I had a really unpleasant experience lately at a bank. I’ve been having issues with the online banking and I went to the bank branch to try and get it sorted, alongside a few other errands I need to get sorted at the bank anyways. The irony was that after quite a few tries and the bank officer had no luck solving my problem, they told me to sit there, provided me with a desk phone, dialled the hotline and got me to try and speak to the customer service operator on the hotline to get it sorted.
This was after waiting in the line for about 40-minutes to get to the bank officer in the first place. I went to the bank branch first thinking it would be less crowded especially during these pandemic times, only to realise despite the thin crowd there was still waiting because there was only one poor officer available to attend to people.
So as if it was not ludicrous enough, the hotline guy who was in the IT department thinks there was nothing wrong with my account. So they have to raise an investigation report and wait 2 days to get back to me. Total time on the call, about 20 minutes or so, including about 10 minutes of just being on hold.
I reflected deeply upon the people who falls through the cracks because of the giant bureaucratic system we have created for ourselves in this world to organise things. While it is hard to love it, I find it challenging to hate it because after all, these rich systems have delivered better lives to many beyond our wildest imaginations. Yet the experience of being stuck in a crack in the system with no one knowing how to help, really sucks.
Thanks for reading my rant.