You're Not A V.I.P. At V.I.B.

bemisnorris · Posted: 30 Sep 2003 12:18 PM Post subject: You're Not A V.I.P. At V.I.B.

I went to Valley Independent Bank in El Centro to cash my payroll check today. My company's checking account is at Valley Independent and my checking account is always in overdraft, so I always cash my check at V.I.B.

Well, the executive director of the company I work for was out of town today, so we had to get another member of the board of directors to sign our checks.

I went up to the teller window, signed my check, showed the teller my driver's license, and put my thumb print on the check the same as always, but then she tells me that the signature on the check isn't authorized. She then goes to the back. She comes back to the front and talks to some guy. The guy makes a phone call while the teller comes back to me and tells me that I need to wait until they figure out why the name isn't on their list. I asked the teller to call my employer, so they could straighten it out, and the teller says, "He's taking care of it", pointing at the guy on the phone.

The teller then goes back to the guy on the phone and waits for him to hang up. They talk a bit and then she comes back to me and says, "I'm sorry it's taking so long, but it's policy."

Another lady comes up to the teller (I'm assuming that this was the person that the guy was talking on the phone to) and asks the teller, "The signature doesn't appear on the screen?" The teller answers "no" and the other lady goes to the back and returns with some type of paperwork that has all the authorizing signatures, then the two ladies start looking the list over and comparing signatures. The two of them talk and the teller goes to the back again.

I asked the lady, "Can't you just call my employer, so they can straighten this out?"

The lady says, "That's what the teller is doing now", and I responded with, "Couldn't she have done that in the first place?" The lady didn't answer and went to the back.

By the time the teller gets back to me I had already been at the teller's window for about 30 minutes (that doesn't include the wait in line). The teller then tells me, "OK, we got the signature verified, but because the check is over $450 you need to have two signatures to cash it, and you only have one."

At this point, I was more than pissed off and asked her, "You couldn't have told me that 20 minutes ago?" She just shrugged and said, "I'm sorry."