6 ms·

A Man Walks into a Bank (2001)

58 points by bootload 10y ago

ntumlin 10y ago
To spoil the ending he mentions telling at shows, he ends up giving the money back knowing the bank was in the wrong [0]. I wonder how much of the story is true, surely over years of telling the story for audiences he's found that slight modifications have made it more entertaining. Combine that with the fact that our memories are already not that great, and I'd imagine that while the overall story is probably true, a lot of the specifics aren't. [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-08-13/performer-dines-out-on-fake-check-tale-for-10-years https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-08-13/performer...
- laser 10y ago
  That's disappointing... I thought he might've donated it to legal funds for people who got screwed over by banks or something of the like.
- GuiA 10y ago
  You are entirely correct, but it does not diminish his core message in any way: "Banks don’t do business like the rest of us do business. Banks don’t do lunch to resolve an issue. They send a lawyer. Banks don’t care about your rights. They care about their rights. (Read your bank’s provided explanation of your banking rights, if you don’t believe me.) Banks don’t care about your bank balance. They care about their bank balance. And what banks really don’t do is take responsibility for their mistakes. They enforce penalties for ours."
  - vog 10y ago
    How is this different from any other large company? Not disagreeing with that behaviour being toxic to society, but I highly doubt that this is specific to banks. In particular, I don't see a direct connection between dealing with financial products and not caring about your customers or users unless forced by law to do so. For example, Google didn't even provide a reliable point of contact until forced by law to do so, which is something I've never heard of a bank.
  - averagewall 10y ago
    I think it's less because they're banks than because they're operating at a huge scale with thin margins and competing on nothing but price. You see the same behavior with mobile phone and insurance companies.
  - gaius 10y ago
    Same with train companies. Travel without a ticket and they'll fine you far far more than they will compensate you if they fail to run the train.
  - mcguire 10y ago
    I'm not sure I really get the bank hatred in the story. Look at it from their side: a man knowingly commits fraud in a way that, for whatever reason, isn't immediately caught, and they likely knew that he knew he was committing fraud due to his conversations with bank employees before he took the money out of the account. They would have started an investigation when their settlement accounts didn't balance. That takes time. When they track it back to him, he refuses to return the money. No one does lunch to resolve issues. No one cares about the rights of people stealing from them. Banks may not have the best customer service, but they're not Google. Around here, people who write bad checks get arrest warrants and their pictures posted above the cash register.
    - literallycancer 10y ago
      Bank rips off people who don't read contracts. Business as usual. Man rips off a bank that signs contracts without reading them. Fraud. ---- And it's not about poor customer service. I went to a bank to create an account. They offered me some savings scheme. It rounds up purchases and puts the difference into a "savings jar". If you want to use the money, it takes like 3 days to change them to regular balance. Now, why would anyone use that? It limits their options, and doesn't offer anything in return. The bank most likely gives the clerks a premium on every person they sign up for this thing, but still, the clerk wasn't able to explain the benefits (because there weren't any). The best thing she could say about it was literally "you can opt out through the internet banking app". This is a trivial matter, but nonetheless, illustrates their attitude well. They convince people who don't know any better to agree to contracts that aren't beneficial for them. How's that better than fraud?
a_imho 10y ago
Reminds me of the Russian man who changed a credit card offer in his favor (unlimited credit, 0% interest) and sent it back to the bank who signed. The bank did not own the mistake in that case neither. http://www.businessinsider.com/dmitry-agarkov-sues-tinkoff-credit-systems-2013-8 http://www.businessinsider.com/dmitry-agarkov-sues-tinkoff-c...
iconjack 10y ago
It was a really fun time in internet history. Patrick "live blogged" his bank misadventure, and for a couple of weeks his site was the first thing I'd check every day. Very exciting. It felt downright pioneering.
czep 10y ago
Please edit title: the date is 2012, not 2001.

58 points by bootload 10y ago

To spoil the ending he mentions telling at shows, he ends up giving the money back knowing the bank was in the wrong [0]. I wonder how much of the story is true, surely over years of telling the story for audiences he's found that slight modifications have made it more entertaining. Combine that with the fact that our memories are already not that great, and I'd imagine that while the overall story is probably true, a lot of the specifics aren't. [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-08-13/performer-dines-out-on-fake-check-tale-for-10-years https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-08-13/performer...

laser 10y ago
That's disappointing... I thought he might've donated it to legal funds for people who got screwed over by banks or something of the like.
GuiA 10y ago
You are entirely correct, but it does not diminish his core message in any way: "Banks don’t do business like the rest of us do business. Banks don’t do lunch to resolve an issue. They send a lawyer. Banks don’t care about your rights. They care about their rights. (Read your bank’s provided explanation of your banking rights, if you don’t believe me.) Banks don’t care about your bank balance. They care about their bank balance. And what banks really don’t do is take responsibility for their mistakes. They enforce penalties for ours."
- vog 10y ago
  How is this different from any other large company? Not disagreeing with that behaviour being toxic to society, but I highly doubt that this is specific to banks. In particular, I don't see a direct connection between dealing with financial products and not caring about your customers or users unless forced by law to do so. For example, Google didn't even provide a reliable point of contact until forced by law to do so, which is something I've never heard of a bank.
- averagewall 10y ago
  I think it's less because they're banks than because they're operating at a huge scale with thin margins and competing on nothing but price. You see the same behavior with mobile phone and insurance companies.
- gaius 10y ago
  Same with train companies. Travel without a ticket and they'll fine you far far more than they will compensate you if they fail to run the train.
- mcguire 10y ago
  I'm not sure I really get the bank hatred in the story. Look at it from their side: a man knowingly commits fraud in a way that, for whatever reason, isn't immediately caught, and they likely knew that he knew he was committing fraud due to his conversations with bank employees before he took the money out of the account. They would have started an investigation when their settlement accounts didn't balance. That takes time. When they track it back to him, he refuses to return the money. No one does lunch to resolve issues. No one cares about the rights of people stealing from them. Banks may not have the best customer service, but they're not Google. Around here, people who write bad checks get arrest warrants and their pictures posted above the cash register.
  - literallycancer 10y ago
    Bank rips off people who don't read contracts. Business as usual. Man rips off a bank that signs contracts without reading them. Fraud. ---- And it's not about poor customer service. I went to a bank to create an account. They offered me some savings scheme. It rounds up purchases and puts the difference into a "savings jar". If you want to use the money, it takes like 3 days to change them to regular balance. Now, why would anyone use that? It limits their options, and doesn't offer anything in return. The bank most likely gives the clerks a premium on every person they sign up for this thing, but still, the clerk wasn't able to explain the benefits (because there weren't any). The best thing she could say about it was literally "you can opt out through the internet banking app". This is a trivial matter, but nonetheless, illustrates their attitude well. They convince people who don't know any better to agree to contracts that aren't beneficial for them. How's that better than fraud?

a_imho 10y ago

Reminds me of the Russian man who changed a credit card offer in his favor (unlimited credit, 0% interest) and sent it back to the bank who signed. The bank did not own the mistake in that case neither. http://www.businessinsider.com/dmitry-agarkov-sues-tinkoff-credit-systems-2013-8 http://www.businessinsider.com/dmitry-agarkov-sues-tinkoff-c...

iconjack 10y ago

It was a really fun time in internet history. Patrick "live blogged" his bank misadventure, and for a couple of weeks his site was the first thing I'd check every day. Very exciting. It felt downright pioneering.

czep 10y ago

Please edit title: the date is 2012, not 2001.