Here’s the update, also visible at the bottom of FuckRoyalBank.com, of course
Aug 8, 2008 Update
I received a call today from the lady I spoke to on Tuesday. To maintain consistency with the dialogue description above, here’s a brief transcript. After a few pleasantries, I got right down to it.
Lady: We did a thorough search of the bank machine and there was no envelope. At his point, we are prepared to meet you halfway and give you 200 dollars.
Me: I must say I’m less than impressed with that. Why 200?
Lady: Well, you see, there was no envelope and such decisions are made at the discretion of the bank manager, and I spent a lot of time convincing him you were a valued customer and as a gesture of goodwill, he offered to meet you halfway.
Me: I’m still upset, why is it only halfway? Where is the envelope?
Lady: There is a possibility that the ATM spat the envelope out onto the floor to be picked up by the next person who came along. So we don’t have that envelope, Mr. Kumar.
Me: I’m sure you can see how I’m not happy with this. I’m still 200 dollars in the hole for no fault of mine.
Lady: Of course, I totally understand. But you must appreciate the generosity of Tyler, who is making this offer.
Me: Who is Tyler? And his generosity?
Lady: The branch manager at the Lougheed branch. The money comes out of his branch’s ledger, so he has to account for it.
Me: The guy who said would call me on Tuesday, but never did?
Lady: Yes, you see he found out you had called me and so desisted from calling you, knowing that the complaint had passed on to me.
Me: Alright. I’m afraid I have to ask how I can escalate this, I’m not satisfied with the 200 dollars.
Lady: Certainly, though I would advise you to accept this generous offer. You can escalate this by talking to the Ombudsman. Although, I must inform you that the local branch is the final arbiter in a case like this.
Me: Ok, I’ll call you back about this. Thank you for your time.
Lady: Certainly. Good bye.
So, in essence, now they admit the machine might have spat the cash out. Either way, even if they are sweeping something under the rug, now the blame lies with their ATM, which should not be spitting out other people’s cash willy-nilly. The lady didn’t sound too impressed that I wasn’t jumping for joy at the offer, but who would be? Maybe if I’d been lying all along, I’d be happy to get something at least. But in this case, I DID deposit 400 dollars and I aim to see that money credited to me. The interest accruing on it is another can of worms altogether.
Another interesting point is that I called the lady at 3 PM PST, and the branch closes at 4.30 PM PST. Boy, news sure travels fast in the hallowed echelons of RBC, if he heard about it in the slim time window left for him to call me on that very day.
One final point is the supposed “generosity” of the offer since it’s coming out of the local branch’s coffers. This is a load of bollocks if I’ve ever heard any. If they can go from 0 to 200, they can go from 200 to 400 and settle the matter. And “generosity” makes it sound like I should be happy to get some sort of handout. Well, I’m not asking for any handouts, simply MY OWN money back. An extra $200 is not going to send RBC to the poor house. For comparison, here is RBC’s net income from the financial statement for the 2007 fiscal year ending in March 2008:
See that? Net income of $2.987 BILLION, an increase of $561 MILLION over the preceding year.
Sure, RBC, make me jump through hoops for that measly $200. You disgust me.