The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I am writing concerning the deplorable state of our banks and what they call service these days.

I have been a customer of The Royal Bank of Canada for over 40 years – both in Canada and here in Nassau. I have enjoyed numerous facilities with them throughout our relationship and currently maintain credit cards and loans with them – all presently and previously honoured and have a good credit rating with same. There was a time when I took pride in RBC and what it stood for. Sadly, that no longer remains true.

In the past year alone I have had a CDN$$ draft, purchased from RBC Nassau and payable to RBC Canada returned as unacceptable. To this day, I still am in the dark as to why it has returned to RBC and when I requested it to be re-issued I was told if I did not sign a lost draft form, I would be unable to receive a replacement. It took my objecting to being held hostage (for something entirely outside my control) all the way to Head Office before I received a replacement.

Also, I have the dubious honour of having an overdraft facility with RBC. Over the past ten years, this has proved somewhat problematic as new branch managers, unfamiliar with their customers, do not automatically renew the facility, nor does the bank ever inform the customer prior to expiration, that they need to come in and renew. The outcome is that the facility expires, your account is frozen and it takes at least a week to get it sorted out. Every year I point out the stupidity of this and question why the bank cannot notify prior to expiration. (The renewal date changes every year based on when it is actually processed, thus making it hard to remember). Every year this seems to be a non-starter.

So this year, like clockwork, my facility expired in June and my account was frozen. After a week and protests, it was corrected. Then amazingly, in July of this same year, it expired and my account was frozen, yet again. More protests, lame apologies and the promise from my account manager that this time it has been taken care of and I will never experience this problem again. Then comes November 1 and surprise, surprise, the facility has expired for the third time. To my mind this is completely unacceptable. Is the Royal Bank actually training their employees or is it that, having made a great deal of money in The Bahamas over the years, they no longer find us lucrative enough to care what kind of service their employees provide?

After all, they are closing down their Finco branches and merging them into existing RBC branches, with no care or concern for the long lines, inadequate parking or frustration caused to their clients. Now they want to charge us $10 for cashing each non-RBC cheque. Really, I thought the whole business of a bank was to provide services such as cheque cashing? Am I now to be forced to only accept cheques from fellow RBC customers or demand payment in cash? Who is paying for this lack of service? The customer!

What does Royal Bank of Canada stand for now? Certainly not service, nor accountability. I do not want your apologies, I want service – and it is not being rendered free either, let us remember. The customer is charged for each and every service provided – the bank is making money, one transaction at a time.

Interestingly, although it took five days for my account to be regularised and the facility renewed, RBC was able to process their facility fee the same day, despite having already charged me in July, but that is a battle for another day. Guess we know what their priorities are, don’t we?

COLLEEN DUNKLEY

Nassau,

November 11, 2015.