Efficiency, Maybank-style

I followed my wife to the Seberang Jaya branch of Malayan Banking today. This branch is just across the road from the Sunway Carnival Mall. At three o'clock in the afternoon, there was hardly any walk-in customers at their transaction counters. I dropped my wife off at 3.10pm and went to park the car, joining her in the transaction hall about five minutes later. She was just about to have her thumbprint scanned before the transaction could proceed.

Maybe I should mention here that all she was trying to do with to uplift a fixed deposit that had matured. No point continuing with Maybank, you see. All they could offer for a 12-month deposit was 3.1 percent per annum whereas many banks elsewhere were giving much more attractive rates. And then we sat down to wait. My wife read her newspaper while I played with my mobile.

After a while, I mentioned to her that the bank was taking a long time to process the withdrawal. I looked at my watch: 3.35pm. Twenty minutes had passed by in an almost empty hall and the transaction was still not completed. We walked to the counter. Saw three or four of their staff crowding round the bank officer's table. Don't know what they were doing, though. Waited. And waited.

Then finally, at about 3.45pm, the clerk called my wife and handed her the transaction slip. Wow. A half-an-hour wait to do a fixed deposit withdrawal in an empty transaction hall. That's efficiency for you, Maybank-style.