Both my wife and I have accounts with St George. My wife just drove into town and entered the bank a full twenty minutes before closing time to put some money on term deposit but was told it couldn't be done as it would take longer than the remaining twenty minutes to fill out the forms.
When she phoned from town to tell me the story I couldn't believe my ears and promptly phoned the local branch to have it confirmed. "Yes," said some supercilious voice, "that's quite correct. We cannot transact business that takes longer than our banking hours."
I still couldn't believe it - I mean, back in my days with the ANZ Bank this would've been a sackable offense - and phoned head office who offered to open the account in just a few minutes over the phone!
"Don't bother", I told them, "both my wife and I shall take our banking business elsewhere."
P.S. My wife did get her term deposit before coming home: she walked down the street to the Commonwealth Bank who, only minutes away from closing time, offered her a seat, attended to everything, and thanked her for her business. No fire-breathing dragons there!
