Sunday, July 22, 2012

AL RAJHI BANK, DISASTER,DISASTER,DISASTER.......

So this was my experience at Bank al Rajhi a few days go. The bank should be opening around 9am. So I decided to go at around 8:50am, ten minutes earlier thinking that I'd be the first one in the queue, so that my work will get done quickly. On arriving at the bank I realized that 20 other people thought in exactly the same way.Great minds think alike I guess. So 9am arrives, 9:05, 9:10 and eventually at 9:15 the bank opens and everyone storms into the bank towards the queue ticketing machine. As usual the machine is not working. So everyone moves towards the teller counters trying to form a straight line. But wait a minute where is the staff I ask myself... There are twenty of us in the queue but only two teller counters open.So you wait, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, half and hour, forty five minutes....the clock keeps ticking away and I'm beginning to loose my patience. So eventually I get to the counter. The man at the counter says I can not help you please go inside to the manager. With a nod of my head and a beady eye I walk to the back of the building straight into the managers office.He greets me in a polite manner and then says have a seat how can I help you. So I explain to him that the funds I transferred did not reach my banking account in another country. He then instructs the same man at the teller counter to follow up on the funds. Naturally the man at the counter does not know what to do. One hour has passed by now and I'm beginning to become furious. Noticing that I am now irritated, he picks up the phone and calls an ex staff member from India to assist with the situation and solve the problem.Take note that he is suppose to be the manager.As I'm chatting on the phone to the Indian man, an Egyptian woman storms into the office like a hurricane banging the door behind her and lashes out at the manager regarding the poor service at the bank.In the mean time with the queue reaching the door of the bank, the branch manager who sits near the entrance of the bank seems quite unperturbed. He simply continues his chat on his mobile phone in his luxury office whilst enjoying his Arabic coffee (qahwa) and dates. There seems to be no urgency to provide efficient service. So where were the other tellers I wondered? Aha, there they are..The one was on his mobile phone chatting away to his friend. The other one was sitting at the back enjoying his coffee and the third one was deeply engrossed in the newspaper. In my head I'm thinking all these hospital staff are waiting to get their errands done quickly so that they can return to their patients but the staff at the bank can not be bothered.The hilarious part of the whole bank experience though was noticing the large walk in safe wide open for everyone to ogle at the stacks of cash. The vault where people would store their valuables was also open and all you needed to do in order to enter the vault was sign a silly piece of paper. There was no tough security check. Can you imagine if we had this kind of a banking system in South Africa. Banks will be robbed everyday.My banking woes are still not yet resolved. Let's hope that my next visit to the bank will be a pleasant one. But then again with the Ramadhaan and holiday atmosphere in the air, I guess that would be wishful thinking!!!