RBS no-show leaves customer distressed
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WICK resident Richard Stanley was so angered by the failure of the Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) mobile branch to show up last Monday that he contacted the paper to express his thoughts.
Retired surgeon, Mr Stanley, was trying to bank money gathered over the weekend from fellow parishioners at St John’s Church on Moray Street.
"I drove down to the riverside car park fully expecting to see the mobile bank there – and nothing," said the 73-year-old. He had a look around the car park thinking the van might be in a different position but there was no sign of it.
"It definitely was not there and so I came back down again some time later thinking they might have been running late or suchlike."
Mr Stanley said he "did not enjoy" hanging around the car park with all the church takings and money raised from coffee mornings. "I didn't want all that money sitting in the house either," he added.
"I have mobility problems so I can't walk very far anyway. Strangely enough, the mobile bank is actually easier for me to access than the former Royal Bank on Bridge Street which I used to have problems parking beside."
He said he spent several minutes on each occasion looking for the RBS van but to no avail.
The time period covered by his two visits was from 10.45am to 12.45pm and he felt confident enough to contact the bank through its website to voice his concern that the van had failed to turn up.
"There was no information on the RBS website about it and when I called them I was told repeatedly it should have been there."
He asked to be put through to the Thurso branch of the RBS to "help sort matters out" but the operator refused to do that he claims. This is terrible customer service but unfortunately what one has come to expect of RBS," said Mr Stanley.
A Royal Bank spokesperson told the paper: "We would like to apologise to any customers who were inconvenienced by the lack of mobile branch service on Monday [last week].
"We know how valued this service is within our communities, and we make every effort to maintain the schedule of the mobile branch. However, due to extenuating circumstances it was not possible for the van to get to Wick.”
The spokesperson added that there "was a problem with the van" and that the bank attempted to contact all of its "regular customers to let them know that the van would not be there".
"The mobile van has now returned to its normal schedule. We would also like to apologise to the customer who brought this to your attention."
Mr Stanley confirmed that he was able to bank the money a few days later on the Friday and that the staff were "extremely apologetic".
