Thursday, December 02, 2004

Contrast

In this era of e-age banking, how can some banks stick to their age old methods. Well, it doesn't sound that logical but I experienced it today.

I went to an ATM of a nationalized bank to withdraw some amount. Here are the things that I saw

    There was (read is carefully 'was' and not 'is') a promixity card reader that would allow a person holding the right card to gain access to the machine, but it was left wide open.

    I couldn't find any security in the gate, instead even the stairs leading to the ATM was filled up with shops.

    People were queued up right from the machine till the road

    People were very helpful, in the sense, they were keying in the PIN for you and even collecting the cash, counting it and giving it to you with the receipt. Reason: In the rush, you can't even waste 0.5 minute.

    The rush was so much, it looked worse than a fish market.


I decided not to even stand in a queue and people who were standing behind appreciated my efforts as they got a KM closer to the ATM.

The mad rush was because of the machine was running slow. I thought of using a near by ATM of another bank, but couldn't as the ATM card issued by my bank was not compliant. Ironically, the ATM in which so much rush was there, was an ATM where you can use VISA, VISA Electron and everything in the world. I couldn't really understand, who this bank is serving?. In this cut throat competition, this Bank still survives, amazing, isn't it!

Reach me at hifromsriram at GMAIL.com

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