The Quickest Way To Get High Blood

Want to know the easiest way to get yourself a high blood pressure?

Go and deal with Indonesian Banks.

In my previous posting I wrote about my bad experience dealing with Bank LNM (actually Bank BCA - Bank Central Asia).

Today, I had another round of equally frustrating incident with another bank, Bank BII.

I had with me some money in USD denomination which I wanted to deposit into my USD account with BII. All the notes were in pristine condition i.e. they're not torn, no scribblings and did not even have fold marks.

I went to the nearest BII branch, which was at Pondok Indah Mall. I went to the counter where they had all the forms neatly arranged and took the deposit form. The security personnel was even kind enough to take a queue number for me while I was busy filling in the form.

So far, so good.

Then, my number was called. I handed the teller lady my form along with my money. She scrutinised all the notes like an Egypthologist scrutinising an artefect from King Tut's tomb.

This was when the nightmare began.



She showed me the single patah note. Bloody hell... it's just a tiny weeny fold mark which would be unnoticed at a glance... or a few glances.

To me it was still too minor a patah to be such a big issue.

Me : "Mbak, patahnya cuma kecil aja. Apa nggak bisa terima?"

Teller : "Bentar saya tanyakan ke supervisor saya"

Moments later,

Teller : "Nggak bisa terima pak"

Me : "Mbak, uang itu di buat dari kertas. Bukannya dari plastik yang keras. Makanya memang wajar jika ada kesan begitu"

At this moment I was starting to get highly agitated.

The supervisor decided to interrupt.

Supervisor : "Kami bisa terima, tapi bapak harus bayar komisi 1%"

Pungkok hang!! Aku ni dah le customer nak simpan duit dalam bank diaorg, ada hati nak charge aku for such a bloody trifle thing.

Me : "What should I do now?"

Teller : "Terus gimana pak?"

Phantuekkk sangat. Aku tanya ko, ko tanya aku balik.

I simply could not contain my anger. I exploded.

Me : "Tak payah. Bagi balik duit saya. Indonesia ni pelik!!! Banyak peraturan bodoh!!!" I deliberately spoke in Bahasa Malaysia. All eyes were on me.

Peduli hapa aku!

I took back my money from the teller's hands and walked off. I then called BII's customer service line to find out the next nearest BII branch.

Half an hour later I arrived at BII Plaza Pondok Indah branch. Repeated the same routine and waited for my number to be called.

Ting!!!Tong!! Nomer Sembilan Puluh Enam... my number was called less than two minutes later.

Again, I did the same thing. Handed over the deposit form and the money. This time the teller gave the money to the supervisor to be inspected.

Two minutes passed. The teller came back to me with the money in hand. I braced myself for what she had to say.

Teller : "Pak, ada dua lembar uangnya patah"

Me : "Mbak, saya tadinya udah pergi ke cabang di Pondok Indah. Saya tidak puas hati dengan service di sana. Makanya saya datang ke sini. I came all the way from Pondok Indah and I expect to get better service here!"

Teller : "Tapi pak, memang kami tidak bisa terima uang dalam kondisi begini"

Me : "Mbak, saya udah berantam dengan orang2 di Pondok Indah. Makanya saya datang ke sini. Uang itu di buat dari kertas. Bukannya plastik. Saya sudah bekerja di Cambodia, di Singapore (okay, a little lie here), di Kuala Lumpur, nggak ada peraturan yang bodoh dan nggak masuk akal seperti di Indonesia ini!"

Again, the moment I said bodoh, all eyes were on me. The supervisor decided to assist her subordinate.

Supervisor : "Tapi pak, bukan di bank ini sahaja, peraturannya di seluruh bank2 di Indonesia"

Me : "Makanya, peraturan yang gak masuk akal seperti ini yang harus dirubah. Mbak pikir ya, jika saya ke Amerika, tentu uangnya saya masuk ke dalam dompet dan di lipat. Terus, jika saya pulang ke Indonesia uang yang udah di lipat itu saya harus ganti di mana? You don't expect me to frame my USD notes dan bawa frame itu waktu berjalan?"

The supervisor mumbled something to the teller.

Teller : "Kali ini kami terima uang bapak. Tapi kami mohon yang seterusnya bapak pastikan uangnya dalam kondisi baik. Maaf ya pak".

Me : "Terima kasih mbak. Tapi saya tetap katakan peraturan itu nggak masuk akal. Ianya harus dirubah. Maaf mbak Sandy dan Tanti karena saya agak emosional. Tadinya saya udah di reject keras oleh cabang Pondok Indah. Justeru itu saya ke sini"

They did the right thing i.e. giving priority to customer's satisfaction at the expense of the bank's stupid policy. I commended them for that. I wish their colleagues at the Pondok Indah Mall could learn a thing or two on good customer service from these two ladies.

To calm myself down, I went for a quick retail therapy and bought a... errrr... tak yah lah bgtau. Korang datang sini aku tunjuk apa aku beli untuk lower my blood pressure.