Bouquet for UOB trio

Although I have been a loyal customer of POSB-DBS right through my working life, I have also opened accounts with both OCBC and UOB because of housing loans and other businesses.

I have always believed that no matter what they say, there is really no outstanding bank that can claim to give consistently good service here. This is because one's relationship with one's bank depends very much on the person you have to deal with.

If you are fortunate, you meet up with a helpful chap. If not, you go away shortchanged.

Some will take the trouble to lodge a complain or even write to the media, including this blog, while others will simply bite their tongue and keep silent.

Some of you would have read my experiences with DBS, so I will not bore you with more stories.

However, I thought I should mention my happy experience with three officers from UOB last week when I encountered difficulties while trying my hand at business internet banking for the first time.

I had assumed that I would have no problems as I have done online banking for my personal accounts with the various banks for many years.

But it was not to be. I had to find out the hard way what an administrator of a business online account can or cannot do, aside from my other role as a signatory of the account.

It took me three phone calls over two days before I finally managed to transmit some money to another UOB account to settle some outstanding invoices.

Although I did not quite catch her name, the lady at the UOB Transaction Banking section who answered my phone queries was extremely helpful. She gave me all the information I needed and I hung up feeling confident that I would succeed in my effort.

But I was wrong and had to eat humble pie by calling up the UOB Corporate Call Centre for more help. Again I was fortunate to be assisted by another patient officer who took me through, again, step by step.

After I finished taking his instructions, I logged on immediately as I did not want to forget what I had been told.

I felt pretty good when I finally filled up all that was to be done -- or so I thought. However, strangely, I felt something was still not right.

The next day, I called the person to whom I had transmitted the money to, to ask her whether her account had been credited. Her answer, you've guessed it, was "No".

So it was back to the call centre. Another patient officer told me that I had failed to do one last thing after I had validated the transaction form --- as the approving officer I had to give the go-ahead for the process to start.

It was indeed an eye-opener, but I appreciated the thoroughness of the whole process, plus of course the three helpful and patient UOB officers who gave this greenhorn a basic lesson in business online banking.

A bouquet for the trio!