Impatient Man in the Bank Drive Thru (Long-ish)

[Zipporah]

This happened a few months ago. I was working in the drive thru of a bank. It has three lanes. Anyway, lane 1 was occupied by an elderly man (about 80) and he had just arrived after the customer in lane 2 pulled in. I usually used to do
the transactions in the order of arrival or whenever the customer was ready, but the woman in lane 2 was taking a while. In retrospect, I should have done the old man's deposit first because the woman was cashing out 1,500 dollars.

I stupidly decided to wait for a supervisor to approve the large amount for the woman and then do the man's transaction. The check cashing took about 3-4 minutes because I had to find the head teller to override the computer warning message. I did the man's deposit in under 30 seconds, but he honked the horn just as I was sending the transaction out through the drawer.

I was surprised that he honked the horn because people usually ring the call bell if they're impatient. He also said, "I was going to ask what was taking so long".

I explained why the woman's transaction took so long and he just accepted my apology.

The wait was partially my fault because I didn't check to see what kind of transaction he had before flagging down the head teller to help me with the woman's large check [anything over 1,000 must be approved by the supervisor's password]. I just took her transaction first because she got there before the old man.

I do think that the man was slightly rude by beeping the horn and causing me and the other teller to jump, however. People will never cease to be impatient.

[karath]

Too true. At least the guy was polite afterwards; but still, when the person who will be taking care of your transaction has enough work to do to call a supervisor over, why not enjoy the wait? Honking is practically a surefire way to annoy your server.

Randomly and OT, does anyone else who uses a drive-through speaker agree that loud whistlers can be among the most annoying sounds that come through? Barring ancient cars, horns, and those people who sound like they're shrieking at you no matter what they say, of course.

[Anakah]

My thought was if the woman was there first the old man had no right to bitch. To me, no matter how long the transaction is, the point is she was there first. I hate having to explain why certain transactions take longer than others to the other customers, none of their business. Yeah, its late and I'm a little bitchy...

Hehe. I had one guy tell me that I better not take as long as I did with the last guy who had a bunch of black chips (hundred dollars each). I told him it wouldn't be the same wait because his transaction was a lot smaller. muahahaha

[Andara Bledin]

Well, I got the impression that the guy was actually present first, but was unprepared to begin his transaction.

In essence it would be as if he walked into a bank, then stopped at a stand-alone counter to get his things together. While he was doing that, the woman came in, and passed him to go to the teller since she had her things ready to go already.

He was there first, but he wasn't ready, so he lost his place to the woman, who was ready first.

^-.-^

[Zipporah]

I'm pretty sure that she (the woman in lane 2) actually pulled in first, but she wasn't quite ready yet. The guy pulled up just as she was sending in her tube, and I could see that her transaction was a large check that would require approval. The guy was sitting there while I got the supervisor and cashed out her check, but I should have quickly done his transaction or checked to see what he actually wanted to do.

I used to take transactions based on the order in which people were ready if someone was taking a long time (despite pulling up first). I noticed that other tellers tend to help people who are ready first, not just in the order that they arrive.

However, the woman was there first and she was just about ready to cash her check. Unfortunately, it took longer than the average transaction and the man expected me to do his deposit first, I suppose.

I should have made it clearer. Sorry!

It was my fault for not taking his brief transaction first, but I didn't check his lane until after I was done with her transaction. However, I believe that his honking of the horn and brief impatient chastising were mild forms of customer suckage. He wasn't that bad, but I was still annoyed because the horn made me jump! heh.