Banks always talk about being global, and thinking local, and all that tosh. And it is tosh. Really.
My bank just called me, for example, to congratulate me for linking my bank accounts in different parts of the world so I can see them from one website. Great idea, weird it hasn’t been possible until now. But I couldn’t help smiling to myself at its limits. The conversation went like this:
“Mr Wagstaff Jeremy Rupert John (they seem to call me this, I guess it sounds better), do you have any questions or feedback for us on our service?”
“Well, I found I couldn’t remember one of the passwords for one account in country X. Can you help with that?”
“Er, no, that is handled by our other office in that country. I work here.”
“Oh.” Pause.
“Any other feedback or questions?”
“Yes. I’d like to complain that I can’t ask about resetting my password in my account in another country even though it’s the same bank.”
“OK, thanks for that. Any other feedback or questions.”
“No, that’s it.”
“OK, thank you for using our service.”
“No, thank you.”
Gee, banks are old fashioned. Why haven’t they disappeared already? Still, they give me free coffee every time I drop by, so I shouldn’t complain.