# Commonwealth Bank



## professor_frink (20 April 2006)

Hi all feel like a whinge.

 My girlfriend is the head teller at the local Commonwealth Bank branch here in hicksville, just south of newcastle, and has just spent her entire lunch break talking my ear off about her latest run in with the area manager about the branches poor performance of late. Before I met my girlfriend, I would have thought that poor performance from a bank teller would have meant not giving out the right amount of money, or not balancing up at the end of the day, But all of the CBA's tellers don't just do that, they are salesmen to boot(not that they get higher pay for it though)

Pretty well every teller for the CBA has certain targets that they are expected to meet, ie how many home loan referrals they should  get, credit card enquires, etc, etc. These sales targets for the "tellers" at the CBA are set by the head office and are the same for everyone, which is fine for the people working in the bigger branches, but for my girlfriend's branch, which has only 3 tellers, 2 of which are part time, these targets are basically impossible to meet. Blind freddy would be able to see that the reason that they cannot meet targets in this branch is because of the small amounts of customers that come through the door, not the incompetance of the staff in there. Unfortunately for my girlfriend, the head office doesn't see it this way. They expect her branch to sell the same amount of products as the busier branches in the city!

They are now starting to make life extremely difficult for her, and have come out and said that if they can't meet their targets, then the bank will have to find other people who can. There is no possible way to sell the same pensioners that are in the bank each week a home loan, or get them to sign up for a credit card, and it's now gotten to the point where she is thinking about leaving the bank before she gets fired(she'd be the 4th to quit this year out of 6 total staff in the branch), and the head office still doesn't think there's anything wrong with the way they are running the show.

I find it very funny that a bank that has spend the last 15 years driving customers out of the branches to use atm's, netbank, etc, has finally realised that people are more likely to sign up for other banking services whilst in the branch, not outside using the atm! They have driven most of the customers away from the branches, and now expect the "telling" staff to talk the few remaining customers that come into the branch into getting a home loan!
So folks if you bank with the commonwealth bank, especially in a quieter area, don't yell at them when they try to push a credit card application, or try to get you to switch your insurance, because they pretty well have to and their jobs are on the line if they don't!


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## Happy (20 April 2006)

If she doesn’t have a quota as part of her employment requirements, all she has to do to, is to watch not to be caught with anything else and she should be fine.

But to me it looks that somebody is trying to get her unnerved and tries to make her snap.
Maybe wants her place for somebody else or just another psychopath on supervisory position.

Union not much help these days, maybe workplace relations, maybe time to look for another work, maybe full time trading a possibility?


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## professor_frink (20 April 2006)

Hi happy, I probably should look if it's in her contract or not, thanks for that! From what she tells me, it's more of a bank wide problem than someone trying to get her- 3 other people have left her branch this year(1 retired), because they were sick of the way the bank forces them to sell products to the minority of customers that still come into the bank. The area office doesn't just have a problem with her, it's the others in the branch as well, but she cops most of it, because she's the head teller for the branch. The main problem is in the size of the branch and the area we live in. It's tiny! Some of the bigger branches don't have this problem because they have alot of business customers, and the ones in shopping centres get alot more traffic in them as well.
I think she needs to keep working- her income coming in each fortnight keeps the pressure off me and stops me overtrading!!!


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## Happy (20 April 2006)

It might look silly, but make few pamphlets with your girls name and business contact number and outline CBA’s product being pushed and see what happens.
And do the letter drop while on a walk trying to dry the tears out.

Bit of a problem, that she puts her head out and somebody else at the teller might refer new business.
But on the up side, during next appraisal she can mention her initiative to generate business if qualified enough, might even be considered for promotion.

Always try to outsmart the opposition, even if in the same camp.

Remember that at work, it is you versus everybody else.


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## professor_frink (20 April 2006)

Thank you happy, you've been most helpful!


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## banjo_pete (20 April 2006)

*Pimps*

ate i have just left CBA after getting sick and tired of tellers asking me if i woul like internet banking every single time i was served (been at the same branch for 6 years). I joined internet banking the first time they asked me and once a week for the last 300 or so weeks with out fail, "Would you like internet banking! Sir".  Now they have started charging per transaction for internet use.  Theyare pimps, Get the girls addicted to drugs and then use them up. Same with internet banking, get you on it with no charges, increase face to face transactions and then put fees on the internet.   I say get your girl friend out of there.  I have heard horror storys of poor tellers at the CBA crying after each shift. It was the best feeling in the world closing down my account, the girl asked me why i am closing down my account, well that was a mistake on her part (a few choice words and 15 minutes latter).

ahh i feel much better.


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## professor_frink (20 April 2006)

*Re: Pimps*



			
				banjo_pete said:
			
		

> ate i have just left CBA after getting sick and tired of tellers asking me if i woul like internet banking every single time i was served (been at the same branch for 6 years). I joined internet banking the first time they asked me and once a week for the last 300 or so weeks with out fail, "Would you like internet banking! Sir".  Now they have started charging per transaction for internet use.  Theyare pimps, Get the girls addicted to drugs and then use them up. Same with internet banking, get you on it with no charges, increase face to face transactions and then put fees on the internet.   I say get your girl friend out of there.  I have heard horror storys of poor tellers at the CBA crying after each shift. It was the best feeling in the world closing down my account, the girl asked me why i am closing down my account, well that was a mistake on her part (a few choice words and 15 minutes latter).
> 
> ahh i feel much better.



They generally ask things like that because they have to.
yeah they can get pretty stressed out-she's told me some awful stories- a lady once came in picking nits out of her hair and throwing them on the carpet, mental people coming in and asking for a loan, dole bludging bums coming in yelling because bank fees have taken their money they were gunna spend on their kids(more like on drugs!).
 I've been telling her to look for another job, but I guess she isn't quite hating it enough to leave yet. Tell you what though- I want to be there when she does, just in case she goes out in a blaze of glory and tells all of the customers off :swear:


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## glenn_r (20 April 2006)

CBA's NETBANK stopped charging the .50c fee per EFT transaction on the 3rd April.


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## bvbfan (20 April 2006)

professor_frink said:
			
		

> Hi all feel like a whinge.
> 
> My girlfriend is the head teller at the local Commonwealth Bank branch here in hicksville, just south of newcastle, and has just spent her entire lunch break talking my ear off about her latest run in with the area manager about the branches poor performance of late.




Having worked for CBA for several years now I'm in a similar situation.
While I enjoy the work for the most part, I'm stuck with dealing with stuff ups day in day out because the experienced staff have left and newbies are getting things wrong. 
At the current branch we have had 7 staff leave (there are only 5 positions in the branch) in about 9 months
The whole area are short probably 20 staff

I was previously in a quiet branch yet we had the same targets as the busiest branches. We are lucky to get a week of meeting targets in a year!

Also be careful with what you are sold, I've seen clients being sold the wrong products and not being told of other products because those products don't count to the staff sales targets. But they would have been the best for the customer.
Also now the staff get money for new accounts and loans etc its all sales based.
I think that is pathetic.

In the last few months I've realised it's not worth it. I could stay at home and as today make 2 months salary with stocks in a single day than being in that horrible place.
What finally got to me was having no air conditioning for all of summer then getting it finally fixed at the end of March after threatening to bring the union in

With the pamphlet drop, wish it was that easy!
You have to get any marketing approved by legal area, so don't do that without their approval or she will be out of a job.

The only good thing is the free shares I've received from them which are up 50%


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## professor_frink (20 April 2006)

bvbfan said:
			
		

> Having worked for CBA for several years now I'm in a similar situation.
> While I enjoy the work for the most part, I'm stuck with dealing with stuff ups day in day out because the experienced staff have left and newbies are getting things wrong.
> At the current branch we have had 7 staff leave (there are only 5 positions in the branch) in about 9 months
> The whole area are short probably 20 staff
> ...




thanks for replying bvbfan, I was hoping that there would be someone on here that worked from the bank! Will scrap the mailout. You sound like your sick and tired of exactly the same things as my girlfriend is. She hasn't met her target for a long time and neither is anyone else in the branch. When one of the older staffmembers left earlier in the year, her replacement was a transfer from another branch who had never not made her target, and she hasn't made it once since being in the branch. It's crazy!


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## ob1kenobi (20 April 2006)

bvbfan said:
			
		

> You have to get any marketing approved by legal area, so don't do that without their approval or she will be out of a job.




I don't work for a bank, however I have had first hand experience of the CBA's marketing policies. When the Tsunamai struck, I wanted to donate to the Red Cross. I was at a major shopping centre and so went to each of the banks to see which one collected for the Red Cross. ANZ advertised that they were collecting for World Vision, St.George had a notice up as well, etc. The only bank that didn't have a notice up was CBA, who of course upon enquiring told me that yes they were collecting for the Red Cross. When I pointed out the lack of signage I was told that they couldn't put up any signage without area approval. I pointed out that every other bank had the jump on them in this regard, it didn't seem to make any difference. I suggested that their area manager should get generic signage for charitable collections made up. It could have a large, empty white box in the middle where you could texta in the agency you're collecting for. Before I knew it, the branch manager appeared with a notebook to copy down my idea, assuring me it would be sent to the area manager. Seriously, policy making has gone mad when the bank approves of its branches collecting for charities but wants to play games on the marketing front!!!


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## bvbfan (20 April 2006)

professor_frink said:
			
		

> When one of the older staffmembers left earlier in the year, her replacement was a transfer from another branch who had never not made her target, and she hasn't made it once since being in the branch. It's crazy!




Yeah we had a staff member who customers loved, been with the bank 25+ years. They pretty much forced her out
The replacement is terrible, 9 years experience yet knows what I knew in 3 months. 

They say a rising tide lifts all boats but this ship is going to sink with incompetence very soon


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## Smurf1976 (20 April 2006)

This sort of goings on sounds very familiar to when I worked in the public service under a Liberal government. Absolute incompetence coming from the very top (political level) and outright targetting of any group of people who actually knew what they were doing to the point of having few if any left who could actually do the job properly. Near total loss of corporate knowledge made it a hard problem to fix too.

So I'm not sure how I feel really to learn that private enterprise is also capable of this approach. I always thought is was simply a Liberal thing in the public service (Labor took a far more practical approach) but obviously not. It costs an absolute fortune to fix once they realise just how badly all this nonsense messes things up.


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## bullmarket (20 April 2006)

Hi ob1kenobi



			
				ob1kenobi said:
			
		

> I don't work for a bank, however I have had first hand experience of the CBA's marketing policies. When the Tsunamai struck, I wanted to donate to the Red Cross. I was at a major shopping centre and so went to each of the banks to see which one collected for the Red Cross. ANZ advertised that they were collecting for World Vision, St.George had a notice up as well, etc. The only bank that didn't have a notice up was CBA, who of course upon enquiring told me that yes they were collecting for the Red Cross. When I pointed out the lack of signage I was told that they couldn't put up any signage without area approval. I pointed out that every other bank had the jump on them in this regard, it didn't seem to make any difference. I suggested that their area manager should get generic signage for charitable collections made up. It could have a large, empty white box in the middle where you could texta in the agency you're collecting for. Before I knew it, the branch manager appeared with a notebook to copy down my idea, assuring me it would be sent to the area manager. Seriously, policy making has gone mad when the bank approves of its branches collecting for charities but wants to play games on the marketing front!!!




we had a similar experience with CBA just recently    

You might recall that soon after cyclone Larry it was advertised just about everywhere in at least the TV media that donations to the cyclone Larry appeal could be made at any CBA branch.

Wellllll......  mrs bullmarket decided to go into our local CBA branch to make a small donation.  I waited outside thinking it'll take just a few mins...................20 minutes later she walked out (after 10 mins I went off for a wander after giving up waiting   )

After she got to the front of the customer service queue and asked if she could make a donarion, the assistant didn't know and went off behind closed doors to find out   After she returned, she couldn't find the right form to fill out and so went of to one of the tellers to find the form.  Mrs bullmarket then was called over to the teller and original assistant and between them managed to fill out a normal deposit slip and specifying a designated a/c number for the appeal.

Anyway, at least mrs bullmarket managed to make our donation but what should have taken just a few mins ended up taking about 20. 

But at least the original assistant was curteous and helpful at all times.  The fact she wasn't aware that CBA was accepting donations, let alone how to process it was most probably no fault of hers but due to a lack of communication and training from above.  And like in your case there was no signage anywhere informing the public they were accepting donations 

cheers

bullmarket


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## The Bookeeper (22 April 2006)

*Re: Pimps*



			
				professor_frink said:
			
		

> They generally ask things like that because they have to.




Ahh CBA is still doing the "Tag-on's" to customers. 
I feel sorry to all those who work in CBA who have these stupid targets.
It is the worse technique of trying to cross sell products.

I am afraid your girlfriend will still need to do the tag-on's to clients. 
It is apart of her performance requirements. 

If she does not perform, she will be placed on managing unacceptable performance, and within 1 month needs to be hitting target or she will be out the door. 

Even if she hits the target during this 1 month period, if her performance falls down during the next 6 months, she will be out the door.

I am afraid all my techniques to get referrals for home lending etc are all out dated. When I worked for the bank, I had referral sources from accounting firms and real estate agencies. The accounting firms and real estate agents would refer clients directly to me and I would then on refer them to the lender or the financial planner etc. I was promoted from a GC3 teller to AMD financial planner within 8 months because of the business I got from these sources. However, the bank has now changed in that it offers $$$ incentives to these firms now. So if your gf did create this network, the area office would take it off her hands. 

My only advice for your gf is to find another job quickly. 
CBA does not pay well for the amount of crap you have to put up with.
Try local/state or federal government for customer service roles.

I left the bank for greener pastures. Better pay and best of all NO SALES TARGETS!


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## visual (12 May 2006)

This is unrelated ,
but I`ve just received a request by comm.bank requesting our account details so they can upgrade their information and not lock us out, of our own account I presume,what do you all think should i provide our details?  .
Why is it that with all the technology available these morons can still access supposed private information. :swear:


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## Fab (12 May 2006)

Never ever give personal details over the internet


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## visual (12 May 2006)

Fab,really !
what about to the nigerians,should i provide it to them.Just joking .but what I find amazing is how many people fall for that scheme ,even with all the information available almost daily.

Recently in our area people were asked to confirm their details over the phone,so seeing that the caller had the personal details such as name,I`m not sure but maybe address,and credit card number they were lulled into a sense of security and also confirmed the pin number,voila job done.The all thing started with the person saying they were from the bank and an unusual transaction had occured on their credit card and thats how they got them.


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## Julia (12 May 2006)

visual said:
			
		

> Fab,really !
> what about to the nigerians,should i provide it to them.Just joking .but what I find amazing is how many people fall for that scheme ,even with all the information available almost daily.
> 
> Recently in our area people were asked to confirm their details over the phone,so seeing that the caller had the personal details such as name,I`m not sure but maybe address,and credit card number they were lulled into a sense of security and also confirmed the pin number,voila job done.The all thing started with the person saying they were from the bank and an unusual transaction had occured on their credit card and thats how they got them.




This is just so awful.  It's OK for us to feel people should never do this, but some old person who gets a phone call from the bank from some convincing sounding conperson, can simply feel shocked that something untoward may have happened with their bank account which means simply everything to them, and they are totally vulnerable to just providing the asked for information.  Many of them just don't appreciate that, compared to when they were young, the world is highly populated with amoral creeps who will do literally anything to further their own ends (usually a drug habit) and arecompletely without concern for their victim.

Julia


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## visual (13 May 2006)

Julia,including the credit card scheme with the nigerian scheme was a bit harsh I know,but my intention was to show the depths these morons will go to to get what they want

Admittedly I had to think twice about the credit card scheme.


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## Prospector (13 May 2006)

visual said:
			
		

> This is unrelated ,
> but I`ve just received a request by comm.bank requesting our account details so they can upgrade their information and not lock us out, of our own account I presume,what do you all think should i provide our details?  .
> Why is it that with all the technology available these morons can still access supposed private information. :swear:




They just get lucky with an email address - I get spams like this when the email may only have 1 correct letter!  An ebay email is doing the rounds at the moment!

Our business server was also hacked into about 3 months ago - and 'we' were sending emails to people asking them to verify their Amazon accounts!  We got some nasty emails back to us telling us we were criminals - and a couple of others who realised we had been hacked into and advised us of the problem, and then Amazon themselves emailing us to tell us what had happened!

The internet is great but beware!


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## Mofra (13 May 2006)

As an ex-CBA employee (not from the branch) all I can say as advice is get a resume ready and look for alternate employment.

The CBA are by far the lowest paying bank, treat their staff worse than any of their peers and have the least interest in retaining quality staff.

I walked out a while ago into better conditions, better location and surroundings, better career prospects and a 25%+ payrise as a base. I still hear horror stories about how targets are being increased, less staff are left to do the processing roles and yes, there are breakdowns and stress leave galore. Culturally there is a serious problem in the "top-down" management approach currently employed by the organisation and I'm sorry to say stories like this even at the face to face level of the organisation are not surprising at all.


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## StockyBailx (15 May 2006)

Orrr, your not wrong. The Commo Bank has really been tea'in me of lately and as far as I'm concerned, the've got a consperioucy against me. I don't know why I've done nothin wrong to them, (it must be me good looks). 
Sorry Professor or anyone else if I have gone off the subject, but I've really got to ask. Does anyone have on their monthly statment a debit from someone or some thing called Incrowd Investments? I do and I don't recall doing buisness with  "Incrowd Investments"   but never  less, they continue to debit money from my account and I really need to know who they are. So Please!

Can anyone who works or worked at the Commo Bank tell who "Incrowd Investments" are? 

Or does anyone at all know who they are?

Thanks for you time...

Stocky.....


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## macca (15 May 2006)

Hi Stocky,

A friend of mine had a mysterious charge appearing on his credit card, turns out the kids changed the ring tone on the phone. 

The company charges per month for the ring tone, the fees advertised are not one offs but a download cost then a monthly rental.


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## Julia (15 May 2006)

StockyBailz said:
			
		

> Orrr, your not wrong. The Commo Bank has really been tea'in me of lately and as far as I'm concerned, the've got a consperioucy against me. I don't know why I've done nothin wrong to them, (it must be me good looks).
> Sorry Professor or anyone else if I have gone off the subject, but I've really got to ask. Does anyone have on their monthly statment a debit from someone or some thing called Incrowd Investments? I do and I don't recall doing buisness with  "Incrowd Investments"   but never  less, they continue to debit money from my account and I really need to know who they are. So Please!
> 
> Can anyone who works or worked at the Commo Bank tell who "Incrowd Investments" are?
> ...




Why don't you just ask the bank?

Julia


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## bullmarket (15 May 2006)

stocky

I would have thought the obviously smart thing to do would be to open a brand spanking new account, transfer the funds from the account with the so called 'mysterious' debits to the new account and then close the old account.

It looks to me you or someone has 'accidentally' given access or direct-debit access to your account.

Just close it and open a new one account 

cheers

bullmarket


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## Prospector (15 May 2006)

Hey Mr Bull
I am having a similar issue at the moment but this time it worked in my favour!  

We had our business webhosting done by ozemail and each month they would debit the required amount.  Last month we cancelled our webhosting with them.  Sent their accounts an email advising them to stop debiting our credit card immediately.

By extreme good luck our credit card expiry date was the end of April, and we have been issued with new ones.  Today Ozemail accounts sent me an email saying that they were unable to process the debit due to the change in expiry date!  Woo hoo - did I end them back a rocket email!!!!  

Has anyone else dealt with ozemail - their accounts system is totally......., well, I cant say what it really is, but you get the drift.  Their internet provision was pretty reliable though, such as well!

cheers to expiry dates....


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## bullmarket (15 May 2006)

Hi Mrs Prospector 

Sounds like you were lucky in your case 

Personally, we don't give ANYONE direct debit access for ANY payments, regular or otherwise - it's a huge no-no imo as shown by your experience.

btw....I think you'll find that if you read the 'fine print' of many direct debit agreements you might find that they require a letter with your signature on it to cancel a direct debit arrangement and not just an email because from their point of view anyone with access to your email account could send them a mischievous email cancelling a direct debit.

For all our regular payments we use CBA's scheduled BPAY payments feature within Netbank....it's like direct debit except that it is completely controlled by us from our end....I would imagine the other banks' online banking platforms would have a similar feature and so we don't see any need for direct debit at all.

cheers

bullmarket


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## Prospector (15 May 2006)

bullmarket said:
			
		

> Hi Mrs Prospector
> 
> Sounds like you were lucky in your case
> 
> ...





Yeah, yeah I know you are right! :


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## bullmarket (15 May 2006)

Prospector said:
			
		

> Yeah, yeah I know you are right! :




....


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## bvbfan (15 May 2006)

Direct debits are the royal pain in the a%^&
Watch out who you authorise, working in a branch I've realised don't ever give it to charities, gym memberships, real estate agents.

They never cancel the DD when a client requests and its a frustrating trying to case them up and get refunds.
And some of the charities seem to target people who don't understand English too well.

Cancelling a direct debit is relatively easy, need to fill in a form and provide details of it to the bank.


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## StockyBailx (15 May 2006)

Thanx again, I've tryed asking the bank, but they decline everything? I will ask them again(maybe some one else). Bloody top idea Bullmarket, that way who ever's having a go at my account, wont be able to find me. Unless "Incrowd Investments" is a commy deal. 
Soon find out! But I would really like to know who they are?

Stocky......  

-----Give the bank a $ recieve a penny-----


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