how long should you let a customer wait?!!!
By chiyochan
@chiyosan (30184)
Philippines
September 7, 2011 11:07pm CST
Okay, so last weekend, i was at this bank. It is actually the only bank that is open on weekends. and Well i had no choice but to go and fall in line. I am sure this bank knows the volume of people coming in and out on a regular day, on holidays and even on weekends... but why, why, why would they allow customers to wait for an hour and a half just to be served.
the scenario was this, there are about 60 customers waiting in line. its horrible and there are only 3 tellers! i can see there are 3 more in the other side, but busy doing other stuffs, and 2 managers standing at the back of the tellers looking oh so worried about the volume of people but they are not opening any more tellers! why is that!!! hayy it was horrible, waiting and standing in line for more than an hour. its terrible... this bank should have really done something more, right?
what do you think?
1 person likes this
8 responses
@lampar (7584)
• United States
8 Sep 11
That is no fix rule for the bank to let the customer wait in line, unless you are a very wealthy depositor with a saving account full of $$$. if you are just another account holder, you bet the bank will not in a mood to worry about you wait in line for an hour or two, it is a common belied among bankers it is you that depend on the bank, not the other way around for their services. Basically making you wait for long hour is nothing wrong as far as bank is concerned, if i am you, i will close my account and go some where else for my saving account. 
1 person likes this
@lampar (7584)
• United States
8 Sep 11
CTHanum is right, it is about the same long line and long hour of waiting in other banks, so it is either you accept your fate for your business dealing with your bank the moment you step into the bank's lobby or not using their services at all for your all your financial transaction. I assume there is no other alternative for you, Chiyosan! I will consider waiting in long line is a lot better than losing all your bank deposit to predatory bank fee and charges after all.
@CTHanum (8234)
• Malaysia
8 Sep 11
It's normal to let the customers to wait to be served.(^^)
It is not just implemented to banks but other service too..For me whatever service the company provided like the bank for example they should use all the tellers and provide staff without fail.Otherwise the customer will think that they are not giving the best service they have.(^^)
1 person likes this
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
8 Sep 11
exactly my point. its okay to know when you will be served, but to wait for an hour and a half standing in line when you see other tellers doing nothing to help kill the queue.. its just.. simply unacceptable in the point of view of a good customer service.
1 person likes this
@secretbear (19448)
• Philippines
8 Sep 11
I would have felt annoyed, too if I were in your position. But we can't really do anything about it if the other tellers were busy, too. I guess there just aren't too many people who would want to work on a weekend that's why they were short on tellers. 
1 person likes this
@youless (112112)
• Guangzhou, China
9 Sep 11
I totally agree with you. The situation you talked about is so terrible. Here I already feel the bank staff are inefficient. There are usually many people in the bank but the tellers are usually no more than six, and even one or two of them are for VIP customers only. So going to the bank is a trouble thing for me. This is why I like to take advantage of the online banking and ATM. If it is not necessary, I don't want to go to the bank in person. It is really wasting our time.
I love China
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
22 Mar 13
Hi there, they do not even have such, or maybe they did have VIP that they are processing those first hence some other tellers are loaded with paper works and are not helping out with the queue of the people. Hmm you are correct, i hate paying bills in the bank, because they are so much waste of time! =(
@trisha27 (3494)
• United States
20 Mar 13
Yes, I agree that they should have opened up more tellers. I know they would do things like that at the bank that I go to. Never in a million years would they allow 60 people to wait in line for more than an hour. I think that is bad customer service.
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
22 Mar 13
they really should have opened up more tellers to accomodate people, they can get back to the paperworks when there are fewer people. the more people lines up the more frustrating it can be for those in line, and those that are working(only 2 or three of them would have been prone to more errors as it was also evident).
@abcuser123 (78)
•
25 Dec 11
Techincally speaking, it is Normal for customers to wait from 30 mins to 1 hour becuz the bank is serving many customers, not just one. I work in a medical centre in the army and my doctors tell me it is very normal to have patients to wait for their consultation from 30 minutes to 1 hour. The doctors are in the rooms working, they are not there sipping coffee and enjoying life. I would safely assume that should be the same in say a bank? Especially when there is only 3 acitve tellers? The company may not want to hire more due to additional expenses? Unless customers are willing to absorb the cost?
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
22 Mar 13
it could bee more cost, but there are business analysts and they should be able to help these banks improve their services without adding costs. believe me there are many lag times and other tellers not active are just in the background pretending to be busy with the papers in front of them and writing something. there are many ways and these are all dependent on the managers. say he can move the breaks of the people to a time when there are lesser and fewer people. proper staffing is what is required.
@kingparker (9673)
• United States
17 Apr 13
I think what they had done is dumb. Should the manager also try to get to the desk to help out the customers too instead of letting them wait, and be grudge? If I were you, I would post it in twitter or facebook, and also to their public relation website to file a complaint against them. I had done once against Merlin the auto repair shop.
@goggles213 (735)
• Philippines
8 Sep 11
I've already experienced that before and yes I agree that it truly is horrible to have to wait in line for that long. I've usually experienced this in a government bank, this is the reason why I switched from Landbank to BDO but BDO also has this problem at peak hours of banking.
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
22 Mar 13
Now that you mentioned BDO, this is what i have noticed with this bank, and tell me if it isn't the same for you:
1. they always have a long line in their bank, and even if there are other tellers in the bank, some are just too busy with paperworks they do not mind the people in line.
2. their manager is nowhere to be found when there are such a lot of people in the bank for transactions and payments.
3. their ATM is always out of service if it is the time of the month when salaries are ready for taking! didn't you notice that? why can't they prepare for this and they know people will withdraw a lot during this time, but their atms aren't working!
