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?