Human error

SPEAKING of poor service, I’m launching a new feature in this column called ‘overheard in a bank branch queue’.

One Money Mail reader told me last week that when he heard a woman in Lloyds querying why her credit card application had been declined, the man behind the counter responded: ‘ It’s not a human decision. It’s done by a machine’.

It’s not unusual for a computer to process credit card applications. But you would assume that a human would be on hand to investigate any decisions that are then challenged.

If a customer has made the effort to go into a branch to ask for help, spouting the ‘computer says no’ excuse will only infuriate them. Send in the best bank conversations you’ve overheard.