Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE58248120090903


MIAMI (Reuters) - A bank in the southeast U.S. state of Florida refused to cash a check for an armless man because he could not provide a thumbprint.

"They looked at my prosthetic hands and the teller said, 'Well, obviously you can't give us a thumbprint'," Steve Valdez told CNN on Wednesday.

But he said the Bank of America Corp branch in downtown Tampa, Florida, still insisted on a thumbprint identification for him to cash a check drawn on his wife's account at the bank, even though he showed them two photo IDs.

In the incident last week, a bank supervisor told Valdez he could only cash the check without a thumbprint if he brought his wife in with him or he opened an account with them.

"I told them I neither wanted an account with them and couldn't bring my wife in because she was nowhere close by," Valdez told CNN.

Bank of America said in a statement cited by CNN: "While the thumbprint is a requirement for those who don't have accounts, the bank should have made accommodations."

Valdez said his treatment by the bank violated the U.S. Americans with Disability Act requiring institutions to provide reasonable accommodation to disabled persons.

Some poeple can be so stupid, yes banks have rules and regulations that must be adhered to, but there are also rules that are there to enable disabled people to use their facilities. That guy at the bank was either untrained and shouldn't be there or was simply being an ass for the sake of being an ass.

From working at a bank (a locally owned credit union), I can tell you that a thumbprint is not federally mandated. Banks have started using that for fraud protection. Bank of America shouldn't have been an ass. We woulda gotten a stump print from him.

http://www.startribune.com/local/57832702.html?elr=KArksc8Pc:Ug8Pc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU7DYaGEP7vDEh7PiUs

Speaking of less than satisfactory customer service.

Lordhat wrote:
Valdez said his treatment by the bank violated the U.S. Americans with Disability Act requiring institutions to provide reasonable accommodation to disabled persons.

Don't feel sorry for him-he's one day away from suing the bank. They will settle and he will be wealthier.
The turkey supervisor will be fired. If BofA remains like it was when I was around, he's already gone.

Yeesh, as if the Bank of America didn't have enough problems. Ah well that employee and that entire bank will likely get a firm talking at the very least; that problem won't happen again.

What a bunch of dicks, for a start, they could obviously see his disability.
I would find it highly insulting if i were to be asked for a thumb print if i was in his situation.
Once again, this just proves the stupidity of some.

for example, (not 100% off topic)
i needed to get some medical forms, in which they needed to take my ID card and passport.
when i went back to collect them i was told i wasnt allowed to, as i couldnt provide any ID to say i was who i said i was.

Slight problem here being that they had my ID, both of which were photographic, they just didnt want to have to get them and look at the pics to see i was who i said i was.

Long story short, i had to send them a letter containting a few household bills and wait a few weeks to get my stuff back.

For even more jollies read consumerist.org daily. It's a laugh out loud riot of idiots, complainers and the lawyers that stand between.

(also some helpful info on how to bypass some of the stupid policies like in the OP)

I actually support BofA on this one... and I am NO BofA fan.
I work for a bank and, when I was a teller, I'd have felt similarly.

Like youngblood, though... I'd have printed the stump.

A bank has NO obligation to give ANY money from ANY account to ANYONE, other than the account owner/authorized signer. They didn't owe stumpy anything.

I find it interesting that many people in this predicament, while wanting special dispensation for their handicap, will also cry out about wanting to be "treated equally."

Well, guess what? If Joe Ten-fingers doesn't give a print, his check doesn't get cashed, either!

Eric

From another stand point... knowning that they would request a thumb print . why the feth did he bother ?

Yeah, I would have just gone to another bank to cash the check. I'm sure, like any city, there are 300 banks within 10 miles of one another.

One of the worst bits of technical incompetence I ever witnessed was with the IT department of the company for which I work.

My department needed a new computer to burn CD-ROMs, so I wrote up a spec and sent it in.

The new computer duly arrived a couple of weeks later, however we were unable to use it for burning CD-ROMs as it had not been fitted with a CD-ROM burner.

If I were to be missing any appendages, I would figure out a way to make an inspector gadget replacement. In that case I would never have problems getting anything taken care of. When they ask for a thumb... after seeing that I clearly have none, I would bring out a missile launcher you know. I feel that my pen sized missile launcher (hah, you thought I was crazy) should be able to cover any deficiencies I would have as a whole person.

Fingers? Who needs fingers when I have missiles? Toes can press buttons too don't ya know.

Sounds like a pretty poor worker, rather than a large fault of the bank.

Agreed ShumaGorath, the issue that arises is that the Employee is a representative of that company, in this case a bank. Therefore the actions of a employee affect people view on the company and the company does not want people to think they employee people like that, so I imagine he will get reprimanded heavily, though I don't think its an offense worthy of being fired over, the guy was just an ass

I remember here in K.C. last year some psycho killed a pregnant woman, in her 9th month and cut her baby out of her. The powers that be who are responsible for issuing Amber Alerts refused to do so because they didn't receive a description of the kid. D'oh! He'd just come out of his mother, nobody had seen him yet except for the monster who'd killed his mother!

Of course, we don't know the whole story either. Who issued the check? If it was Big Evil Corporation and it was a paycheck, they should have paid it. If it was from Mr. Shifty Default, I'd be suspicious. The disabled man didn't have an account with them. Did he have an account with someone else? Why didn't he go to a bank where he had an account? Could he have asked BoA to call the other bank and confirm his account info? How much was the check for? If it was $20, it's pretty low risk. If it was for $5,000 - I can understand being reluctant to cash it. Were there reports of a disabled man scamming banks? What about toe printing the man? Has the disabled man ever come upon this before? I'm sure it's not new in America - what's been done before to handle it?

It certainly sounds like it was in poor taste to deny cashing the check, but I don't know if was malicious either.

dietrich wrote:Of course, we don't know the whole story either. Who issued the check? If it was Big Evil Corporation and it was a paycheck, they should have paid it. If it was from Mr. Shifty Default, I'd be suspicious. The disabled man didn't have an account with them. Did he have an account with someone else? Why didn't he go to a bank where he had an account? Could he have asked BoA to call the other bank and confirm his account info? How much was the check for? If it was $20, it's pretty low risk. If it was for $5,000 - I can understand being reluctant to cash it. Were there reports of a disabled man scamming banks? What about toe printing the man? Has the disabled man ever come upon this before? I'm sure it's not new in America - what's been done before to handle it?

It certainly sounds like it was in poor taste to deny cashing the check, but I don't know if was malicious either.

Perfect points above on everything but this:

Could he have asked BoA to call the other bank and confirm his account info?

No.
No bank will release account information over the phone to ANYONE, unless they know with 100% certainty who they are speaking with and that it is the account owner.
Even then, many still won't.
If you call your bank & speak with someone who doesn't know you and they give you ANY information on your account (except to confirm the existence of an account with your acct #), close all of your accounts with that bank IMMEDIATELY and go somewhere else.
Once you've moved, refinance any loans you had with the other bank, too.

Eric

Bank of America (along with many other banks now) are doing everything they can to increase profits by screwing over the customers. Also, understand that BOA is a MASSIVE credit card provider and offers cards to people that may not have a branch anywhere remotely near them.

Let me give you an example:

I have a BOA credit card that I use for business related expenses, I pay it off every month, and am then reimbursed by my company. I also do not mail my payments as I am not a big fan of using checks. After working at a bank and seeing how often they get lost or mis processed, you probably wouldn't want to either.

I do not have an account with BOA, I do not want an account with BOA (If you really want to know why, I can tell you about the other ridiculous fees they charge).

I used to be able to make my payment on the BOA website from my bank account with no delay and no issues. They then, without any notification, changed it to a 2-4 day waiting period for this process to be completed or I could call and make the payment over the phone for a $15 fee. Understandable, you want to funds to clear but remember BOA is also getting some more interest over those 2-4 days from the card holder.

Now, last month I went on-line to make my payment and again, without notification, they changed their polices. I now cannot make a payment online at all, I have to make it in a branch, from my BOA account, by mail, or over the phone with a $15 surcharge. So I went to a branch, paid it off, and closed the card.

I'm lucky enough to drive by a BOA branch every day, but what about those people who don't have one nearby that have BOA credit cards? They get to suck up the $15 fee. I hope all of you that have credit cards pay more than the minimum because it takes roughly 99 years to pay it off if you do it that way.

I know some banks that will now not rebate overdraft fees (and they just increased them) even if it's a bank error. Some go back to the date you wrote on the check to make sure you had enough money in your account to cover it that day (which no bank has EVER done till recently, they compare it to the day it was cashed) and charge you fees if you didn't have enough. $39 overdraft fees for over-running your account by 50 cents......stick to your local banks people!

Thumbprints to cash a cheque?! Seriously?! Driver's Licenses, military ID cards, passports or any multiple combination of government issued ID is unacceptable even if you aren't a customer of the bank? Seriously? I'm sitting a bubble of disbelief here. WTF is happening in North America? Who are all these "scammers" they are all worried about? The ones they only ever seem to catch work at banks or in high finance like that Madoff guy. But as a poster above stated, we don't know all the facts (the amount of the cheque, etc)

I hope buddy gets a nice settlement from BoA. I'm sure the manager was just following company policy despite the obvious.

Thumbprints when the guy has two forms of I.D. if I recall correctly... it is a really cut and dry discrimination case.

DUDE HAS NO HANDS!!! WHAT IN THE FRAKKING FETH!!!

Before you go on about facts and the circumstance, context, etc... there is really no reason to even ask for thumbprints in this particular situation, and if the check was for a huge amount then they would have made a point of that instead of asking for thumbprints... from a dude with no arms...

Pure and simple incompetence on the whole of it. I would place the blame on the manager that was there at the time. It seems to be miscommunication at the very least, and that kind of problem rests solely on the floor managers shoulders, eventually trickling fault up to the higher management, but not all that far on the whole of it. The problem is that when any manager is at fault, which is particularly easy, the whole company will inevitably be held accountable; hence the need for a very concise settlement and reprimand upon the branch that inflicted this pretty devastating situation.

Well it was "thumbprints if you don't have an account" so they were hoping he'd just give up and open one.

mattyboy22 wrote:Well it was "thumbprints if you don't have an account" so they were hoping he'd just give up and open one.

QFT - They do that here. Cheques are really, really rare in Japan, so if you try to deposit one they charge you $50 and it takes 3 months. Or you can open another account for $20, will give you the money today and then charge you the $50 in 3 months time after the cheque clears.

mattyboy22 wrote:Well it was "thumbprints if you don't have an account" so they were hoping he'd just give up and open one.

If I had no hands and some time on my... "feet"?... Yeah I am not sure about this joke but moving on...

If I had no hands and some time on my hands, I would totally open then close an account to cash one check. The first question I would ask is if I could cash the check as soon as I opened the account, and in cash directly to my... hands. This I would ask them to verify at least 5 times.

As soon as I had gotten the cash and left the place, I would cancel the account for personal reasons.

Problem solved, hands washed... failed again, CRAP!!!

Could it have been a systems issue?

Maybe the software would not allow the teller to cash the check until a thumbprint was taken?

That would still be dumb on the programer/vendor's side but the bank would really be stuck.

Frazzled wrote:

Lordhat wrote:
Valdez said his treatment by the bank violated the U.S. Americans with Disability Act requiring institutions to provide reasonable accommodation to disabled persons.

Don't feel sorry for him-he's one day away from suing the bank. They will settle and he will be wealthier.
The turkey supervisor will be fired. If BofA remains like it was when I was around, he's already gone.

So they make people managers because they follow the rules then they throw the
managers under the bus when following the rules makes the Bank look bad.

Sounds a lot like normal jobs.

It is what managers are for... silly goose.

Khornholio wrote:Thumbprints to cash a cheque?! Seriously?! Driver's Licenses, military ID cards, passports or any multiple combination of government issued ID is unacceptable even if you aren't a customer of the bank? Seriously? I'm sitting a bubble of disbelief here. WTF is happening in North America? Who are all these "scammers" they are all worried about? The ones they only ever seem to catch work at banks or in high finance like that Madoff guy. But as a poster above stated, we don't know all the facts (the amount of the cheque, etc)

I hope buddy gets a nice settlement from BoA. I'm sure the manager was just following company policy despite the obvious.

Seriously?
Have you ever worked in a bank?
Do you know how many fraudulent items get cashed/processed at bank branches every week?
That isn't even accounting for the ones presented and refused!

I cannot tell you the number of times I've turned people away (or secretly called the police) holding checks that had been reported stolen, or that the sigrature didn't match on. it's ridiculous.

Now, let's bring in the illegal aliens who come in with their paycheck from (enter dodgy employer here) and have 2 ID's. One being a Resident Alien ID card and the other a social security card (if you understand where I'm going, you understand the impossibility of someone having both of those cards)... or (especially) the FAKE Resident Alien ID and fake Social Security card. These fake cocial security cards are printed on basic printer paper, and the FAKE R.A.I.D.'s look like they cut out a picture of themselves, pasted ot over the original image, and laminated the thing.

Yeah. It's big business and needs to be protected against.
I didn't even scratch the sirface above.

One week working in a bank branch would (IMO) change your opinion.

Eric


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Wrexasaur wrote:

mattyboy22 wrote:Well it was "thumbprints if you don't have an account" so they were hoping he'd just give up and open one.

If I had no hands and some time on my... "feet"?... Yeah I am not sure about this joke but moving on...

If I had no hands and some time on my hands, I would totally open then close an account to cash one check. The first question I would ask is if I could cash the check as soon as I opened the account, and in cash directly to my... hands. This I would ask them to verify at least 5 times.

As soon as I had gotten the cash and left the place, I would cancel the account for personal reasons.

Problem solved, hands washed... failed again, CRAP!!!

Then, you run into the "Early account closing" fees, or the "Low balance" fees, or the...

Banks have (basically) "penalty" systems in place to protect themselves from this type of activity.

Eric

I actually had a retaurant manager buddy of mine call me up and furtively ask me what color a SSN card was. And he was serious! I told him, and he cursed under his breath, said a bunch of his mexicans were passing fake cards off on him, and promptly hauled ass back to the kitchen to starting canning illegals. Now kudos to him for doing the right hting when so many in the restaurant industry especially would look the other way. But for a US Army vet, a 40 year old man, to not know what a SSN card looks like, even it's colors? Really?

I got him to show me the paper work later when the dust settled (we both worked for the same company and I was training future managers; we checked with Legal and they said it was cool for use in my classes so long as the data was taken out), and they were printer paper. Not even card stock. Black and white print outs.

Un-fracking-beLIEVable

No surprise on the fees and preventing people form easily paying their credit card debt.

This year alone, banks are expected to bring in $27 billion by covering overdrafts on checking accounts, typically on debit card purchases or checks that exceed a customer’s balance. According to the F.D.I.C. study, a $27 overdraft fee that a customer repays in two weeks on a $20 debit purchase would incur an annual percentage rate of 3,520 percent. By contrast, penalty interest rates on credit cards generally run about 30 percent. more info

More info about BoA and fingerprinting. Heck, they even keep a database of thumbprints for some reason. Chase gets in on the action as well citing the Patriot Act. There's nothing in the Uniform Commercial Code (which regulates check transactions) about requiring a thumbprint for negotiable instruments.

Another version of the OP.