After many, many years (35 +) with Sun Trust Bank, I have been told that they do not allow anyone other than LEOs to carry in the offices. Been OCing there all along and had many good conversations with the staff. No more.
Went up the food chain and received the same answer every time. They did not respond to me in writing, but rather through the branch manager verbally who also let me see her computer screen - no guns allowed except for law enforcement officers.
I am in the process of moving my accounts to 1st Union Bank & Trust who does not make that distinction/limitation.
Interestingly enough there was a bump in the road when I was at 1st Union yesterday where I already had 2 small accounts - the teller told me that it was against federal law to carry in a bank - his CHP instructor told him so. [head slap]
He has now been corrected by the corporate office (there is no such law) and the branch manager has welcomed me with open arms [pun intended]
The teller has apologized profusely. "No problem," I said and we had a nice conversation about taking legal advice from instructors and LEOs.
That has actually been policy for several years.
I sidestepped it in my local SunTrust with a
new teller by being very polite, gently surprised, and ignoring it while also being friendly and saying hi to a veteran teller who knew me for years. That was three or four years ago.
The fact of the matter is that the veteran tellers who know you, me, and others like us, know we're the good guys. And, most of them will ignore lesser policy in order to forward more important policy--make money, get the deposit. I personally have made it a point to be personally friendly with certain loan officers* and all the tellers, joking, being playful, and being interested in them as an individual.** I'm not saying anybody should
have to do that--I'm saying the tellers have never told me to leave. And only one teller--on rotation from a another branch--has ever mentioned the policy against carrying the means of self-defense. I strongly suspect most of them are a little bit more comfortable knowing we're there--instant free security--even if only for a few moments--against something possibly very bad.
So, my delicate advice to you--my old adversary--is to delicately, oh so delicately, ignore the invocation of policy and try again. Maybe with a different teller. Maybe without the gun the first couple times. Your call. I've done it. It works. The tellers with who you've built a relationship over the years are
reluctant to offend you. They like you.
*This isn't directed at Grape; it is for all readers. Loan officers: At SunTrust, policy seems to be that the employee closest to the front door is required to say, "Hello. Welcome to SunTrust." That's not the tellers. That is one of the loan officers. Give them a warm hello or thank you. Comment on the weather. Comment on how busy they are. Anything. Just show you are engaged and that their notice of you worked.
**This is gold. I didn't develop it myself. I learned it at a time when I was lot more dense than I am today. It was taught to me by my customers--my customers taught me this. Certainly, I didn't figure it out for myself. I was too dumb and sure of myself and knew how to change the world at that age. Here it is: if you want a retail cashier--or any retail employee--on you side, whether right now or in nine weeks when you have that gray-area refund, simply do this. It is oh-so simple. And, oh, so hard. And, yet, oh-so easy: genuinely be interested in them as a human being. Just do it. Just figure out what to say or ask that goes beyond the immediate business relationship. Just comment, any comment will do. "Wow, you guys are slammed. How do you keep your sanity at a time like this?" Or, "Wow, I've never seen it so slow. Do you find it tedious when it is this slow?"
It doesn't matter what the question is. What matters is that you are taking a personal interest in them. Don't fake it--people can tell.
I'm telling you, this is gold. It works. All to he!! and back. Been doing it for nine years of OC. Where I do business, I'm known as the gun-guy. In a good way. And, it has literally been nine years since I was asked to leave a business. Nine years.
Be interested in that employee as an individual. Notice I didn't say "
pretend to be interested". People can usually smell a fake.
Sometimes you'll get a person who can't believe you're not faking it. Or, they're in a bad mood. Just do it again the next time. Within a two or three visits, they will come to understand your interest is real. It takes a little bit of work sometimes. But, I can tell you this: the most "distant", in-his-own-world, employee who I first met at least six years ago, and who was transferred to another department four years ago, and doesn't even remember my name, still goes out of his way to say hi to me
every single time we meet in his business.
