so there i was, going to deposit an insane amount of coins at a standard bank branch at eMpangeni a week or so ago --- pity one cannot do this sort of transaction over the wire (or is it air these days?) anyway, it was interesting to see the distinctions that the bank has progressed into. there are normal tellers as you would expect, and then there is a 'coins deposit' teller (which does a deposit of coins --- even if it's five cents, and the rest of the money) note that other normal tellers do not take coins at all, they simply refer you to this particular teller. and then there is a business side. it states 'business transactions by prior arrangement' --- imagine how many people are prepared enough to do this sort of arrangement before hand. oh, and there is a 'blue bags only' teller --- these are the bags that you dump everything inside and hope that the counter will do correct calculations.
so, where do all these distinctions leave illiterate people? consider this scenario: an average illiterate person (not sure what that is exactly) will walk into the bank to deposit some cash (R27,25) for his nephew at, say, 10h07, yeah? will stand in a queue to 'enquires/imibuzo' until met by a service person at 10h21. the person will then be told to go and furnish a deposit slip and stand in a separate queue. at 10h33 the person will be done filling in the darn slip and will be in a queue until a teller meets him at 10h51. this teller will take one look at this man's deposit slip and do some random scribblings on the slip, telling him that the slip has been incorrectly filled in. after struggling to correct the slip, the man falls in the queue again at 11h01. meets a different teller at 11h09 who tells him that he needs to go to the 'coins deposit' and gestures the location of the 'coins deposit' teller with her hand. doing exactly that, the man is relieved at seeing that there is only one person at the coins deposits, but his excitement is short lived upon realising that the only person in that queue holds coins to the sum of about R5000, yet to be counted. at 11h32, the man finally makes it to the teller who then tells him that the coins that he is here to deposit are not sorted and the man must therefore do the sorting and stand the queue again.
the man finally completes his banking at 12h04. now, if there was a tiny flavour of simplicity in this whole scenario, the man would have been out of the bank and smiling 20 mins after he walked in. trust me, these scenarios DO exist.
so, where do all these distinctions leave illiterate people? consider this scenario: an average illiterate person (not sure what that is exactly) will walk into the bank to deposit some cash (R27,25) for his nephew at, say, 10h07, yeah? will stand in a queue to 'enquires/imibuzo' until met by a service person at 10h21. the person will then be told to go and furnish a deposit slip and stand in a separate queue. at 10h33 the person will be done filling in the darn slip and will be in a queue until a teller meets him at 10h51. this teller will take one look at this man's deposit slip and do some random scribblings on the slip, telling him that the slip has been incorrectly filled in. after struggling to correct the slip, the man falls in the queue again at 11h01. meets a different teller at 11h09 who tells him that he needs to go to the 'coins deposit' and gestures the location of the 'coins deposit' teller with her hand. doing exactly that, the man is relieved at seeing that there is only one person at the coins deposits, but his excitement is short lived upon realising that the only person in that queue holds coins to the sum of about R5000, yet to be counted. at 11h32, the man finally makes it to the teller who then tells him that the coins that he is here to deposit are not sorted and the man must therefore do the sorting and stand the queue again.
the man finally completes his banking at 12h04. now, if there was a tiny flavour of simplicity in this whole scenario, the man would have been out of the bank and smiling 20 mins after he walked in. trust me, these scenarios DO exist.
1 comment:
20 minutes to do a deposit - anyone will be lucky to do that on a busy time at a bank branch in SA. It has taken me longer to do simple cheque deposits at some banks ...
As for catering for illiterate people - banks don't seem to care really. But the interesting thing is; SA has a 85%+ literacy rate ... so its actually not that much of a problem. However how many people actually understand all the little intricasies of a bank ... too little I fear.
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