For the last few years bank bosses have been urging members of the public to go online, use telephone banking, get a bank card all aimed at guiding people away from counter services. At some local branches staff have been walking around with hand held devices which are unable to complete some transactions, yet there are only one or two counter services open, causing long queues. Even at the counter service, staff are forced to share one dispensing machine between two (at some banks), to complete transactions; this again shows the lack of investment at the high street branches and an underlying desire to close them.
There are now longer queues at the cash machines and when one breaks down chaos ensues. Jobs are lost, communities, businesses and the high street loses a vital community service because they tell us no one is using the branches anymore.
We hear of more and more bank fraud costing millions a year. Customers getting duped as systems are easily accessed. Customers taking most of the flack when anything goes wrong as banks seem adept at avoiding the blame. Failing technology causing customers days of anguish when transactions fail. So again communities are given no choice in the matter as the banks create the environment we all have to live with.
Paul Broadhurst, Dukinfield
