To the editor:
I have been doing business with banks for over 60 years, been in at least 40 states and lived in several and had never been refused service in any bank that I entered until I went into several Presque Isle locations. Since the new quarters started being made and shipped into banks all across the country, I have purchased a roll and one loose for each new quarter as they arrived in the banks. A while back, I went into a Presque Isle bank and approached this male teller on duty and asked to buy a roll of Montana quarters. Without blinking an eye he told me he couldn’t sell me any quarters, ‘they were for customers only’. He didn’t know if I was a customer or not, he didn’t ask. I had purchased new quarters from that location on several occasions previously.
Later, I walked into another bank in Presque Isle and asked to buy a roll of Idaho quarters. The lady teller told me she had been off the day before and would ask if the Idaho quarters had arrived in the bank. She checked and came back with a tray of Idaho quarters. She asks if I was a customer, and I replied that I was not at this time, but had been previously. This lady teller told me she couldn’t sell me any quarters as they were ‘for customers only’.
I have bought new quarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., Oklahoma City, Okla., Branson, Mo., Orlando, Fla., Omaha, Neb., Bangor and Pittsfield, and yes, in Presque Isle. In all the banks I have been into and wanted to do business with, I was greeted cordially, and my business was transacted and I was told to have a very nice day — not once did anybody in any bank ever refuse to do business with me or tell me the bank only done business with their customers only.
How do these banks expand their business if they only do business with their current customers? If this is the way these banks to do business I would have to think long and hard before I do business with them. I always thought banks were in business to provide a service to the public, not to discriminate against the public requesting to use their service.
Robert J. Williams
Chapman
