In the Accessibility section of NatWest’s website, it says clearly that the company, which calls itself Britain’s ‘Helpful’ bank, has a policy of providing Deaf customers with a sign language interpreter.
“We can arrange for an RNID Interpreter to be present for meetings free of charge, but please bear in mind this may require a few days notice.”
However, using handwriting on a branded compliment slip, an employee appears to have told one Deaf customer: “We don’t provide this service.” Instead of the bank booking her an interpreter, she would need to bring her own.
Ella Alchimowicz Sadouk says that she was handed the note at her local branch in Manchester when she asked for an interpreter to discuss her account. She then shared the note on the ‘Spit the Dummy’ Facebook group that is campaigning to improve the rights of people who use British Sign Language.
So what is the bank’s policy towards BSL users? For one thing, it appears that their Accessibility page may be out of date, since the RNID changed its name to Action on Hearing Loss several years ago (thank you to our commenter below for pointing this out).
We have now had this response from NatWest’s Twitter account:
However, when we asked if there was a policy of free interpreting provision for Deaf customers, they replied:
To which we asked them whether they had a national policy or not:
And a Deaf Tweeter then said:
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Andy not Mr Palmer but another one
June 6, 2013
Well for a start there isn’t an official RNID any more.
If they have searched the bank’s database for RNID the data either will not be there or will be out of date. So it helps if they understand what they are talking about.
Oh Dear
June 6, 2013
Oh dear……many spelling mistakes on that note.
barakta
June 6, 2013
I wish I could say I was surprised. I found service and attitude varied hugely by branch. I’m not really a BSL user but some branches would try and stop me doing my business at a branch “cos you’re supposed to do that by phone” and tell me after a LONG wait in one queue that I had to go to a different long queue “cos we don’t do that here”. I did have a fairly big “discussion” with staff in the one branch in London about the then DDA and that I wasn’t waiting in another queue. I demanded that they could just go and find a manager cos I knew my rights and blah blah. Manager came and sorted stuff for me and was obv apologetic, but I was consistently given rubbish service so I avoided the place. Another two branches in London were nice in person but consistently lost all paperwork given to them and made promises which weren’t keepable.
Two other London branches were lovely in contrast, couldn’t have been more helpful in person. My now defunct local to me (Not London) branch were also lovely and did do some phonecalls for me when I had issues and no access to TextRelay telephony (couldn’t type) or was getting spannered around by the phone people from dept to dept and going round in circles.
Don’t ever go with NatWest for a “clubs and society” account cos you’re neither personal banking or business banking and no one knows anything and half of them don’t want to know. I accidentally ended up with the only valid phone banking logins for a society account holding several thousand in it cos NatWest kept screwing up my co-volunteers’ registrations. We only sent the paperwork 6 times!
Sadly NatWest closed my local branch and I don’t have one easily accessible to me. I get a bit disheartened cos it feels like all banks are depressingly poor and I don’t know which is going to be least bad as I am sure it is entirely local branches varying and then down to whether phone/Internet banking works or not.
Maddy
June 6, 2013
I don’t know how prolific TD is in UK but I know we have some offices there. This is a Canadian bank and we take diversity and inclusion seriously. Our online account access has enhanced visuals and speech software to assist those with vision and hearing issues. We also have sign language interpreters available (if booked ahead) and I have worked with people in our corporate office who sign. If you have a TD office nearby I would suggest checking them out alternately you could go on line to inquire what services are offered where in the UK. http://www.td.com
Liza
June 8, 2013
TD aren’t in the UK unless they have a different name
JK
June 6, 2013
One reason I like Natwest is its web chat service, so I no longer need to telephone via Text Relay or visit a branch.
http://supportcentre.natwest.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/501/~/what-is-web-chat%3F
Natwest web chat: ‘real-time online communication between you and one of our service advisors based on typed text.’
barakta
June 7, 2013
Sadly JK every time I’ve tried to use the webchat I’ve been told by them that what I want can ONLY be done by phone. They can’t actually do anything useful that I couldn’t do via online banking… I don’t know if this was a society account being like business banking or not, or just security…
bozothewondernerd
June 7, 2013
I agree that it varies massively branch-to-branch – my local branch couldn’t be better – great personal service and always ready to go the extra mile.
Alas they often fall foul of Head Office Bureaucracy and I’ve had the same experience of it being hard to discover (by them and me) what’s possible and what’s not possible.
Their website has a feedback section – probably worth putting a comment about BSL on there just so you can claim to have done so but don’t expect a substantive response – my experience is that you’ll receive a lot of nice-sounding bland platitudes but no real action.
I’ve been with NatWest for donkey’s years, had generally very good experience, and I’m unlikely to change now but there’s no doubt that it’s an inertia-ridden organisation with ineffective internal communications and lines of responsibility / authority – I’d love to do a job of work on their internal quality procedures and staff trai9ni8ng!
One hint – get your face known at your local branch – if you can, go into the branch regularly to draw cash or pay in; don’t just use the hole-in-the-wall – if they know your face and name already (and that you’re deaf) then it makes it much easier / quicker to get down to business when you REALLY need a face-to-face conversation.
Donkey
June 7, 2013
Top article and well done on getting a token £120 back after all those years! They could follow the lead of some other banks such as Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds….
look at: http://www.halifax.co.uk/accessibility/signvideo/ or http://www.bankofscotland.co.uk/accessibility/signvideo/
the likes of Santander, Nationwide and more all claim to offer terps but its more likely you’ll win £10,000 at the bingo than get an interpreter in a couple of days….
Jenny Hopkins
July 15, 2013
This is perfect timing! Gloucestershire Deaf Association (GDA) is in the middle of a grant-funded project which is all about Deaf people managing their money matters independently, which of course immediately brings into focus accessibility issues with banks. So, as part of our two year project, we would love to lead or collaborate in a campaign that challenges banks which say one thing in their policies – i.e. that they will book BSL interpreters for Deaf customers – and do another thing in practice. Perhaps this is an opportunity for us all to unite under one campaign umbrella and see if we can influence change once and for all.