So, where do bank employees come from anyhow? The reason I ask is that I just
went through the process of getting a loan to buy out my car at the end of
it's lease.
For starters, I used telephone banking to do the application - this is where
the web-site railroads you, so I caved and complied well suspicious the
entire time that there were certain details sure to be lost in the
translation. Sure enough, the first detail lost was "This will be forwarded
to your branch and in the next day or two they will call you to finish up the
transaction. You need to go in, show them a paystub or other verification of
employment and sign the papers." Ok, cool.
What they really meant to say was, "We won't ever call you back." Which is,
in fact, what happened to me when I first leased the car. I actually applied
for a loan, was approved, and then was never contacted again. So, I got
pissed off and leased the car. In fact, the loan approval is still probably
sitting in a file somewhere at my branch. Bygones. Anyhow.... after a week or
so I finally called in.
"Hmmmmm. Nope. We don't have any record of you. Oh wait, how do you spell
your name again? Hmmmm. Nope. Ummmmmm. What's your phone number? Oh. Thanks.
Hmmmmm. Oh, yes! There it is. I just found it!".
At this point, I'm fully confident that I'm screwed. Anyhow. Book the
appointment, and head in. Give them a paystub. The chick looks at it, punches
some stuff into her calculator.
Then, asks, "Do you get paid every two weeks?"
"Yes. Every two weeks".
"Ok. Great."
<Punch punch punch. Computer. Calculator. Punch punch punch.>
<Punch punch punch. Computer. Calculator. Punch punch punch.>
<Punch punch punch. Computer. Calculator. Punch punch punch.>
"Hmmm, I don't think these numbers are right. You actually make about $700
less a month than you said when you applied for the loan."
"That doesn't make sense. I told them exactly how much I make on the phone,
and didn't lie."
"Well. It doesn't seem to work out."
"How are you calculating it?"
"Well, you make $x every two weeks, so I multiply that by 2 and that's your
monthly salary, and that's $700 less than what you said."
"Since I get paid every two weeks, and there are 52 weeks in a year, which
amounts to 26 pay periods, how about multiplying the amount shown on the
paystub by 26?"
<Laughing>"Oh yeah, I never thought of that! Besides, you make tons of money
anyway so it doesn't really matter."
Yikes. Now I'm really scared. Where do these people come from? I would have
thought maybe they took Commerce or something at school and didn't manage to
get a real job. How can you work in a bank and not be familiar with the
concept of people being paid bi-weekly? Doesn't like 50% of the population
get paid that way?
Ignoring that, if you're dealing with a customer that makes "tons of money"
and has no debt, and only wants a diddly $20K car loan to buy out the car
that they already have, why piss them off and try to convince them that they
make less money than they said they did and that they lied on their
application?
The rest of the process goes smooth until it's time to sign the forms and
have her explain what I'm signing....
"This one is for ummmmm, saying ummmmm, how much interest, no, how much your
payments are going to be."
"This one explains ummmmm, insurance on your loan."
Nice. Anyhow.... we finally get to the end, and the punchline is that she
can't disburse and register the loan. She needs to go get someone to help out
and fumbles around for like 5 minutes until she realizes that a manager has
to authorize the disbursement. All the managers are in a conference call, so
I have to leave and wait until later in the day.
In the end, I think it all worked out, but what's the deal with that?
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