LAHORE, Feb 7: As scheduled banks are improving their customer services in a cut-throat competition, staff of the National Bank of Pakistan are not ready to give up their old habits.

Take any customer service - cash withdrawal, deposit, money transfer and utility bills - people find unfriendly staff at most of the counters in major NBP branches.

The Wapda House branch in Lahore is the worst example where even the golden handshake scheme and deployment of some new recruits could not bring a visible change as far as the customer services are concerned.

Among the witness to the Wapda House branch working are Pakistan Herald Publications Limited (Dawn) staff who have been maintaining their accounts there for the last over two decades - since the days when the PHPL's old offices were situated in the Alflah building and because of the salary transfer from NBP's Haroon House (Karachi) branch.

It has been a habit of the Wapda House staff to delay the money transfer (MT). Somebody from the PHPL staff would have to follow the man who received the MT to make him pass on the advice to accounts/cash branch so that he could withdraw his salary.

On a number of occasions the PHPL staff would find their MT advice misplaced or lost by the Wapda House branch. On one occasion, some eight years ago, two PHPL staffers had to literally sift through the waste basket to find their MT and salary advice after the bank staff was unable to locate it although the MT register did acknowledge receiving it.

The same situation was encountered by the PHPL staff this month. Until Monday (Feb 7), the bank kept denying that it had received the MT.

When the PHPL staff contacted their head offices in Karachi, it was transpired that the MT was dispatched by the Haroon House branch on Feb 1 through the TCS. The courier service record in Lahore showed that the MT had been delivered to Mr Javed, one of the Wapda House branch officers, at 11am on Feb 2.

The bank staff started looking for the MT on Monday afternoon when chief manager Mr Riaz was informed. It did locate the MT but could not find the salary advice till the closure.

By the closing time, the bank staff advised the hapless PHPL employees to arrange another advice from the NBP's Haroon branch in Karachi.Customer services affairs in other sections of the branch are plagued by similar unwilling staff. Wapda employees who maintain their accounts with the same branch are also among the sufferers.

ATM: NBP ATMs in Lahore, hardly five in number, remain out of order or short of cash most of the time.

ATM holders have appealed to the management to increase the number of ATMs beside keeping them in order.-Imran Akram