Nothing awesome by any means - just a tale of some confusingly unwilling customer service, if you need something to read.
By now you've read that I sold my car. Let me correct myself - by now you've read that I sold my car. :-)
In order to do this, of course, the buyer and I had to go to the bank to pay off my loan and get a lien release.
Before we went there, I called the bank to try to set up an appointment with a loan officer to try to get this done. When the lady picked up the phone, I asked to speak with said loan officer. She said they were all on the phone (which, as you'll read more about later, I don't believe) and asked why - I explained that I was going to be selling my car and needed to know how the buyer could drive the car home today as an owner. She informed me that I could pay off the loan at the window and that the lien release would be mailed to me in 2 weeks. So I explained, again, that the person wanted to buy my car today and drive it home knowing he'd be able to own it when he got home. Her response was, "Well, I don't know how he'll be able to buy it today because the lien release won't be there for 2 weeks." I paused for a second like...ok??? So...you just don't expect people to ever sell their cars??? So once again I asked her if there was any way I could set up an appointment with a loan officer to discuss that, and she once again said that all I had to do was come to the window to pay off my loan. Realizing I would never get anywhere with this person, I said, "ok, thank you," and hung up. (politely)
Later we made it to the bank. I went to the window, as instructed, to pay off the loan with the cash the buyer had given me. After my roommate brought me the wallet I forgot at home, as I had rushed out the door (thank you Grant), we asked how and/or if we could get a lien release today. The window attendant did not know, so went to ask a loan officer (which, as you read, is what I was trying to do to avoid this confusion). Now this is another part that confuses me. Instead of the loan officer walking over to the window, or inviting us to her cubicle to give us the good customer service I would expect from a bank that wants its customers to return, she continued to sit in her desk for about 10 minutes and discuss the situation with the window attendant.
The attendant finally returned, at which point we paid off the loan and she told us to go wait in the chairs for the loan officer to call us over. Now, don't get me wrong - I know that people working in these areas have things to do. I don't expect everyone to wait on me hand and foot. (is that the right saying??? It sounds weird.) However I did happen to look at the cubicles, and I did notice that no one seemed to be pressingly busy (e.g. on the phone or doing much paperwork, and not using a computer fervently). So, we sat and waited for another several minutes, which, in itself is fine - I'm not impatient and don't mind waiting!
BUT - she asked us over in a very condescending and unpleasant way, processed everything without one word of polite conversation, gave us what we needed and said something like "have a nice day" in a very insincere manner.
So - to those who read this - a few potential simple lessons:
1.) If you work in customer service, serve your customers.
2.) If you hate your job, don't ever take it out on anyone else.
3.) Solve problems - don't create them.
:-)
This has been another episode of How It Is with Jeff Schraw. In written format.
