Society
Banking Insecurely
by
Aniruddh Anil Shastree
In today’s
world, “speed and safety “ are two buzz words. In every realm of work,
every one demands a surety, and all firms declare that they understand
the customer’s world and that they pay heed to every individual.
Truly competitive and market capturing world which can fascinate any
individual, but they seem to be just words and not deeds, so is the
government and so are the private firms.
The more the competition, the more the affirmation and assurance a
person needs, as stability in life what is the goal of every person and
each competitor has a goal of ‘excelling to survive’, in one’s mind.
I think most of you will agree with me on the point that financial
security is one of the biggest security a person demands and concerns
for.
The very existence of competition brings to our minds the very existence
of society and wherever society exists, financial transactions emerge.
Its existence is beyond doubt. For every deal, each individual demands a
surety for it, as for every one fears of loss of earning and thus
ruining oneself of what one has earned.
‘To err is human’ and for existence of a business firm, it needs to be
genuine and prompt in compensating or providing for what was demanded
from it when unable to provide anything demanded at time of demand in
the best possible manner. The competition in a manner compels the
business firm to be so, which turns out beneficial at the customer’s
end.
Society has some responsibility and some liabilities and each individual
of a society shoulders a part of this responsibility. Some individuals
who stand to serve the society, shoulder its responsibility.
Gradual segmentation of responsibilities made these dedicated
individuals specialize in their fields.
In the field of financial security, banks play a very crucial role.
Society puts trust in these banks and allows banks to hold the money of
any individual with consent of that individual and so some
responsibility naturally rests with banks too.
To deposit and withdraw cash and deposit cheques into an individual
account is the simplest transaction a account holder does one’s bank.
This is the first step of an individual’s interaction to bank personals
and it is from this dealings that a customer of bank gauges whether
he/she should approach forward to have more business deals with the bank
or not.
Any clean chit person prefers, whenever required to deal with high
amounts, to transact with the help of instrument of cheques and, yes,
there is a demand of assurance from the giver.
Banks for instance ask for PAN card from an investor who deals with more
than Indian Rs. 50,000/-.
If such a multi crore empire feels insecure to deal with a person who is
unable to produce such a document on demand, why should a customer who
is a minuscule in front of this empire not be anxious about the money
he/she deposit into one’s account?
There are some ways to express assurance and, guaranteeing and giving
the right to claim and demand are two of them.
Another way to satisfy customer’s is to appreciate the efforts of
customers take to approach the bank.
Here I am to emphasize on the transaction of depositing a cheques into
the bank by a customer.
A cheque drawn by customer on someone or drawn on customer by someone,
is safer to transact than to carry the bulk of cash at the time of
dealing in a business, moreover transacting in cash is unsafe too.
There are instances when a cheque or a demand draft is issued to
someone, ready cash unavailability and urgency of deal, it can be a
dividend from a company or life or medical claim cheque given to
claimant.
Whatever may be the circumstance, any person feels safer to hold a
cheque for the amount which is to be received than the cash amounting of
the same. This is due to the reason that cheque assures the payee with
the crossed sign “A/C Payee “ and that another cheque can be issued to
the payee after the required procedure.
Any one who receives a bank cheque or a demand draft has a certain kind
of anxiety to encash it as early as possible and as the instrument of
cheques subject to realization, it takes a certain time for getting it
accounted.
The receipt of a cheque which a customer deposits into one’s own account
is what the customer demands and it just deals with a small process of
putting a stamp of bank with date and signature of teller along with the
remark "received"-the most important thing in this process.
There have been instances which many of us might have come across when
the teller refuses to accept the cheques .The teller not only just
refuse to accept it , such a look is put before the customer which makes
customer feel guilty for coming to deposit the cheque.
Here are a few phrases which customers may have heard while they come
across while depositing a cheque, "put it in the drop box" or adding to
it, the teller haughtily claims “don’t waste my time”, (it gives an aura
that cheque is an outdated instrument for transaction), sometimes teller
uses a sweet language to avoid customers coming to deposit a cheque,
"You should put trust in the bank, nothing will happen to your cheque,
here at the bank we are very careful about all things". After having
said these words a second teller who might have got a bit irritated by
still seeing the customer in front of the window says, "why are you
increasing our work load? Can’t you see we are so busy these days?"
Ah, if we customers are making you bored and weird, should we see for
some other bank who would welcome us, so that you can sit back and relax
the whole day, you see customers too are a considerate humans after all!
While you were reading the previous few lines, you might have noticed
that the work of putting a bank stamp over the 'customer copy' used for
depositing a cheque would have got completed in the mean while.
Don’t you think its quite peaceful and untaxed on both ends?
Don’t you think it disappoints the customer?
The customer many a times drops the cheque in drop box and goes away in
disappointment. Worry about whether the cheque gets encashed or not
keeps the customer in unrest. It is quite obvious that the customer will
go to the ATM or the bank branch office for having a look at his/her
account statement after the usual period bank takes for processing the
cheque. This increases worries and does not promote peacefulness.
Another big worry which keeps pricking the customer is ,what can he /she
do if bank looses the cheque which was put into the drop box by him/her?
How will the customer claim for it? The saddest part is ,as the customer
does not have any proof ,the lost cheque cannot be claimed for . It that
what bank wants – less queries and claims –that to being irresponsible
in following the procedures? A very disgusting manner of ruling out
possibilities of grievances.
The moment the teller shows disregard for any customer, it strains
relations of customer with the bank and sways him/her from the bank, it
gives a mute message that 'we don not care for you'.
Banks who, on huge hoardings, and through mass media, advertise about
tall claims they make about the service they provide, and put it rather
this way –‘in service, lies our success’, should look over this matter
seriously.
It is well known that banks have provided the facility of drop boxes at
almost all the centers and that almost every customer is aware of it
.The facility of drop box is appreciable as it is a facility that allows
customer evading queues for depositing the same ,but, its my earnest
request that the customer who in spite of being aware of the provision
of facility of drop box, wishes to deposit the cheque to the teller,
should not be disappointed by rejecting the cheques he/she brings for
depositing them.
The customer stands in the queue looking around with a cautious look, on
whom the watchful eyes of security guard builds up a strange fear,
hiding the amount written on the slip attached with the cheque –fearing
of someone’s bad eye if it gets disclosed, standing with a considerate
attitude towards other customers ahead to him in queue.
At last when he/she gets in front of teller window and personally had
over’s the cheque to the teller, it comes with a sudden shock when the
teller refuses to accept it. The teller sometimes use words which makes
the customer ashamed of being called so in front of other customers and
so being shy full to protest, quietly drops the cheque into drop box. In
my opinion the facility of drop box is not an alternative to the teller,
what is generally assumed by most of customers is it is just an
emergency tool or a tool to be used when the non realization of cheque
wont make much difference.
As the well known saying goes ‘An unsatisfied customer will drive ten
more prospective customers away from the firm he/she was dissatisfied
with, but, a satisfied customer will bring one'.
According to Mahatma Gandhi, every customer should be considered like
GOD and it is duty of bank to try to serve the customer in very best
manner and that a satisfied customer is the key to successful business.
In this very land of Mahatma, we find customers being disappointed for
such a small demand.
A stamp of bank with date on which it was received, over the ‘customer’s
copy’ of cheque pay in slip means a much more importance to the customer
than to the bank. It is a way of assuring the customer that the cheque
has been received by person with right authority, it means that the
depositor has got a proof of depositing the cheque which he/she may use
as a proof of assurance for other businesses.
A minute’s courtesy means a lot to the customer as the trust with the
bank strengthens .The customer feels that the efforts he/she took to
come to bank and wait to deposit the cheque has been fruitful, it is a
kind of relief that cannot be overlooked.
Such is the immense importance of the mark of ‘received’ of the bank on
the ‘customer copy of pay in slip’.
Handing over a receipt against depositing a cheque to customer is
beneficial to bank as it prevents bank from getting into danger of
people speaking against the bank by blaming the bank for this simple
reason. It helps the bank to reaffirm and facilitate a disappointed
customer if just in case a cheque is lost by bank, and this possibility
cannot be ruled out as a bank has to deal wit thousands of cheques
daily. This transaction, though a very small one, is a very significant
for customer and for bank both.
It is through this article, I hope that grievance of rejection of
cheques by teller is being raised and wish that the minuscule demand put
is fulfilled by banks by giving an acknowledgement to customer against
receiving a cheque from the customer.
January 13, 2008
Aniruddh is a 2nd year
Bachelor of Arts Nalini & Arvind Arts College, Sardar Patel University,
Vallabh Vidhya Nagar, Gujarat
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