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Slightly disturbing encounter at bank today (Update: Luke let go)
RYK
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I bank at a smaller, local bank in which I have a personal and business relationship. I have accounts and my SDBs at this location, which is conveniently located near my home. I personally know the long tenured tellers and the officers of this branch (and am coincidentally having dinner with my banker tomorrow evening).
Today, I dropped by the bank to deposit a check from Great Collections and to grab some coins from the SDB to sell at the show. As I customarily do, I deposited the check and then asked the teller to take me to the SDB. The teller was a newer one, a young man, who was very friendly and accommodating. As I was returning the box to the vault, he said to me that he saw that I was a coin collector. I did not immediately respond, but he then said that he googled "Great Collections" from my deposited check and that was how he knew. I was a little bit taken aback, but I played along and mostly downplayed it, we chatted about searching rolls and the like, and I left.
I tend not to be paranoid about stuff, but I also try to be discreet about my interest in coins among strangers. How would you feel about this? Would you mention anything to your banker at dinner tomorrow?
Today, I dropped by the bank to deposit a check from Great Collections and to grab some coins from the SDB to sell at the show. As I customarily do, I deposited the check and then asked the teller to take me to the SDB. The teller was a newer one, a young man, who was very friendly and accommodating. As I was returning the box to the vault, he said to me that he saw that I was a coin collector. I did not immediately respond, but he then said that he googled "Great Collections" from my deposited check and that was how he knew. I was a little bit taken aback, but I played along and mostly downplayed it, we chatted about searching rolls and the like, and I left.
I tend not to be paranoid about stuff, but I also try to be discreet about my interest in coins among strangers. How would you feel about this? Would you mention anything to your banker at dinner tomorrow?
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<< <i>I bank at a smaller, local bank in which I have a personal and business relationship. I have accounts and my SDBs at this location, which is conveniently located near my home. I personally know the long tenured tellers and the officers of this branch (and am coincidentally having dinner with my banker tomorrow evening).
Today, I dropped by the bank to deposit a check from Great Collections and to grab some coins from the SDB to sell at the show. As I customarily do, I deposited the check and then asked the teller to take me to the SDB. The teller was a newer one, a young man, who was very friendly and accommodating. As I was returning the box to the vault, he said to me that he saw that I was a coin collector. I did not immediately respond, but he then said that he googled "Great Collections" from my deposited check and that was how he knew. I was a little bit taken aback, but I played along and mostly downplayed it, we chatted about searching rolls and the like, and I left.
I tend not to be paranoid about stuff, but I also try to be discreet about my interest in coins among strangers. How would you feel about this? Would you mention anything to your banker at dinner tomorrow? >>
1) Welcome back
2) Yes it would bug me
3) Yes I would tell your banker and I would let him pick up the check
MJ
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
How big was the check? That might have been the curiosity factor of the Google search.
When I go to the bank, I always am a little nervous about going to the box, just really don't want people knowing what I have in there.
jim
Steve
He always does.
type2,CCHunter.
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He sounds nosey, which (since you say he's a kid) he should grow out of. Still, he should not have done what he did.
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At my bank, no bank employees have to work with customers for access to the SDB. Access to the vault is via a hand reader and then access to the box is via key. I would bring it up, absolutely! If he is knew he needs to know not to pry into people's business! If he did it with you then he is likely to do it with others. Not a good situation.
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<< <i>Would you mention anything to your banker at dinner tomorrow? >>
Yes. Employees who Google their customers' deposited check info need to be told by their supervisors that this is not appropriate conduct.
Coincidentally, I had a similarly annoying encounter at my own bank recently with a new teller who asked too many questions too loud for my liking.
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Coin collectors are just too paranoid. Everybody isn't out to get you and society isn't going to go to heck in a hand basket tomorrow with coins being used for barter.
<< <i>As collectors we are a funny bunch.......To outsiders I am sure we seem a bit paranoid......A few posts above, one tagline reads: Promote the Hobby (kind of hard to do when we are sworn to secrecy about what it is that we collect) >>
I would'nt call it paranoia, but it raises a red flag of suspicion as to why he knows this, sure he's young and if he talks
to you this easy how loose is his mouth to his friends or anyone else, also he needs to be advised that private info is
private.....and as to promoting the hobby I don't do it at banks, parking lots or liquor stores, hehehehe
I'd like to have some sense of security coming and going to my SDB
Steve
at work. Period.
bob
I went to my bankbox today which contained 6 NGC storage boxes of PCGS / NGC coins . I had been out of town (Florida vacation) and moved coins from my safe at home to my SDB. I picked up 3 NGC storage boxes of coins and a box of currency (ebay store inventory) and left 3 of the NGC storage boxes of coins in the SDB ($20 DE / AGE bullion pool). So both trips I am sure the teller assisting me knew it had to be coins as heavy as it was.
You may want to mention this incident at your dinner with your banker friend. In all my years of going to SDB have never had any bank employee ask about contents. I am sure many suspected it was coins though.
It's an interesting grey area.
Maybe he's just looking to connect with a fellow collector, though.
It's naive to think that your bank transactions are truly completely private.
This seemingly innocent young man now knows EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD ABOUT YOU!
Bankers are even being trained to watch out for unusual activity at existing accounts.
I have no idea how retail employees do this, but it's almost conceivable that the teller (being new), seeing that RYK is depositing a check from a company that he's never deposited before, googled the payer to make sure it's a legitimate company who would have an honest reason for writing RYK a check.
Sounds creepy, I know.
Still, you should mention the behavior to your banker.
Disclaimer - Fortunately, I don't work on the retail side of banking, but I am subjected to the same training that tellers and other retail employees are.
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<< <i>The teller needs to be fired. >>
The trend in business these days seems to be to encourage workers to be best buds with their customers by chatting them up about what they're doing for the weekend or their vacation plans for the summer or whatever. Can you be sure the bank didn't instruct employees similarly, the teller just figured that was one way to do it and meant no harm?
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Might be awkward during your next visit too. You aren't going to want him as a teller again.
I'm pretty sure I'd mention it to your banker friend and ask him what he thinks.
Maybe this young man has a history of prying even with his short history.
I'd bet many tellers/employees do "research", just are smart enough not to tell you they did it.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
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And, yes, I'd also mention this incident to someone. Due diligence needs to handled discreetly, until it raises a red flag. Then it gets handled even more discreetly.
EVP
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I went to cash a rather large check from state farm and the teller at first told me they could not cash it because there was not a mortgage holder listed on the check. LOL. I told the teller there was not any reason for a mortgage holder to be listed as it was about something else.
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With my personality, that is the sort of thing I would clumsily do when talking to somebody. In the past, I used to act like that, totally oblivious of my foolishness. A few foot-in-mouth moments have taught me in my (somewhat) older and wiser days to think before I blab.
It doesn't always work out, but I do try to keep myself from doing stuff like that nowadays.
If I were a bored bank teller (often I am a bored hotel clerk), I might have Googled Great Collections or whatever, and mentioned it out of sheer dumb friendliness, to strike up a conversation. That's probably all it was. A faux pas on his part, to be sure, but if he was otherwise friendly and professional, I would let it slide.
<< <i>The young man had no right to do a search on your deposit data. Yes I would talk to his boss, the the young man needs to learn to respect the privacy of the clients of the bank. >>
This.
And it's not just bank employees. Five years ago, our mail carrier handed me a small package, and asked if it was a coin. She said people in the mail room were taking bets.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
Hoard the keys.
From the young enthusiastic teller's perspective, I'm sure he saw the 'collections' reference, probably is a collector of something himself and thought "That's really neat!" and shared the tidbit out of interest, likely perfectly honest.
Personally I'd lean towards avoiding it the first go-round, but if it came up again, politely point out that you'd prefer to keep your interests and affairs private, etc etc.
99% - any strong criticism is going to be a massive smackdown for the new hire who was purely innocent and thought they were being friendly.
Have a Great Day!
Louis
Stepping back a bit, I am sure his youth, inexperience and eagerness to please/engage with you likely played a role. It's fairly likely that on previous trips to the bank, when you walked out he heard "that is Dr. RYK, he is a very good client of the bank" or something to that extent which made him interested in you. Most tellers process too many items to pull out a single check from a consumer deposit without reason. I think his reason just wasn't directly related to the job at hand.
Do I think he should lose his job. Probably not, unless he's done similar things with other customers. He does need a warning and additional training.
FWIW
Andrew
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Teller: I talked with a guy today that collects coins, comes in here all the time and lives nearby. He was taking coins in/out of his SDB, as he usually does, and depositing checks worth XXX dollars, he must be a collector.
His friend: Is he rich? (this could be a simple question into how valuable the coins are)
The teller could potentially reply with an approximate value of your account(s), assuming he has that information when he services your account.
I wouldn't be very pleased with that interaction. I may have said something like I was selling the rest of my coins because I needed to pay off a medical bill and then remove my SDB assets from that bank.
The kid made a mistake. Let him learn from it without losing his job. Anyone here make a big, dumb mistake when you were young?
Lance.