SINCE mid-last year, the world’s economy has being heading downwards. Experts have attributed this to the United States of America economic situation where they diverted millions of dollars to Iraq to fund the war which they started without any imperative reason(s). The last US president continues to justify his reason for such action based on the possession of “Weapon of Mass Destruction” by Sadam and his regime. On to today, we are still awaiting the findings or evidence of this claim.

However, my focus is the situation at our banking facilities, with which we customers have to accept.

On many occasions, having driven to many of the Scotia Bank ATM machines either they are not working and are currently being serviced or some cable problem as the guards would explain.

Secondly, having had an immediate transaction to accomplish, I went into the bank’s Robb Street location, where the crowd was enormous. As such I went to its Carmichael Street branch. There were approximately 42 persons in the regular customer line. There are twelve windows. Numbers one to four deal with Draft, Foreign Exchange and Scotia Gold Card Customers. Within numbers five to twelve only three tellers were working. This is where the troubles began. Ever so often either one or the other teller gets up and returns within five minutes. Now, what’s the purpose of having all these windows and no tellers to serve? It is a waste of customers’ time. I had to endure approximately one hour and seven minutes, before I could have arrived at one of these windows. Standing this length of time can be strenuous at times. For too long, customers have had to endure this substandard treatment from our banking institutions. Having checked the other banks the same thing can be said. Sometimes these institutions operate as though we do not play the most integral part and more so they forget the phrase “customer friendly”. Something is lacking, in the management of these institutions. Having visited many countries, within the Caribbean and North America and had the reason of visiting a bank, there is this vast gap which needs to be bridged. We Guyanese deserve and demand better treatment.
KIRTLEY A WILLIAMS