Opinions wanted on this "problem"

[canadianbiz]

My wife and I are in our 50's which is really no matter with what I am about to post here. After you read this please give me your opinion on WHY?

When we lived in the Okanagan, we dealt with and had a mortgage at a Credit Union. There were three branches and I dealt at all of them. As we had a joint account, I asked my wife to go into the bank and deposit a cheque and keep some of the cash. After waiting in the car for about 15 minutes she came out to say that they would not take the cheque and that we would have to go to our "home" branch. I had never had this problem before and cashed/deposited cheques at all 3 branches.

Also one time in the Okanagan we were going grocery shopping at the warehouse Superstore. My wife went to get a basket and as she was heading to the grocery lanes a security lady asked her to leave her backpack at the front of the store. My wife explained that this was actually her bag for carrying her personal things, wallet money and "womanly" things. As my wife was telling the lady she noticed another woman with the same kind of bag who was shopping as well. She protested that this other woman was shopping there with the same kindof bag, no problem and the security lady let her go.

Just last Saturday my wife entered the Royal bank with 2 personal cheques from people in the USA. We have a joint account at Royal Bank and also have overdraft protection, the whole nine yards. This was not our "home" branch but we dealt there before. In fact we also deal at about 3 Royal banks in our area depending on which one is closer to where we are going on a certain day. We both have Royal bank debit cards.
These cheques were for under $20 US in total. The teller told my wife that she couldn't cash the cheques so my wife asked her to just deposit them into our account instead. The teller then said that if she deposited them, there would be a 15 Day hold on the funds. She told my wife to go to our Home branch, so my wife left the bank with the cheques. When she was done shopping (ladies shopping day out) I picked her up and asked her if she cashed her cheques and she told me the story.

Monday I had to go into the bank and again, it was not our home branch but not the branch my wife went to either. I had 3 cheques, all in my wifes name and a postal money order in my wifes name as well. 2 of the cheques were the US personal cheques. I asked the teller to deposit all the cheques into our joint chequing account. The cheques were not even signed by my wife as you do not need signature to deposit.
End Result: No problem at all. Cheques all deposited exchanged included in the total.

Opinions Please!

[mslam]

Just out of curiosity, are you and your wife of the same ethnicity?

I could assume that the different cases could have been due to your wife being a woman (sexism) but you mentioned that at the superstore, the security guard was a lady.

I find that men usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to customer service, so this is whole different turn.

Sorry, couldn't help ya.

[curtis]

Honestly, it sounds like there's something unintentionally suspicious about your wife that people are picking up on..

My wife and I are in our 50's which is really no matter with what I am about to post here. After you read this please give me your opinion on WHY?

When we lived in the Okanagan, we dealt with and had a mortgage at a Credit Union. There were three branches and I dealt at all of them. As we had a joint account, I asked my wife to go into the bank and deposit a cheque and keep some of the cash. After waiting in the car for about 15 minutes she came out to say that they would not take the cheque and that we would have to go to our "home" branch. I had never had this problem before and cashed/deposited cheques at all 3 branches.

Also one time in the Okanagan we were going grocery shopping at the warehouse Superstore. My wife went to get a basket and as she was heading to the grocery lanes a security lady asked her to leave her backpack at the front of the store. My wife explained that this was actually her bag for carrying her personal things, wallet money and "womanly" things. As my wife was telling the lady she noticed another woman with the same kind of bag who was shopping as well. She protested that this other woman was shopping there with the same kindof bag, no problem and the security lady let her go.

Just last Saturday my wife entered the Royal bank with 2 personal cheques from people in the USA. We have a joint account at Royal Bank and also have overdraft protection, the whole nine yards. This was not our "home" branch but we dealt there before. In fact we also deal at about 3 Royal banks in our area depending on which one is closer to where we are going on a certain day. We both have Royal bank debit cards.
These cheques were for under $20 US in total. The teller told my wife that she couldn't cash the cheques so my wife asked her to just deposit them into our account instead. The teller then said that if she deposited them, there would be a 15 Day hold on the funds. She told my wife to go to our Home branch, so my wife left the bank with the cheques. When she was done shopping (ladies shopping day out) I picked her up and asked her if she cashed her cheques and she told me the story.

Monday I had to go into the bank and again, it was not our home branch but not the branch my wife went to either. I had 3 cheques, all in my wifes name and a postal money order in my wifes name as well. 2 of the cheques were the US personal cheques. I asked the teller to deposit all the cheques into our joint chequing account. The cheques were not even signed by my wife as you do not need signature to deposit.
End Result: No problem at all. Cheques all deposited exchanged included in the total.

Opinions Please!

[xKagex]

It sure sounds like discrimination; for some reason they do not trust your wife. I would have a discussion with the bank manager.

For a similar story (at least it sounds similar to me) have a look at this:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006080226,00.html

MUM Andre Green has been banned from shopping at an Aldi store — because bosses think she looks SUSPICIOUS.

The innocent mother of 16, who has never been in trouble, was given her marching orders in front of her three youngest children

[Daemar]

The banking system we have is 'branch banking' which means that although there are many branches, they are all part of the same tree and share the same resources, data, etc.

They should not have an issue with depositing cheques, nor cashing them for that matter. I don't see why a 'home branch' is required. I'm with TD bank and I don't even know which is my home branch anymore... I got to 4 different ones. However, i do not see the teller... I mainly use the ATM for deposits and withdrawls. There should be no problem depositing a cheque in the ATM and withdrawing cash for the same amount. I have been told that my account doesn't hold funds unless it's a really big amount.

If it happens again, i'd look to the branch manager for an explaination of why they don't accept cheques and why you are being told to goto your home branch.

[Bortman]

That sounds about right actually. I deal with Credit Union as my main bank, always have, that was until I bought a new car. The credit company that the Ford dealership used was Bank of Montreal. Let me tell you I'll never deal with them again for anything. Because I didn't have an "account", debit card or credit card with them they could NEVER tell me information. They wouldn't even tell me the balance of the remaining loan. Talking to management didn't help either, same crap from them.

Blah blah ***** ***** after about a year of this crap I went to my Credit Union branch to see if they could do better for me if I transfered the loan over and obviously the could and they did. Because BOM wouldn't tell me anything, my Credit Union did it all for me, they even got a lawyer involved, as such they got the information damned quick. Yadda yadda yadda the Credit Union gives me a cheque to pay BOM and buy out the loan, and the BOM just so happens to have a large branch across the street. Just my luck! So I walk across the street with my dad (whom is 6'5" and 300 lbs of scarey lookin' dude) to buy my loan out. They say they can't because I still don't have any info like a debit card, credit card or a cheque as well as the fact they can't accept a cheque that large in a standard location... I'm fuming by this point, my dad is pissed so he starts yelling at these ladies. In retrospect, probably not a good thing to do, but after a year of crap, someone got it and it was them. They finally say that I have to go to the main branch downtown on Monday as they are the only ones "authorised" to do this.

Monday comes along and I go to pay the loan off. And now I'm happily living in debt with a good bank.


Actually, the same thing happens here with cheques, you can only deposit them at your home Credit Union. Its a pain in the butt, but I guess its the rules.

Moral of the story is, what you've encountered is about right and its happened to me too. I just wanted to vent and tell a story :)

[NDman]

My wife and I are in our 50's which is really no matter with what I am about to post here. After you read this please give me your opinion on WHY?

Opinions Please

I'm not quite sure what you are trying to get to. It seems like you wanted to bring up a point to pin those events together on a common point (race, disability, or whatever). But as it is, I can't see the connection between the incidents in the banks and the one at the grocery. I can speculate but that wouldn't be fair.

If you want to make a point, then just make it loud and clear to further on the discussion, IMO. Right now, I don't know if you want to talk about the practice of the banks (non home branch) or something else

[shuffle]

I can tell you exactly what the problem is, but unforunately no suggestions for improvement. There are two issues at hand:

1 -

We live fast and complicated lives like never before. Our days are filled with so many different responsibilities and duties that we often don't fall into a regime or a pattern any more. Long gone are the days when Saturdays were for grocery shopping (even at a particular store), Sundays are for cleaning, etc. We do what we need to whenever we need to do it because if we leave it, it doesn't get done. You may not appreciate this fully if you are fully entrenched in your career or are retired as you have had a lot of time to settle in to your schedule, but then again you very well may. I know many people who never get out of this pattern. The fact is that the free time afforded to us by technology and automation has been filled by our employers and ourselves in our never ending pursuit of career advancement/keeping up with the joneses/money/whatever else. Even if you don't consider yourself in this category, take a step back and view your free time and how much of it you have.

Business is no exception. You may find it is the Banks policy to put a hold on American funds, or its the grocery store policy to not let handbags into the store, but rules and the application of those rules get bent all of the time to make way for what needs to get done in a standard work day. Certain branches may apply these rules more consistently than others (likely because they have had their hands slapped before) but everybody varies these rules depending on their workload.

2 -

Due to #1 (the never ending addition of responsibilities at work) many people feel they are not paid enough to care to apply the rules consistently. While I don't agree that is the responsible approach to take - I can't disagree with the fact.

[findingnemoscar]

Are you alluding to the fact that you're wife was mistreated and that the mistreatment was racially motivated?

Honestly, I don't get your question of "why?"

The obvious answer is that she was discriminated. So that solves the "why" part.

But why are you asking "why?" Shouldn't you be asking "what?" as in "what can I do about it?"

[canadianbiz]

Thankyou for the responses. I have read them and I have drawn to my own suspected conclusion after reading all of your responses.
I am a white Canadian and my wife is an immigrant from Brasil with Canadian citizenship. My wife is the colour of a First Nations person. She has been asked by First Nations people what band she belongs to.
This is the only conclusion that I can think of as we both dress about the same. As far as Banking policies, I do not think this had anything to do with it because if it did, I would have been told such numerous times before.
The grocery store episode, the other woman was white and the security person was a lady as well.

[toalan]

That sounds about right actually. I deal with Credit Union as my main bank, always have, that was until I bought a new car. The credit company that the Ford dealership used was Bank of Montreal. Let me tell you I'll never deal with them again for anything. Because I didn't have an "account", debit card or credit card with them they could NEVER tell me information. They wouldn't even tell me the balance of the remaining loan. Talking to management didn't help either, same crap from them.

Blah blah ***** ***** after about a year of this crap I went to my Credit Union branch to see if they could do better for me if I transfered the loan over and obviously the could and they did. Because BOM wouldn't tell me anything, my Credit Union did it all for me, they even got a lawyer involved, as such they got the information damned quick. Yadda yadda yadda the Credit Union gives me a cheque to pay BOM and buy out the loan, and the BOM just so happens to have a large branch across the street. Just my luck! So I walk across the street with my dad (whom is 6'5" and 300 lbs of scarey lookin' dude) to buy my loan out. They say they can't because I still don't have any info like a debit card, credit card or a cheque as well as the fact they can't accept a cheque that large in a standard location... I'm fuming by this point, my dad is pissed so he starts yelling at these ladies. In retrospect, probably not a good thing to do, but after a year of crap, someone got it and it was them. They finally say that I have to go to the main branch downtown on Monday as they are the only ones "authorised" to do this.

Monday comes along and I go to pay the loan off. And now I'm happily living in debt with a good bank.


Actually, the same thing happens here with cheques, you can only deposit them at your home Credit Union. Its a pain in the butt, but I guess its the rules.

Moral of the story is, what you've encountered is about right and its happened to me too. I just wanted to vent and tell a story :)

Yeah i brought my dad to the bank once as muscle, too bad he is 5'4":)

[masterhapposai]

I say it's a form of racism, or discrimination (she could be a very tall woman, or very petite and so throws them off)

I get dealt with very poorly when I change certain attributes, such as beard length:

-Bus drivers all of a sudden start almost blocking me from getting on, asking to see my(along with a few other races) transfer twice eventhough we showed it clearly!

-Bus driver refusing to open the doors at a red light, although I've seen the guy do it for certain people.

-Bank pulled me in for "questioning" on my $

etc..

What did I do? Argue and make the bus driver look stupid, put the transfer against his nose. Called the bus company and made complaints. Bitched in general and I'm seeing much less of it.

In fact I don't see that ******* bus driver anymore, at his regular times.

[canadianbiz]

Reminds me of a deal that happened in Penticton in the 80's. 3 or 4 First Nations guys went to a car dealership. Most dealerships, when they see a potential customer on the lot are on them like bee's on honey. At least thats how I found it back then.
Anyway the were looking at new cars, one after the other for about 20 or 30 minutes and they noticed the Salesmen watching them from the big windows in the front of the showroom. No one came out though. So they left.

A couple hours later, a brand new car drove onto the lot. It was a different make from what was being sold there. A First Nations guy got out. Went into the showroom and asked for the manager. The manager came over and the FN's guy told him to look at that new car. As the manager of the Dealership was looking, the FN's guy said "We just bought that down the street and paid cash. We wandered through your lot looking for almost a half hour and no one would come and even talk to us. Your Loss!!!"

[Narci]

Thankyou for the responses. I have read them and I have drawn to my own suspected conclusion after reading all of your responses.
I am a white Canadian and my wife is an immigrant from Brasil with Canadian citizenship. My wife is the colour of a First Nations person. She has been asked by First Nations people what band she belongs to.
This is the only conclusion that I can think of as we both dress about the same. As far as Banking policies, I do not think this had anything to do with it because if it did, I would have been told such numerous times before.
The grocery store episode, the other woman was white and the security person was a lady as well.

There was a new serial on First Nations people trying to rent a condo or house to live in winnipeg and were flat out refused soely because they were first nations bands so I don't doubt that her looking like a first nations had anything to do with it.