Originally Posted by
Snoopy
Wait there is more, it gets worse. Before I go on I should add that I respect that Westpac is a private business and they have the right to choose what kind of business they do and with whom.
Initially Westpac said they would cash my cheque but they would have to courier it overseas to be cashed at a cost of $100. I guess they thought that by putting an outrageous price on the transaction they would put me off. I reluctantly agreed to this. However they changed their mind when they found out my 'salary' was not being direct credited into my account. I have been self employed for over twenty years, so I have no 'salary'. I also pointed out that I had deposited several thousand dollars into my account that month and tens of thousands over the year. I did all my NZ business through that account. I told them the IRD recognised this money as income and so should they. However, the teller was very adamant that this money did not count as income because it was not a 'salary'.
Now I can't influence any unwritten policy on how Westpac wants to do business. But I do object to them changing rules 'on the fly' - after I agreed to cash a cheque at an outrageous price. Why make a false offer to me to cash up a cheque front me if they had no intention of ever going through with it? I told them I would leave the bank if they didn't want to do business with me and they said fine go ahead. I was flabbergasted after being with the bank for over twenty five years that they were prepared to lose my custom so easily.
All I could think was that they had a cookie cutter pattern of customer they wanted to deal with and I no longer fitted that cookie cutter pattern. They wanted someone with a big mortgage (mine was paid off) who spent up big on their credit card (I cancelled my credit card with them after it inexplicably failed while I was on a trip to England). No explanation was ever forthcoming as to why my Westpac credit card suddenly stopped working while overseas. Fortunately I had another card from a different bank or my trip would have ended in chaos!
As I no longer fitted that cookie cutter profile (the teller confirmed with the manager on site that they didn't want to transact with me so it wasn't just a rogue teller), and I had asked to do something 'difficult', (cash an overseas cheque), it was good bye! Of course the teller didn't know I was a Westpac shareholder as well. Not sure if this was a signal to sell my Westpac shares, because they were being very obviously un-co-operative with a long standing customer, or buy more because they were stopping costly unprofitable transactions across the board!
SNOOPY