A mobile bank scheduled to visit a north-east town after its branch closed down has already hit problems – with its internet signal.
Customers visiting the RBS van in Turriff last week kept getting cut off, leaving them unable to get a printed bank statement and other information.
In at least one case, staff had to scribble the information down and hand it over to customers on a post-it.
RBS closed the Turriff branch on High Street last month, and replaced it with a mobile service which stops at Tesco for just 45 minutes every Wednesday.
Marj Chalmers, chairwoman of the Turriff Business Association (TBA), visited last week and was horrified to be given a handwritten summary of the group’s account due to the problem.
She said: “I did ask for information about the business association account, but they just put it on a post it note rather than a compliments slip.
“I was in and asked for the details, but they could only give me the information on a note.
“The mobile service is all right, but you are standing outside waiting to go in so it might not be so good in bad weather.
“I did hear staff tell one person that the internet signal was going on and off.
“I’m closing our account with RBS and moving to the Bank of Scotland.
“I know they have a lot of accounts already.”
The bank introduced the mobile service in Turriff in May before they closed the High Street to allow customers to familiarise themselves with it.
Former RBS employee turned Turriff councillor Alastair Forsyth urged the bank to upgrade its system.
He said: “I cannot confirm the exact circumstances of this outage, but I have been advised that the Royal Bank of Scotland once weekly service in Turriff was recently out of action due to the inability of the service to connect to the server.
“This vulnerability is prevalent where the service relies on mobile connectivity and where there is no ethernet cable connection to the telephone exchange system.
“Mobile banking systems have known about this vulnerability since the introduction of the service.
“Perhaps RBS could take a lesson from the Post Office by investing in Ethernet Connectivity at each of their stopping points until wireless connectivity can be guaranteed or as back up.
“I have talked to staff in the Post office in Turriff recently when I was paying in cheques. They told me that the increase of RBS customers using their service is noticeable.
“The disappointment and inconvenience experienced by customers in the circumstances of failure to connect to their server rendering the service inoperable cannot be overstated. I trust that RBS will be monitoring the service with a view to improvement.”
Last night, a Royal Bank of Scotland spokesman confirmed they were having technological problems.
He said: “I can confirm that the satellite technology was unfortunately not working when the mobile branch visited Turriff, however staff on the branch did continue to serve customers using contingency methods.
“Staff on the mobile branch also provided assistance to customers by highlighting all the ways that the can bank with us.”
