ONCE upon a time, we were able to phone our friendly bank manager for an appointment to discuss our financial affairs and get advice. It was usually good advice. He or she knew us by name and wanted to keep our custom. Those days are gone — no doubt forever.
They have been discarded as "managers" and are called "financial planners" or whatever.
When we ring a bank — or an authority — we have to learn to control our phone rage as we are subjected to the endless message that "all our consultants are busy". We know that "all" means
"the few who are on duty can't handle the inquiries, and we have to keep expenses down so we can pay our top executives immense salaries and give them bonus shares".
You either wait or ring back later. Big Brother has learnt to make you wait. You have to learn to do other work while you wait for them to answer you. All banks and authorities do this so you can't threaten to change banks.— Clear Island Waters, December 2.