Frustration over wasted energy

I’ve just spent a full 90 minutes at my bank. Some of it was just general advice. The rest was about transferring my account. Under the new banking law, a personal account can no longer be held under the same account number as a business account. So, everything’s new. That’s annoying enough as it is, with all the hassle involved.

The whole process was even more frustrating. In total, I was given over 50 sheets of paper – all of which had just been printed. The printer was, of course, at the far end of the counter. After every single step, the member of staff would walk over to the printer at the other end of the consultation room, fetch the paper, and I would sign it. This went on about 5 or 6 times. What a waste of her working time and my time. Unfortunately, I hadn’t brought anything to read with me. She was friendly and knowledgeable, and even recommended my website to her colleague. Nevertheless, I think the processes could be optimised in the interests of work efficiency and customer service.

My thoughts on this

– All the necessary personalised documents could be printed out before the consultation – this would save the customer a lot of time. And staff would not have to keep running to the printer.

– Frequently requested documents (terms and conditions, value for money) could be printed (which would be more cost-effective for the bank) and in a more environmentally friendly way.

I’ll let the bank know that as well.

And, of course, I’d like it if we didn’t have to print out documents that can be viewed online.

The friendly lady told me that, under EU law, they are obliged to give me the documents. For environmental reasons, I would prefer it if there were a change in the law requiring people to sign a single sheet of paper on which they tick the documents they intend to view on their own responsibility and then sign it.

The whole world is holding its breath because, in order to meet our enormous energy needs, we are using technologies that threaten the lives of thousands of people – and we allow laws that make the waste of resources an absolute necessity… I am thoroughly frustrated.