What grinds my gears? Banks. My girlfriend uses English as a second language and prefers if I go to the bank with her. I have around 5 years experience working with 3 large banks in the uk, so I know a little bit about banking.
The last two times she has went to a bank she has been grossly misinformed by the incompetent person behind the desk. First, there was CIBC who told her she couldn't close her bank account with just a passport, library card and bank statement. They told her she would need another form of photo id to close her bank account. They wouldn't accept her driving license, as it's in Japanese.
This I found very funny as she was able to open her account with them using only a passport and a library card. I asked for the manager and quickly got around this.
Today, she found a bunch of travellers cheques she has had for three years and decided to cash some of them. We went to our local TD, and she was told by the person behind the counter that she couldn't cash them unless she had a td bank account... Bearing in mind that this we're talking about travellers cheques. Again, I talked the bank clerk into accepting them. Even the crappy little hotel I stayed in in Greece many years ago cashed travellers cheques. Now a representative from a major bank like TD tried to claim she had to have an account with them to cash travellers cheques.
When the clerk finally realized her mistake, she refused to cash two of the cheques as they had a slight tear at the side. This tear did not affect the CIN(Cheque identification number) in anyway. It didn't affect any of the major features of the check. Took me another five minutes to get the clerk to cash them...
The incompetence... If I had displayed that kind of incompetence in my work, I would have been fired very quickly. No wonder people hate banks. One helpful tip I can offer to people is if they have the opportunity to work for a bank (even for a very limited time), I suggest they take it. Every time you have an incompetent banking clerk telling you that something can't be done, all you have to do is throw in a little banking jargon and they quickly change their tune. Reminds me of the time when I applied for my Canadian visa, I had to get certified copies of certain documents, and my local RBS told me that they don't do that. Yes you do, you're a bank.
I've also recently noticed the pettiness of many banks. Sometimes they'll try and claim that you need an account with them to do even the simplest things, which they are actually by law supposed to provide for everyone. It's for reasons like this, that I left the banking industry, and I'm very glad I did.
