I have no idea if it’s the recent rain after so many dry days or the sudden sunshine afterwards that appears to have addled some people’s brains.
We went into town today to visit one of the major banks as the branch here is only open 2 days a week for 4 hours (today obviously not being one of them).
Our reason is simple.
We are being plagued by emails, text messages and phone calls from a bank where we do not have an account, either about PPIs we never had, or in this email case, our account being deactivated as we have been accessing it from other worldwide quarters (does Stratford Upon Avon class as abroad then?) which is outside their banking policy.
Finding the branch was a little tricky, but we asked a pedestrian who happily informed us there were two in the town, one manned with people and the other full of machines.
Luckily for us, the manned branch (and the one we wanted) was closest, being literally round the corner from where we’d parked.
The Bank scored three brownie points from me as I took a seat with the dog whilst Hubby stood behind a customer already being served.
1. They had a Customer Service Desk, totally independent of the cashiers.
2. They were dog friendly, dead give away being a bowl of fresh water by the door on the inside.
3. An elderly gentleman came in with his grandson, and between them they were carrying a bag full of shot coin. Unfortunately, the bank’s coin sorting machine was out of order, so the girl on floor duty suggested bagging up the coins at a table close to where I was sitting.
Not only did she get the bags, but sat with the gentleman and his grandson to help them count!
Meanwhile back at the CS desk, Hubby was explaining our concerns to the bank clerk.
She suggested perhaps the email was somebody ‘phishing’, but Hubs said no, the message header was definitely theirs and showed her the email we’d printed off. She was stumped.
The phone calls and text messages were worrying though, especially as we haven’t had this particular phone very long.
The good news was that we definitely didn’t have an account with them anywhere, didn’t owe them any money (something else we were worried about in case someone had been running up horrendous debts in our name), and after she took a copy of the email so that she could further investigate the links therein, we came away (there was still a lot of counting going on).
The above is actually nothing to do with my post title.
That relates to our journey back and the idiots who overtook us at traffic lights, passed us in the outside lane as we waited in traffic only to cut across in front of us nearly taking our bonnet off (three times), were parked then decided not to be and pulled out with no warning whatsoever let alone a signal, were stationary in a disabled parking bay taking up two spaces with their reversing lights on, engine running but not actually going anywhere, and finally,
The Plonker of the Day Award goes to the twit who carved up an ambulance with his blues and twos going whilst everyone else on the road was trying to pull over to let him through.
pensitivity101 
Phishing now often includes an image of the legit bank web site so you cannot tell the difference except that no bank will ask you for personal info via email. This phishing is very common here.
We were sensible not to click on any of the links in the email, but were glad we’d printed off a copy because now the bank can check it out fully. What we were worried about was debt being run up and us knowing nothing about it. We own very little and the thought of losing that is frightening.
Sadly that is always a possibility if you use credit cards, debit cards, do on-line banking. Even ATM machines have been tampered such that it records your password keystrokes. Any store that has been hacked has potentially given up all sorts of personal information. My Visa card number was used for a $700.00 vacation but, as I had my card and good track record, Visa simply credited it back me and then pursued the transaction themselves. There are so many scams out there that it is quite scary!
Spot on Colin. We gave our credit cards back following on-line order problems, we prefer to get cashback from the supermarkets rather than use ATMs we’re not familiar with, and we are old fashioned in our banking methods, ie. NOT on-line at all! Scares me, and I used to work for both the High Street and an International Operations Centre.
Terrible how many scams are out there – and how official so many look. You are smart to operate carefully (someone’s identified you as a potential foolish person with a phone) – and to follow up with that bank with the printed email – let them do some work now – although the scammers cover their tracks so quickly.
Cash is become so much safer.
I love the bank with the water bowl and table to count out coins. Sounds like they still function like people who appreciate their customers – that’s becoming so rare.
Take care!
Thanks. In my banking days Customer Service was a priority. I’d rather talk to a person than push buttons on a machine any day. It didn’t matter to me if a customer was young, old, rich or poor, they were a customer and I treated them with respect. Many of the pensioners used to come to my till just for a chat or if they had problems with their council rates! Oh, those were the days.
I love it when I get an email saying that my account with such-and-such bank has been deactivated – and such-and-such bank is either one I’ve never dealt with or one I stopped doing business with a long time ago.
I think Hubby was secretly hoping we might have an account with loads of dosh in it that we’d forgotten (unlikely as I know where every penny we own is) !
Cheekiest scam was winning a half share of a time share in a competition I’d never entered and to claim ‘my prize’ I had to send £1400. Hm, yeah right. 😀