Chase Bank Teller Spies on Customer

by wok3

Sunday, July 05, 2009 at 09:54 PM EDT

The forced sale of Washington Mutual to Chase was little more than legalized theft, with no choice and no time being given to Washington Mutual, but that theft is old news now.

While running errands with someone who banks there, the teller made a bit of small talk as she typed numbers into the computer. Simple enough stuff, questions like how we were doing and what we were up to that day, nothing out of the ordinary at all. My friend had been banking with Washington Mutual, and indeed whatever bank Washington Mutual took over for many years. She loved Washington Mutual, they were nice, efficient, and generally speaking not dickheads at all.

As the teller kept asking innocent questions along with questions regarding the deposit my friend was making, she inquired in the same pleasant friendly tone that had been there in her earlier small talk about what my friend did for a living. My friend, not being the paranoid person like myself that simply makes up answers whenever someone asks a question like that, told the teller what she did for a living.

As she told the teller, the teller typed this information into her computer. I would never had noticed it, but my friend saw her doing it, and asked her in a somewhat surprised voice if she just put that information into the bank’s system. The girl was extremely hesitant, so I calmly repeated the question, and finally the teller said “Yes.” The teller offered little explanation, and could not possibly offer a valid reason as to why she had at first innocently engaged in conversation, only to slowly start asking personal information without giving any sort of notice or warning that she was doing so not out of a desire to chit-chat, but to obtain information for her employer.

My friend is now closing her account, and shifting everything to another location. Now I am in no way surprised that the bank (Chase) wanted some information, but it was somewhat shocking to have been essentially tricked into giving out information without being told why the information or questions themselves were being asked. Had the teller simply said that since their takeover (theft) of Washington Mutual, that they needed information, who knows, my friend my have agreed to tell her whatever they needed to know, as long as the question was not too invasive.

The teller was essentially spying, acting as if everything was normal, while posing innocent questions along with questions that Chase bank, for whatever reason, wanted to know the answers to. I myself simply lie to any and every question given to me by someone I am doing business with, and the more bland the lie, the better it works. Hell, I don’t even give out my correct zip code when some stores ask for it, it is none of their damn business, and I couldn’t possibly give a sh*t less about how their marketing is working in certain areas.

Some insist that since Washington Mutual was in bankruptcy, that their claims of unfair treatment by the FDIC (who forced the sale) are without grounds. Excuse me, exactly how much money was funneled into accounts of banks (or insurance companies) with more friendly relations with the government? I guess that is the lesson. If you want your bank to succeed, do NOT be a friend to your customers, but to the legislature that holds the purse strings.

So a big F.U. to Chase bank, may your empire crumble and trap you beneath the rubble.