You get what you give.....

[jimmyforgotten]

Thought I'd share a pretty cool story about one of my dump banks....

They have a coin machine in the lobby that accepts halves, so I have been using them to dump a box of halves once a week for a while now. Obviously, bag changes are frequent when I'm there, and it is extremely pain for me to watch these ladies struggle with lugging bags of coin around. I always beg to help them, but as much they would like me to, it's against the rules.

I bring the tellers some sweets from a local bakery every now and again to show appreciation for what they go through for me, and over time the relationship has blossomed. It's at the point now where I can do no wrong. They will sell me whatever I want, bags, boxes, etc. Even when I say the coins won't come back to them, they say they don't care if they do. They actually give me a hard time if I stay away too long. They are actually the best looking group of tellers I have seen, so I can't stay away too long

Now every other bank I deal with has some sort of cart/dolly to assist the tellers with moving the bags around, but these ladies are carrying them to the vault. So I asked why they didn't have something like that, and the head teller goes to the back and brings out some make-shift furniture dolly that their maintenance guy made. This thing is big, heavy, has 4 spinning wheels, and a rope to pull it that is so short they have to hunch over to do it.

Helplessly watching them struggle with these bags just drives me BANANAS! So, I bought them a hand truck. I did a little research, and I found this SUPER COOL 150lbs rated collapsible hand truck that weighs 8lbs for $19.99 at Menards.(So cool that I bought one for myself) These ladies were just tickled to death that I did this, they just couldn't believe it. I just explained that I care about them and it was nothing compared to what they do for me. It was only $20 for a hobby I spend little on as it is.

So I go back there the other day, and they had put a gift together for me. When they go through the reject tray of the machine, they put anything that isn't US coin into a jar. Since they didn't know what to do with these foreign coins, tokens, etc., they bagged them up and just gave them to me!?! Now I like foreign coins even if they are worth nothing, but the face value of the Canadian coins alone were worth $40+! And hidden amongst them were 1-80% & 3-50% silver quarters, 4-50% dimes, & 60+ pure nickel-nickels! I haven't been able to check out the rest yet, but I'm sure to have hours of fun researching the remaining coins from about every country under the sun!

It just goes to show that when you spend more time considering what you can do to help others, than you spend stressing about what they should be doing for you, good things inevitably come back around to you.

From the many stories I have read on this site over the months ranting of frustrations with banks & tellers, I thought I should share this story. You are never going to win over every teller or bank, EVER. This should never change how you go about your business. Remain gracious for everything they do for you, and humbly work within the rules the give, however ridiculous they sound. And if you take the time to be thoughtful every so often for what they do for you, chances are they will begin to do the same for you.

JF

 

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[starkizzle]

That is pretty awseome! your right about getting on their good side, in general its just good practice. some times emotions get the best of people, myself included, but this shows that people just like to be treated nice. i think im going to have to look into one of those hand dollys, my tellers just drag the bags across the floor. good story!

 

[SilverFace]

That's a cool story and u make some very good points. I should do a better job of establishing better relationships at some of my banks. I was just thinking this wknd about bringing some chocolate or something to one of my good p/u banks next week.

And congrats on all the free foreign coins! Sounds like they gave u more than twice what u spent on that hand truck for them. So like u said, your consideration for them sure paid off in return for u.

HH!

 

[agme]

That is friggin awesome jfg!
WTG! Love the foreign coins!

 

[weighit]

I reward every employee in the bank, by buying hot fudge sundaes for them during the summer. Just yesterday my pick up bank got 11 of them. People that work there that I don't hardly ever see made it a point to come out of the back offices to say thank you. Sure cannot hurt.

 

[barneyb71]

Great story. I have been with my main credit union for over 20 years. I will stay in there and talk for an hour at a time. It's not even about buying them things but just being nice and thankful for what they do. I do bring them coupons every week, not only do we as a family use them but 3 or 4 of the employees do. The only bags they deal with are the ones they bag up and send out, because I am the only person that dumps halves they, they tell me to bring more in because it takes $1000 to send a bag. You never go into a place without a smile, a story maybe and always be thankful no matter what you walk out with, even of it's nothing. The tellers are the ones that can stop your CRHing! It's all about KARMA! Again, great story and very thoughtful.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

A CRHer that "gets it." Very cool.

I had a dump bank lined up to save me the foreign/reject stuff from the coin counter. But before it really even got started, someone complained and now company policy is to throw it all in the trash. Typical.

 

[Iamrussell]

CRHer of the week

-------------------------------------
just keep stacking, just keep stacking, stacking stacking stacking

 

[Yinzi50]

In my CRH life I've dealt with hundreds of branches and I would say 99% of the tellers are "great people". I've only met three "bad ones" who obviously have antisocial personality.

 

[fistfulladirt]

My tellers are great! I bring them treats every now and then.

They still keep the silver they find, or sell it at face to other customers.

 

[DaytonaRacer]

Awesome story. Like they say, what goes around comes around. I always try to treat tellers very nicely, even if I'm just running in to deposit a check or break a large bill.

Thank you for posting!

 

[Rascal]

I dare say you have given me an idea. I thought I was doing them a favor having them pass the boxes across a low desk-like counter rather than lift them across the higher regular teller counter. I should just hand them my luggage cart/box hauler and tell them to place the boxes directly on that and wheel it through the gate. Picking up 25# and squatting with the knees once makes more sense than handling 50 lbs for each box lifting them twice. Not to mention the cart they have is a bit unwieldy in the somewhat tight confines behind the counter.

My tellers like the homebaked breads I take them ever so often. Like? Heck, they rave about them! I always toss in at least a quarter lb of real butter to go along with them, and I made a point of leaving a bread knife for them to use rather than look around to see who brought a plastic knife with their lunch bag.

I am thinking, though, that you may have established a new standard in whooing the tellers.

Rascal