Bank staffs who are new in their job

Hi,

Just received a phone call from a staff member from NAB and I had to hang up on him for wasting my time.

Anyway, received the phone call to advise me that he was contacting me to touch base to see if he can provide any assistance to my current loans, information of any new products and etc. Started off pretty well and made sure that this was a legitimate phone call and not a scam. Pretty soon, it was pretty obvious that he had very basic knowledge about the bank's products, APRA changes and basic foundation. I certainly did not appreciate him trying to belittle my broker and saying my broker had no knowledge about what he was doing with my loans. I was awfully close to putting him on the spot and telling him if he's an 'expert', how many IPs does he have and telling him he must be someone new to his job.

Fair enough everyone has to start somewhere before they acquire the knowledge and competency in their job, but found it was escalating to him being rude and just belittling people to get his way of things.

 

If someone's primary sales tactic is to state that their competition has no idea what they're doing, they're probably the ones that don't really know what they're doing.

 

Those calls are annoying but spare a thought for the staff member. They probably dont even want to be making the call. Having worked at one of the big 4 banks they do put an great deal of pressure on staff to make calls and drum up leads. Usually they have next to no training apart from a few tag lines to use.

 

This is how my dad handles these things:

Sales guy: Hello Mr D......
Dad: Hello, before you start, let me ask you if you have done basic sales training
Sales guy: Well yes I have sir
Dad: Good, and in your training do you remember the part where they tell you that you will get one extremely difficult customer each day who you can't sell to and will make your job hard?
Sales guy: Yes sir, we were told that
Dad: Good, I'm here .

 

The big 4 all have the same massive focus, lending!
Frontline bank requirements are "sell, sell, sell", irregardless of their experience level or training.
Not the best customer experience as it turns to an emotional rollercoaster for some clients, Yep Approved, come into the branch to provide your ITR. 8 days later, sorry system decline.

 

When I used to get those calls, I would tell the caller that I have already (did the same as Wylie) been to the branch and their bank's computer said that I dont qualify for the loans I already have with them. They always proceeded to invite me to transfer all my loans to their company (rolls eyes).

I changed banks to one that accepts high risk clients and I no longer get any calls

 

I don't mind the phone calls and I try to be nice to people because it's a tough gig but it doesn't give you a licence to be rude to people.

 

Banks do it all the time. Pretent to help you about the existing XXX only to launch into a full blown sales attack.

I made the mistake of putting my number on an iselect comparsion. I made the second mistake of getting my car insurance through them. After that they constantly hassled me daily about internet, electricity etc often calling about the same thing on consequetive days. I had to ask them to take me off their call list.

 

My personal banker is Helen Waite, she has all of the details of our finances. When these sales grunts call, I tell them to go to Helen Waite.

 

Irrespective? Regardless?

Nothing more annoying than a pedantic correction, but "irregardless" to me is akin to treading barefoot on a wasp and I'm on a one-man mission to obliterate it's use.

 

My barefoot wasp frustration is when people say from the "getgo"

My wife actually looks at me as soon as someone says it as it amuses her how visibly annoyed I get at people using it . I don't quite understand it because I am a tolerant man but this word really makes my skin crawl.

 

Depends on the person. I have been asked all sorts of questions by people calling. Almost all of it is none of their business. I have politely declined to answer the questions but the callers insist that I answer them. I am not sure how to get out of those calls without appearing rude. If they would just take a polite decline as an answer, there would be no need for it to escalate.

 

Yes, the fellow was very forceful and was asking inappropriate questions and I did tell him what that information is between my broker and myself. That's when he started to get smart and belittle my broker. Shouldn't view an opinion but I reckon the guy was an early 20 year old with nothing but a big 0 next to his name but even that's being too nice and probably in the negative territory, trying to advise me on something which he knows nothing about or have the expertise in either.

 

We had a similar experience.

After being 'harassed' by a bank many times, I also once said "Yes" but told them it had to be at my home after-hours. I told them that I was too busy to do it at their offices in business hours. To my surprise, they scheduled in our meeting.

At our meeting, I described our trusts, our IPs, our loans, our SMSF (and its investments), our businesses (and their ownership structure), ...

Then I asked the bank rep "So, how can the bank help me?"

They stood up, said "You are too complicated for me" and left.

Never been harassed again.

 

@wylie, we must both use the same bank as exactly the same thing happened to me when I tried to fix one of our loans. I noticed they had unlinked my Offset account.

I phoned the Loan Manager (LM) at the bank and the conversation went along the lines of:

Me: You unlinked my Offset account.
LM: I took your lead.
Me: What lead was that?
LM: To fix your rate.
Me: Yes, I authorised you to fix my rate at the lower rate but I did NOT authorise you unlink my Offset account.
LM: When you fix, you can't have an Offset.
Me: I didn't know that and you didn't tell me. The Offset is fully chocked against the loan. Why would I want to unlink it and start paying interest?
LM: I took you lead.
(let's go around in circles here)

Anyway, they are in the process of putting the loan and Offset back to being the same, to relinking the two accounts, to getting me a lower rate than before, ...

 

There are some things that keep me awake at night....and this one is reserved for June 30 every year!

pinkboy

 

BoQ lender in nsw.

Based on income/liabilities all all things associated with servicing said I can borrow $2m

Broker mate said nah it's around $1.58m

Ok fair enough I heard BoQ are quite generous when it comes to servicing.

Asked him one simple bank policy question to see if the security I was providing was acceptable or not.

First response was nothing and gave me info about other crap

Asked again. Second response was you should get independent legal advice.

Asked again mentioning how can an independent person provide me advice without knowing your particular bank's policy?

Decided to leave it as I thought of another way to structure the loan which was a lot cleaner. Spent around 2 hours compiling financials etc and sending to him as he said the $2m was no problem.

Two days later. We can't do it because of my existing rental income and loans?

- no phone call
- can't respond to my actual question properly
- he knows I have a credit background
- blamed the servicing issue because of my existing rental income/loan?


Not exactly sure why they would be the case? The average yield for existing rental income is 5% gross and LVR position on them is like 65-70% total....

Absolutely useless.