Well the Occupy movement that circulated the globe got me thinking. What did they want? What was the big deal? Well, where does one start? Banks? Insurance companies? Brokerage houses? Government? Media? It is all too much. And we are still talking a shit kicking only we can't fight back because its from faceless entities protected by layers of Customer Service drones whose only wish is to be through the day so they can get home to their XBOX and kill Zombies.
Lets take banks first. According to the Government and the media the banking system in Canada has protected us from the Global slowdown. And according to statistics the banks are all doing record numbers and increased profits. So where is the problem? Simply put- the riches are now being hoarded by a select few like fat kids with chocolate on Halloween. They know they are fat, they know they should share but it all tastes so good. It has always existed but the polarity, the gap, is increasing faster in Canada than anywhere in the world.
The fact that bank fee structures are designed to make the poor pay more bank fees than the rich, or, the fact that instead of talking to a teller or a bank manager they have "customer service representatives" are our clue to the deep-rooted plot. The bank makes more money through the new customers they get by spending more on advertising to say how "easy " it is to switch and how they have the "customer at heart", then they do helping a customer. They attract more lemmings through a new ad campaign and then those of us who are saying "Wait a minute, why do I have to pay you to use my money?", well, they can afford to let us walk out the door because they just signed 4 more customers in our place. They can hold the new guys funds, bamboozle them with fine print and give aways, and string them along until they too ask too many questions and switch banks.
Now I just came from the TD bank. Nice enough people.
I had 3 months of hassle with the CIBC customer care people (whose real job is to get you so frustrated you raise your voice or swear at them so they can hang up on you and make them screwing you, your fault), so I was looking to switch banks.
Oh and by the way since moving a lot of my banking away from CIBC I notice I get more letters from them suggesting all kinds of perks including discounts at the Irish Embassy Pub. Now how a bank can justify cutting down more trees and embark on a marketing campaign to send notices to its customers to give them discounts at one restaurant but not help them with penalties when they have to sell their homes is one thing; but having level after level of planned customer care escalations designed to drive customers to an anxiety attack, is another.
So off I went to the friendly bank, The TD bank. Heck they have old guys in their ads they must be good. And their signs say # 1 in Customer satisfaction.
They told us of the "easy switch". Just fill out a form and they do it all. Well 4 months later, 5 trips to the TD, several afternoons spent waiting for the phone meetings they scheduled but never happened, and several hold notices later, I decide I want some answers. It's just business and I the customer should not always get the short end of the stick.
So i ask " What is your policy on holds on checks, when, why and for how long.?" 30 minutes 2 tellers and one customer care supervisor later I still don't have a straight answer.
Frustrated I decide I have other things to do in my life, who cares? and off I go.
Then months pass and I go to deposit a check and the machine says a hold will be placed on the check. I go to reception and say can you print me the sheet of paper for my account that specifies the rules and regulations for holds, please?
I get a sheet that outlines how hard done by the banks are with all the fraud and what a credit risk they take cashing checks (wait a minute aren't they having profitable years - every fucking year). The sheet says they can put a hold on all or part of your check at any time at their discretion.
So i ask " is there a policy for when a customer can get out of this monetary purgatory where they take your money, collect interest that they don't give back to you and decide when you can have access to your money?
No one can answer. Like automotrons they spew their mantra, the XBOX is so close. So I say "So no matter how long I bank here or what kind of deposits i have, if the teller doesn't like my look, or the check, or my smile they can put a hold on my check?" And the answer sadly is, although it depends on your banking history there is no written criteria so in a word - yes.
Why would I want to do business where it is one sided? I give them money and then they decide when I can access it, how much I can access at any one time and what they will charge me for the privilege of banking with them. In return I can't even get a straight answer from a human being about their policy.
Really? Show me a bank that runs differently or who offered to lower their fees?
How does this relate to the "occupy movement"? Well what bank is any different? They have us by the short and curlies
So a group says fuck that, lets go camp on Wall street just to say - "hey we exist and we are not going away. We know that you are raping us so that you can have a house with 8 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms and 20 ft ceilings but now how about you deal with some inconvenience fat kid. And then the fat kid, the bank, cries about how hard done by they are to the government guys. They say they need to raise rates and charge more and they get it just like the fat kid who gets chocolate. And they tie up the media but word gets around. Now every city in the world has hundreds and thousands of people saying hey Fat kid this isn''t right. But the Fat kid bugs his government buddies and soon the annoying masses are once again brushed under the rig. Well "occupy" might be all we can do right now. We don't know what to do about things but at least the fat kid knows we are here. And there are a lot of us.
But that will not change the banks, withdrawing all your money might, but.... oh snap, we are in debt and they own our ass.
Can you think about bigger bullies than the banks and the Insurance companies? We need a change, we need someone to say no to the fat kid, stand up to the bullies and I am so ready to do that. If only at the keyboard.
Now insurance, government and media I'll save for another day.
let me know your thoughts.
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