Customers forced to travel to Arima as RBC Grande closes

RBC Sangre Grande was closed on Friday and will merge with the Arima branch effective January 2, 2018.

In a letter to Sunday Newsday, Maura Cooseelal of Sangre Grande said she woke yesterday morning to the news, and was dismayed by the bank’s lack of consideration. “Don’t you think that the management of this entity should have been kind and compassionate enough to notify its loyal customers in a timely manner of their impending action?”

She said the Sangre Grande branch provided services to the people of Matelot, Grande Riviere, Toco, Sangre Grande and its environs. She added that senior citizens, housewives and single parents especially would suffer because of the decision as they would have to take public transportation or drive all the way to Arima.

“I am a senior citizen myself. I was categorically told this morning (yesterday) that no ATMs would be available so when I need to withdraw my pension, I have to go to the ATM in Valencia (if still in use) or Arima. Is this fair to me and other customers especially senior citizens who experience health issues which we are prone to at our age?”

Cooseelal said she believed RBC did not care about their customers and that, since RBTT became RBC, the bank’s overall services began to deteriorate.

In reply to questions e-mailed to her, Jacqueline Taggart, Director of Strategic and Corporate Communications of Caribbean Banking, P&CB, Royal Bank of Canada explained the move was the result of the bank’s inability to renew the lease at the Sangre Grande location.

“As part of business as usual, we routinely renegotiate and renew our various lease arrangements. Unfortunately, although we worked on the process for the past few months, we were unable to reach a mutually acceptable lease renewal for our Sangre Grande location, with the result that we are merging Sangre Grande services with our Arima location effective January 2, 2018. RBC began notifying clients as soon as it became clear we would not be able to reach an agreement.”

She said Sangre Grande client files and safety deposit boxes would be transferred to Arima branch and would be available to clients on Tuesday. In addition, the Arima branch would open its doors from 7 am for the next week to assist in the transition. She said the bank would also offer a return shuttle service between the Sangre Grande and Arima locations on Tuesday and Wednesday to meet the demands for pensioners and other month-end transactions.

However, she encouraged customers to consider RBC’s digital and mobile channels for basic transactions including deposits, fund transfers, bill payments, credit card payments, and wire transfers. She also advised that customers access the RBC Advice Centre where they could be assisted with any transaction, or contact an RBC mobile banking specialists for support with complex services such as mortgage and auto financing.

“The tools that support digital and mobile transactions more effectively protect the security of their information and their assets from criminals and perpetrators of opportunistic fraud. We know from experience that once clients start using digital and mobile services, they wonder why they have not taken advantage of these convenient options in the past.”

Taggart said although the bank had no plans to open a new location, it was evaluating potential ATM sites nearby. “Over the last few years, RBC has been transforming our bank to better serve our clients as trends in usage and access preferences have evolved worldwide. The physical location will be part of this larger, integrated advice and service model designed to work with the bank our clients keep on their desktop, or in their pocket or purse, readily available whenever and wherever they need it.”

She added if customers preferred to bank at a location other than Arima, they could let the bank know and their client file would be transferred.

The RBC staff members, she said, would be temporarily assigned to Arima or other nearby locations while the bank “evaluates clients’ needs and support requirements.”