I am a bank teller. My bank operates a ticket system. The customer takes a ticket and we scan the ticket once they come to the counter. It is mostly to track waiting times.

A bank client throws her bank card and ticket at me.

Client: “I’ve been waiting over half an hour! This is the worst service I have ever had.”

I scan her ticket and see she has been waiting for less than five minutes.

Me: “I am sorry for the wait. We’re quite busy today. How may I help you?”

Client: “I was going to get some money out, but now I want to complain!”

Me: “I’m sorry to hear that. May I ask why? Would you like to speak to the manager?”

Client: “Are you f****** deaf?! I’ve just waited half an hour for your s*** attitude.” *Imitating me* “’Oh, sorry for the wait.’ My a**! You’re probably playing f****** ‘Minecarts of Whatever’ or whatever it is you kids play today!”

Me: “I see. I’m afraid I cannot continue this transaction with you due to your hostile tone.” *Hands her card back* “I am now asking you to leave.”

Client: “What?! I—” *stops and takes a deep breath* “I apologise. I really need the money out to pay off some debt. Could we start over?”

Me: “Of course. How m—”

Client: “Although, waiting half an hour is still ridiculous!”

Me: *Having had enough* “Actually, your ticket says you only waited five minutes. So either you’re telling porkies, or you came in, ignored the giant sign on the door saying to take a ticket, and waited twenty-five minutes before realising your mistake. Now, we can either complete this transaction with as little verbal communication as possible, or you can leave. It is your choice.”

I held her card out again. She screamed incoherently and ran out of the building. She didn’t take her card and has not been back during any of my shifts; I’m full-time, so that’s pretty much every day.

I work for a building society. They are notorious for having a high turnover when it comes to employees, but nevertheless, I stay as long as possible because I have just finished university and am trying to crawl my way out of my student overdraft.

We have something called “partial authentication.” If you enter a code, it means you only have to go through a bit of security instead of the full lot. It also means you can politely address the account holder by name, which I do because I’m that sort of British. It’s also my final day.

Me: “Good afternoon, [Caller]. You’re through to [Bank]; how can I help today?”

Customer: “I would like to go through a few transactions on my account and check the balance.”

Me: “Okay, then. Can you please just confirm for me [random security information]?”

Customer: “Why should I give you that?”

Me: “It’s just a bit of security so I can take a look at your account.”

Customer: “But you addressed me by name, so I’ve done security!”

Me: “Ah, sir, you have partial security enabled, so when you enter your code when the phone asks for it, it means I only need to do reduced security instead of full.”

Customer: “I shouldn’t have to do that. I want to look at my account.”

Me: “I cannot give you your balance without first confirming security with you. To do so would be a breach of security policy.”

Customer: “I’m not doing that.”

Me: “Okay, sir, is there anything else I can help you with?”

We can give out product advice and such or transfer to sales without much security, so we ask this just in case.

Customer: “Yes, you haven’t helped me. I want my balance and to check my direct debits have gone out.”

Me: “Yes; however, you have chosen to not complete security, and therefore, I cannot complete that request.”

Customer: “But you addressed me by name.”

This carries on ad nauseam. I explain partial security. He states that I addressed him by name so he should not have to do security. I explain that I cannot do anything with the account until he does. This goes on for thirty minutes.

Me: “Sir, if you will not proceed with security, then I cannot take this call any further.”

Customer: “That’s it. I want to talk to a supervisor.”

Me: “Sir, they will only reiterate what I have stated many times.”

Customer: “Supervisor. NOW!”

I grab my supervisor and explain the situation.

Supervisor: “I’m only going to tell him the same thing you said.”

Me: “Would you believe I’ve told him that?”

Supervisor: *To the customer* “Hello, I’m [Supervisor]. I hear you’ve asked to speak to a supervisor.”

She listens.

Supervisor: “Sir, if you are unwilling to do security, then I will have to end this call. We cannot proceed any further if you refuse to do so.”

She ended the call.

Related:
Insecure About The Security Process

My wife and I have some checks to deposit so we drive to our bank’s drive-thru. I haven’t signed the checks yet so I stop just short of the drive-thru and sign them. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice some guy run past the front of the car just as I am finishing.

I pull up and hit the request button and… nothing. There aren’t any tellers visible in the window but the lights are on. We are confused and think maybe the bank has closed, but some other cars pull in then. Still no tellers.

A guy in the car closest to the building gets out and peers in the window.

Guy: “Everyone inside is lying on the floor!”

Just then police cars — over a dozen! — came zooming in from every direction with lights but no sirens. The bank had been robbed.  

After getting some money, the robber told everyone to get down and stay down and then ran right past the front of our car after exiting the emergency exit right by the drive-thru. Unfortunately, I couldn’t describe him, though it turned out he’d been caught on camera. No one was actually hurt.

I work for a bank’s fraud department. One evening, at midnight, all of our systems go offline. Debit cards, credit cards, and ATM cards are not working because of this, and checks run as debit will not work, either. It also knocks support offline, so our back-to-back call rate immediately drops to forty-five minutes between calls.

My crew are the only people left on the floor for the night, as our shift doesn’t end until two in the morning. There are only six people there, including the supervisor. I write up a quick little script and send it to my coworkers to recite on the rare occasion that a caller manages to get through to us.

Script: “Thank you for calling [Bank] Debit Card Fraud Services. Unfortunately, all of our fraud analysis systems are currently offline, and we are unable to service any account at this time. Please call back tomorrow after eight am, Central Standard Time, to see if the issue has been resolved. Thank you, and have a nice night.”

We mute our phones and talk and joke, going quiet when someone indicates a caller has gotten through. Between midnight and 1:57 am, we receive a total of six calls, and the first five are very understanding of the issue, though a couple were a bit frustrated at the same time.

Then, the last call comes through on my phone. I recite my script and the caller freaks out. Realizing I may sound like the automated voice system, I break from the script to tell him with a little more detail what we know about the issue.

He starts screaming at me.

Caller: “NO! NO! SHUT UP! YOU STUPID F****** B****, SHUT THE F*** UP! I am going on vacation tomorrow, I have to be on the god-d*** plane in three hours, and you’ve shut my f****** card down! I need to buy my tickets now!”

Me: “Sir, I’m very sorry, but our systems are down which is why your card isn’t working. We don’t know what’s happened, and we can’t authorize anything. I have no way of even pulling your information up right now.”

Caller: “I SAID TO SHUT THE F*** UP! IF YOU DON’T UNBLOCK MY CARD RIGHT NOW, I WILL COME DOWN THERE, AND I’M GOING TO SHOOT AND KILL YOU, AND YOUR ENTIRE GOD-D*** FAMILY!”

I’m not scared or worried; I am just done. I grab my orange, laminated paper with directions on what to do in a situation like this and, as instructed, wave it at my supervisor. This is my last call, everyone else is gone, and it’s just the two of us on the floor.

She looks just as annoyed as I feel, asks “Really?”, and comes over with a notebook and pen, taking the headset from me to take over the call. I walk off the floor to use the restroom, play on my phone for a couple of minutes, and then come back to the floor and sit there with her while she talks to the customer. It takes a half-hour to get what she needs and let her hang up. I am finally free to go home for the evening.

When I come to work the next day, the quality manager pulls me aside to tell me what happened after. The information my supervisor had gotten from him was passed along and it was discovered that this man had a documented history of similar threats against bank staff, and as a result, the bank was done with him. They closed down every account he had with them, sent him a check with his remaining balance, and blacklisted him so he can never open an account with them again.

It turned out that the systems were being updated and no one had informed us, because they didn’t realize that our location was one of the late-night call centers. But, the bank was impressed with my script, and it’s now a required script to use when the systems unexpectedly go down again.

I have just arrived at work at a bank. It’s very busy. The runner for a local business is walking out the door as I walk in. We wave at each other. As I head to my desk, I hear the phone ring. Since my coworkers are busy, I pick up.

Me: “[Bank], this is [My Name]; how can I help you?”

Representative: “Hi, I’m [Representative] from [Business]. I sent my runner over there over an hour ago, and she’s not back yet. Is there a problem?”

Me: “Not to my knowledge. She just left, so she should be heading back your way soon.”

Representative: “She just left? What is going on over there?!”

Me: “I’m not sure, ma’am. I will check with my coworkers, since I just got here.”

Representative: “You do that.”

I ask my coworkers, who tell me that she had several very large deposits that took ten to fifteen minutes to process. She was not, however, here for an hour. I take the rep off hold.

Me: “Ma’am, thank you for holding. I just talked to my coworkers and they said that there were several very large deposits that took about fifteen minutes to process.”

Representative: “Then why has she been gone for over an hour?”

Me: “I’m sorry, but I’m really not sure. Maybe she stopped for coffee or gas on the way over here?”

Representative: “I don’t like your attitude.”

Me: *Startled* “Ma’am?”

Representative: “That tone is so disrespectful!”

Me: “Ma’am, I’m sorry if that’s how I’m coming off. It’s definitely not my intent—”

Representative: “There you go again! I want your name.”

Me: “I’m [My Name].”

Representative: “Well, [My Name], I’m about to have your job!” *hangs up*

A few days later, I get a call from another one of our business banking reps.

Representative #2: “Hey, I just wanted to tell you to not worry about [Representative].”

Me: “You heard about that?”

Representative #2: “She called, ranted at us, wanted your head on a platter, the works. She does this all the time.”

Me: “Seriously?”

Representative #2: “Oh, yeah. We listen and tell her we’ll talk to the employee, but we know how she is. Don’t give it another thought, because you’re not in trouble.”

Me: “Excellent. Thank you!”