N8, like many others, I agree wholeheartedly. There are many posts from people who have just a had a rude experience at a bank (usually written while the anger is still hot, admittedly) and express some sentiment like, "I'm the customer, it's their job to do x" or "their customer service stinks", etc.
I've had a few rude encounters with bank employees in my life (mostly not when CRH) and could have written similar posts in the heat of anger.
Here's the thing, though.
We're not customers.
Or, at least many CRHers are not. Yes, you are customer if you are maintaining a relatively healthy balance ($10,000+) in accounts with the bank, or any amount above $500 that's growing rapidly because you're making more deposits than withdrawals, or you're paying significant fees for banking services ($50+ monthly), or you're paying interest on a sizable loan balance--or any combination of these.
Or you're engaging in any activity that actually puts money in the bank's pocket.
Banks are only businesses. Given this, many CRHers are not customers to them; they're patrons who happened to have opened a free or $5-a-month account that has never accumulated more than a few hundred dollars. They add no revenue to the business, and their actions offer no indication that they ever will. Yet they make much greater demands of the bank's staff, machinery, and vendor support than other customers who generate even piddling amounts profit, so they're costly patrons. A net loss all around.
In other business models, this CRHer is the person who buys a $6000 mink coat every week, after an hour of deliberation with the shop owner, and returns it every following week still wrapped in the gift box--only breaking the pattern about once a year to buy a $90 hat she'll keep. This CRHer is the person who sits on a stool at the bar for three hours every week, and asks for numerous glasses of water and pretzel bowls, but buys a beer exactly once a month.
After the pattern is established, these aren't customers. They're patrons who are causing the business to incur a growing loss every time they visit. Since a reasonable person would find no indication in their behavior that they'll eventually offer the business some return on the resources its expending to deal with them, the fuzzy good faith naturally wanes -- very slowly with individual people given doughnuts or kind small talk, but faster with institutions looking at operational practices and their cost vs. return.
Bottom line: If you had a brain and business to run, you'd soon want the CRHers in your world to stop darkening your door -- and your $9-an-hour employees (who may not care if your business loses more money every day, as long as their checks cash) would soon get the message you're transmitting (verbally or not): "These guys take a lot of our time and effort, and even though they might be swell dudes, they're not helping us keep the lights on. I probably won't mind too terribly if you regard them as a bother, and I even might start to swing by your area if I see you spending a lot of friendly time with them--especially when actual customers are waiting."
I try to remember these realities of human nature and dollars & cents when I'm at my dump banks, though it's hard.
I agree with the thought that banks may put a stop to obvious CRHing behavior if we get too flagrant with either ordering or dumping. They have many means to do so at their ready disposal (fees, account type requirements, balance requirements, requiring some indication of business need, etc. etc.) that wouldn't greatly affect the average banking customer. Nor anger the average person who thinks people who spend a lot of time going through massive amounts of bank change looking for something special aren't exactly a consumer group they need to link arms with.
As for me, I reroll my coins as I check them (like another poster, I also bought 1000 wrappers for halves for under $30) and try to keep my dumps to less than $400 per bank per week. I think that's too much for comfort, so I'm looking to reduce that. My volume is obviously a lot lower than many guys here -- about 5 boxes a week -- which I know makes my dumps far easier.
