Bank Demands Thumbprint From Man With No Arms

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The Americans with Disabilities Act will be 20 years old next year, and Steve Valdez is still wondering when a Bank of America branch near his Tampa, Fla., home is going to hear about it.

The 54-year-old Hillsborough County employee told TODAY’s Lester Holt Monday in New York he is still irked by what happened to him recently when he went into the branch, where his wife has an account, to cash a check made out to her. The teller and branch manager refused to cash the check because he didn’t have an account there and he couldn’t give them a thumbprint to confirm his identity.

The kicker is they wouldn’t accept his reason for not providing the thumbprint: He doesn't have any thumbs, or arms for that matter, because of a birth defect.

*sighs* Yes, I know there are rules and policies. But you would think that, in a circumstance like this, there would be some flexibility?

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Valdez’s wife, Lori, who joined him on TODAY, said she was disturbed by the attitude of the branch manager when she called to try to resolve the issue. After being rejected, her husband called to tell her what happened. She called the bank branch.

“The branch manager got on the phone with me,” Lori Valdez said. “I told her my husband had been there. She said, ‘Yes, I’m the one that he spoke with.’ I said, ‘He had two forms of ID.’ She said, ‘He could bring you in.’ I said, ‘I’m working, that’s not an option.’ Or he could open an account. I said, ‘Wouldn’t he need identification to open an account with you?’ She said, ‘Well, yes, but then we’d get to know him.’ ”

During the phone conversation, Lori Valdez said, “the branch manager was very flippant. I said to her, ‘You should be ashamed of yourself and embarrassed.’ She said, ‘I’m neither.’ I knew then there was a real problem because that’s a really flippant kind of a comment.”

Bank of America has apologized, which is standard CYA.

Annnnd another instance of American bureaucrats obstinately clinging to their rule book, even if it obviously can't apply. I've had shit like that happen to me before, but I have to admit, this one outdoes all of my fun little anecdotes. Some people really seem to leave their brain at the door when clocking in (or just refuse to actually, y'know, try and make something work out by talking to their superiors instead of just getting rid of the customer).

Banks are such dickwads when it comes to providing this sort of crap.

I bet in the end they insisted on taking toe-prints or stump-prints to fulfil THE PAPERWORK UBER ALLES!

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During the phone conversation, Lori Valdez said, “the branch manager was very flippant. I said to her, ‘You should be ashamed of yourself and embarrassed.’ She said, ‘I’m neither.’ I knew then there was a real problem because that’s a really flippant kind of a comment.”

That's pretty unprofessional. This branch manager should be fired for making comments like that. You don't talk to customers like that, no matter what.

Bureaucracy before brains! /ö/

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“Bank of America will not produce those policies and tell me exactly what they are,” Valdez said. “They just say it’s the discretion of the bank manager or whatever. That is not in accordance with federal law. You have to have alternative policies.”

This is the bit that disturbs me. Obviously this case has highlighted that individual bank managers cannot be trusted to make sensible, rational decisions and thus there needs to be rules and guidelines in place, even if it's just a phone number managers can call if situations like this arise.