Very poor knowledge of banking from Ulster Bank staff.

Looks like the banks have lost a lot of talent, based on this thread alone :)

Unfortunately, a sizeable part of the problem is that the Banks are not being run by true bankers, but by all sorts of professionals - half of whom know nothing about banking, but think it's simply down to quick sales of whatever the flavour of the month is, or radical cost cutting plans etc.

Anyone who has read the various reports on why the likes of Anglo etc. went wrong, will see one of the key reasons was the lack of real understanding about risk, around the Boardroom table.
 
Absolutely spot on MrEarl. When I was in branch banking in B of I in the mid eighties, senior management were absolutely obsessed with AIB and the profits they were making. It was unbelievable. It turned into sell, sell, sell, reduce staff costs etc etc. Instead of wanting old style people like myself, they wanted risk takers and sales people. I got out when we were told to give old dears a credit card instead of a small loan. One of the assistant managers who had the highest levels of integrity and morals refused and called it usury. I remember that very well - and that was back in about 1988.

The same assistant manager was very involved with various campaigns, Anti Apartheid Movement, an Taisce etc etc. I had such regard for him that I named one of my boys after him!
 
We could all go on I'd say! I was useless at maths, got NG in pre leaving :) but boy can I mind money and do them sort of sums.
 
In my local Ulster Bank in South County Dublin they can't even be bothered to change the foreign exchange rates on the board in the customer area of the office. Many a time I have had to remind them to change the date on their date stamp.

The thing about it is they are all full of their own self importance and wouldn't dream of apologising when wrong.
 
Do any long-time bank officials remember the print-out that arrived from HQ every month for commercial customers and every quarter for personal customers? It was called something like the "Advice of Account Charges". It was a computerised report of non-interest charges calculated automatically based on account activity and had to be verified in-branch prior to the posting of charges against accounts. It was a key profitability metric for the branch.
 
Yes indeed, I recall it was quarterly, there was also provision to alter these figures to account if extra time was taken to manage some customers accounts.
 
It'd be interesting to sit in on one of the review meetings these days based on the "helpfulness" and "management assistance" provided by current staff.
 
Monbretia said:
I wonder is that even a question anymore on the reviews? Now it's sales sales sales!
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In my Ulster Bank branch there is no sales sales sales. The reason being is that the staff don't even know their own products let alone what their competitors might be offering.
I remember having a substantial balance in my current account. To give credit one staff member said to me that the Ulster Bank can offer great savings rates. When I asked, the staff member had to look up the rates on their computer. Back in the day I would have had these rates in my head.
I asked the official about their competitors rates, An Post etc. Not only did they not know these rates they hadn't even heard of Savings Certificates, Bonds etc.
It was obvious that this person had been told to sell sell sell but hadn't prepared themselves for someone who, on the other side of the counter, might actually have some knowledge.
The current counter staff are even worse than the Yellow packs of the late 1990's.
 
It's not the counter staff's job (according to UB and probably most banks) to sell you the actual products, what they are trying to sell is the appointment with the advisor (I use the word loosely obviously). The counter staff have targets for appointments, they are their sales as such, then the advisors have their own targets for getting the customer to purchase the products.

The odd time you will get a very knowledgeable counter staff member, I know a couple that have basically been 'demoted' from advisor roles which of course are no longer advisor roles but sales as they wouldn't flog products indiscrimately so they end up back on the counter which is the lowest rung of the ladder.

We used to have a thing called a 'Super 5' which was if you managed to sell the customer 5 products in one go, mortgage/life cover/repayment protector/house insurance/credit card. I can say I never got a super 5 as I never found a customer for whom all 5 products were suitable in one go but plenty did and got the bonuses to match!
 
Last Friday March9 , the deadline in Ulster Bank to cover cheques is 1.30 PM , I lodged cash into lodgement machine in the branch at 12.31 PM, the time on the receipt was 13.31,so I brought this to notice of the person on the floor and asked him if the transaction would be processed in time and he said it should be as the staff just had to check all the notes in the machine ! however I kept monitoring my account and the transaction was not credited to my account until 13.47 and later that evening they bounced 2 cheques ,even though I had lodged more than sufficient funds to cover,what sort of technology do they use ,
 
Why did you not lodge with a cashier, you knew the cheques were on the way as you wrote them a couple of days previously, you left it very late and appear to have relied on the machine, it does appear as if the actual time was one hour ahead based on your receipt which it should not be of course.

I cannot comment if you are credited at the time you use the machine but would think the cash needs to be verified, perhaps somebody familiar with this could comment.

It may not be related to their technology.
 
cremeegg said:
Every time UB make a mistake, I make a complaint. Every time I receive compensation, I am well over €1,000 in compensation to date.
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I made another complaint a few weeks ago. UB had written to me about an account, I telephoned to query the correspondence, sensible conversation with a woman who didn't know but would investigate and get back. Of course I didn't hear from her. I called again and spoke to another staff member. Same story.

Then I made a complaint. Got a BS letter asking for my DOB etc. I refused to supply. I got another reply saying the acct in question was closed. I emailed to ask why they were writing to me saying that the account was overdrawn if it was closed.

Then something weird happened. I got a telephone call from a woman who said that the account should have been closed two years ago but was not and fees had been charged every month since. She said she would refund the charges and close the account. I was so gobsmacked all I could say was, "thats fine".

At least one person in UB has a basic competence. She must be new. I hope its not the end of the compensation gravy mini train.
 
I tried to send email to this address, but it bounced back as undeliverable. Can you repost the email address again please?
 
I had a problem doing an 'international transfer' on an UB savings account with online access and I used 'webchat' to resolve it, or so I hoped. What should have taken ten minutes lasted nearly 2 hours with the agent telling me to open up the page in different browsers and so on. All to no avail:mad::mad:. I phoned the following day, spoke to an actual UB banking person, and he resolved it in minutes. He told me that the webchat team are techie heads and not aware really of banking as such. I'll know where to go in future. :):);)
 
I ordered FX from my local Ulster Bank Branch. They said...order on Tuesday and we will have it on Thursday......we will give you a call when it arrives.
Thursday arrives and I call to my branch......I was told it hadn't arrived yet......don't worry we will call you when it arrives I am told.

Friday....no phone call. Monday......no phone call. I call down to my branch lunchtime on Monday and they have the currency. It was delivered to the branch the previous Thursday.

I ask...why did I not receive the phone call as promised.......Oh! We were much too busy to do that is the response I get.

They are the pits...
 
Conversely I have used UB on College Green and always have no problem getting stuff done quickly. One case was transferring 200k+ from my account to my solicitor whois not with UB and it took no more than two minutes to make the transfer. I have also got large cash withdrawels over the counter no problem.
 
Wrote to UB 2nd Feb with query. No response, so emailed the only email that I could find, which was complaints. Had a phone call from a named staff member who asked me to email the query to him on 27th March. Still no response!!
 
elcato said:
Conversely I have used UB on College Green and always have no problem getting stuff done quickly. One case was transferring 200k+ from my account to my solicitor whois not with UB and it took no more than two minutes to make the transfer. I have also got large cash withdrawels over the counter no problem.
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That's not really conversely.
It would be extremely worrying if transfers and withdrawals were complicated for the staff.
 
qwerty5 said:
That's not really conversely.
It would be extremely worrying if transfers and withdrawals were complicated for the staff.
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Well the thread has descended into a list of examples of incompetency of UB staff. We have no idea how bad they were and have to assume that the story teller was right and the staff were wrong. I just thought I'd balance it a bit.
 
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