How May We Not Help You?

It’s been a long while since this blog featured an irate rant against the French banking system. This is largely due to the fact that after 7 months, we’ve grown accustomed to the inconveniences. But today I was fortunate to taste yet another flavor in the rich palate of customer non-service. Mmmmmm, exasperating banking.

I went to the bank to perform a fairly cut-and-dry task: deposit cash. When I arrived, there was a small line yet only one teller was serving customers. He went down the line, asking what we wished to do (deposit cash, deposit checks, etc), and one by one we were told that he couldn’t help us with our tasks; his colleague would have to do so. By the time he was finished, the line had grown to six people – all of whom had been turned down. Um, isn’t this a fucking bank? What do you mean you can’t help us with deposits?!

What was even more infuriating was that there were six bank employees behind the counter, performing all manner of tasks yet not one of them glanced in the direction of the line of customers waiting for their aid. This continued for…wait for it…20 minutes! So let’s review the math: six employees, six customers, 20 minutes of waiting. WTF?

We didn’t go down without a fight. Aside from the dirty looks, exasperated sighs, tapping feet, and grumbling, some of us actually dared question their nonchalance. The woman behind me called out to them, asking if it wasn’t possible for just one of them to help us. ‘No, no,’ they replied, ‘we’re very busy.’ Right. So busy that you’re willing to ignore a line of irritated customers?

Then – the icing on the cake – when two tellers finally started accepting customers, the guy at the very back of the line didn’t wait for us to get served in turn. He cut around to the teller on the side of the line, before any of us noticed – we were laser-focused on the teller directly in front of us. When we discovered this appalling (yet entirely normal in these parts) infraction, the woman at the end of the line loudly complained to the teller, who replied that it was perfectly fair because the man had been here a while before, but got impatient waiting, left, and then came back. Therefore, he was entitled to cut the line. Ohhhhhhhhhh, that seems fair. Do we have SUCKER brandished across our foreheads? Guess so. Well in that case, go right ahead and continue inconveniencing your customers. Gah!

This is one thing that after 30+ years of life in the States, I’ll never, ever get used to.