Re yesterday’s Blog and my return from abroad to find a pile of computer generated letters from the ASB re a deceased person’s account, closed 6 years back, another one arrived in today’s mail.
All this remember over 80 cents, the Bank must have wasted hundreds of dollars in postage re this 80 cents.
The Post office should honour its management with an award for services to postage and postie employment.
7 Comments
When my elderly mother passed away recently, I had the unenviable task of dealing with a life insurance company.
They drip fed their requests for documents as a delaying tactic, always needing certified copies which meant visiting a JP in the local library, only available on a Thursday and waiting in a queue.
Weeks after a certified copy of her death certificate had been scanned and sent, they requested a certified copy of her passport which, much like her, had expired.
“You have her death certificate” I told them. “Unless I mail her ashes through the post, overseas travel is not an option.”
“Oh, no, we need a certified copy of her passport for ID purposes” they replied.
So off to visit the JP I went once more.
Try s.41A Life Insurance Act 1908 – Interest payable from 91st day after date of death
I thought that your original blog on this subject would have been brought to the attention of someone (not a computer) at ASB and they would have corrected the situation.
Perhaps there is no-one at ASB with the necessary discernment and good taste to read Sir Bob’s blogs.
Malicious compliance perhaps? Pay them 5c electronically and see how much further costly physical mail this generates?
My wife works in the bank and they are too heavily reliant on computers. These go down from time to time, and very few staff know how to do things manually these days. She is one of them, and in demand.
This is by design, as banks are not about service anymore but control. It would be different if the government legislated for account number portability; just like what happened with telecom for those who remember. However, we have weak politicians who only work for themselves. They could do this in six months, if they were forced to, however one suspects it is to avoid a run on banks; which should not be considered safe (pun intended).
As they say politicians are not to be trusted, while bankers are never to be trusted.
My advice to customers is keep a pile of cash at home in case of emergency…
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[…] “…my return from abroad to find a pile of computer generated letters from the ASB re a deceased person’s account, closed 6 years back, another one arrived in today’s mail. All this remember over 80 cents, the Bank must have wasted hundreds of dollars in postage re this 80 cents.” – Bob Jones, No Punches Pulled (2024) […]
[…] “…my return from abroad to find a pile of computer generated letters from the ASB re a deceased person’s account, closed 6 years back, another one arrived in today’s mail. All this remember over 80 cents, the Bank must have wasted hundreds of dollars in postage re this 80 cents.” – Bob Jones, No Punches Pulled (2024) […]