PTSB refusing to deal with issues at branch level

Frustration growing with our banking system. I'm living in Waterford City and PTSB have gone from 4 branches to 2 in recent years. Operating one cash desk in each and closing those desks at 3pm each day. My question is are people experiencing a push by branches to move any difficult issue to their National Customer Resolution Centre or even repeatedly pushing issues to Financial Services Ombudsman knowing that the latter has very little ability to make the bank to anything other than issue a statement. How are people getting to interact with PTSB?

But what do you actually want to do at branch level?

The only time I ever go near a branch is when some prehistoric organisation sends me a cheque.

Branches don't want you coming into them unless it is to sell you something or to sign some paperwork. In fairness, in this year of 2019, the vast majority of customers have no reason to go into a branch and they are a significant overhead. I only go in once every 2 or 3 months to lodge a cheque(done via a machine) and they annual emptying of the kids piggy banks which I've found my local BoI will take as long as it is bagged up correctly.

Banking has been disrupted by Digital and in 20 years time, I doubt if there will even be a bank branch in most towns