to the main office. Happy customer letters mean a lot when evals come around.

9

Saint? Hell, I nominate her for Jesus/Gandhi/Mother Theresa of 2011. I could never have pulled that off without being three sheets to the wind.

Don’t know what country you’re in but you might want to check out Coinstar kiosks if you’re in the US (not sure if they have them elsewhere.) They’re usually in grocery stores and while they charge you a percentage if you want straight up cash, they waive the fee if you get a gift credit from several companies, including Amazon , Starbucks, iTunes, Chilis, Lowes, Old Navy, etc. Never go to a bank again!

10

I’d guess he was writing checks made out to the order of “Cash,” to be paid to himself. Most banks will do that for their account holders without any problems.

11

This is what I thought as well. The fluctuating amounts and multiple checks just reek of potential scam.

12

That’s not what I got out of it. It sounds to me like he was angry, confused, and wanting someone to pay attention to him.

I have great respect for people who work in service industries. They deal with this kind of shit every single day. And they don’t get paid very much to do it. This is worth remembering every time someone serves you. Thank them.

13

The old man sounded like my Dad as his creeping dementia made itself known :frowning:

14

In general I agree with you but the guy may just have some early memory loss/dementia.

My mom is headed down that path. Most of the time she’s socially appropriate. You can have a regular conversation with her, even discuss politics, etc and not realize anything is wrong. But there a situations where her ability to absorb new information and compute is really funky.

I will no longer go to the AAA office with her because of an incident like the one in the OP (dealing with trip-ticks instead of money). Couldn’t understand the situation and her coping skill was to become angry/sarcastic about their ‘incompetence’.

15

This^

If the customer wasn’t elderly I’d vote scam. Not to say elders can’t be scammers. but it’s not teh way to bet, at least not for this schtick.

16

Do write a letter. It really can help make the day of the person who was being grouched at.

I wrote to a local McDonalds of all things, last week. I’d gone through the drive-thru the night before to get my usual order, and already had my bills and change counted out. That was all the cash I had, except for two pennies. And I’d made the mistake of counting a nickel as a quarter. The gal at the window was really nice as I desperately searched for more change and couldn’t find any. She covered what I was short, and was still pleasant. She didn’t have to do that, or give me the whole order, but she did. I hope the feedback helps her out.

17

I’ve had this customer before. Some older people could be the biggest PITAs. There’s also the old person who is sloooow, but insists on writing everything themselves, and gets angry if you offer to fill out their deposit slip with the information on the screen while they fill out a check. Meanwhile the line is two rows deep.

My first thought was just that he was a crabby old man. Younger people are more likely to scam. That said, getting angry and flustering a clerk is one way to confuse them and get them to skip counting steps, if only to get rid of the customer…
BTW, the casino thing he mentions is real. It is a combination ATM/Change machine/Slot ticket redemption.
You almost certainly can’t bribe tellers with money/gift cards, but they can often take cookies etc. Maybe sealed store-bought ones, considering the types of customers they get.

18

OP reporting in:

FWIW, my “scam” radar never went off. I don’t think this old guy was trying to scam the place, he was just old, scattered and annoying.

And as for Coinstar - yeah, they’re all over near me, and I’ve used them before. But for cash they take nearly 10% these days. I could use the available gift cards to get full value (Amazon especially) but in most cases for me I’d rather just have the cash. And with the bank branch closer to me than the nearest Coinstar, I guess I can tolerate the elderly.

I’ll look into writing a nice note to my branch, the teller really did perform admirably.