Hey everybody,

New poster here, I have been a lurker on here for a while now

I am just wondering what other opinions are on this.

I contacted my bank RBS via their online complaints form 1 week ago.

I did not receive any kind of email verification from them to say that they had received my message,

the terms of their complaints procedure says that they will be in contact within 5 working days.

I have a disability and am unable to use the telephone because of it,

I explained this in the message,

I asked in webchat on Friday if they had received my message

but the person I chatted with said they had not received any thing,

but, she said that may be because it hadn't been 'logged' yet.

this evening I went back in again to ask if they had logged my complaint yet

and the person I chatted with said that he would get the complaints team to give me a ring,

so of course I explained to him again that this wouldn't be an option.

The conversation went a little something like this -

RBS man: I will get the complaints team to ring you shortly.

Me: I won't be able to speak to them via the telephone unfortunately due to my disability

RBS man: Sorry to hear that dear

Me: I will come back tomorrow and use the webchat

RBS man: Come back tomorrow and we will transfer the chat, will that do.

Now, I know this is probably horribily trivial

,but it's not the most professional thing in the world to call a customer 'dear',

I am personally not a senstive person at all but it did come across as condescending and perhaps rude?

I am just looking to see what peoples personal opinions are on this really?

Should I mention it to the complaints team?

I don't want to get this individual into any kind of trouble if he genuinly did not mean to be rude,

but other people may take this the wrong way?

He only seemed to become condescending after finding out I have a disability,

and that does get rather boring and irritating (As does typing the bloody word 'disability' )

If he was being deliberately rude then I would mention it,

but I am not sure and really don't want to be overly sensitive.

Anyway, thank you all for reading my ramblings.

Now, I know this is probably horribily trivial,but it's not the most professional thing in the world to call a customer 'dear', I am personally not a senstive person at all but it did come across as condescending and perhaps rude?

It annoys me when someone I do not know addresses me as "mate", or even worse, "chap". My usual response is "don't be so damned impertinent. That will be sir to you.". If the message doesn't sink in, a quick word with his/her manager suggesting that the staff are given training in etiquette sometimes works.

But if a bank clerk ever addresses me as "dear", be assured, I would be filing a complaint at the highest level.

Its prob a slip of the tongue and they didn't mean any offence

probably did know how to respond ..

if the conversation had been on the phone

and you are female

and you indicated an issue

then its 'reasonable' for people to say dear vocally, 'sorry to hear that dear'...it shows empathy

its unusual to see it in type yes

but it was the 'webchat' which could be viewed as an alternate to phone.

so I'd say its reasonable to use in that context via that method of comms

dx

dx

Thanks for your input, I won't worry about mentioning it

Things got a bit odd today with RBS though, I was chatting with the complains team via the webchat option and the person I was speaking to somehow got me confused with my mother (Probably because of the same address?) and gave me my mums transaction details over the chat log, whoops.