Update
Thank you for your email dated 4 December, 2023 to Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) regarding your unsatisfactory experience at DBS Branch in Chiayi City. Upon receiving the official letter from FSC, we have contacted you this morning and thank you for your time for the call. We sincerely apologize for any misunderstanding and inconvenience caused during your branch visit and thank you for the opportunity for us to serve you better.
As communicated, below please find our office address for your information. Thank you for willing to share the video with us.
I got a follow up phone call today from DBS Taipei as they have received the FSC Complaint. The staff member who called me sounded quite mature. Nice lady. We had a polite long conversation in Chinese. She says to me by your Chinese I know you have been in Taiwan a long time. I replied longer than the staff who spoke to me in DBS Chiayi lol
So she basically said thanks for considering DBS for an investment account. She apologized for the staff’s behaviour. She asked would I send her the video. I said two ways I could get it to her I can put them on a USB stick and send that to her or stick up on you tube. She replied please don’t put it on you tube where everyone can see it. I’m trying not to chuckle and replied wouldn’t be such a bad thing just a little embarrassing for the bank. Anyway I calmed her nerves and said I will happily mail the USB Stick if she emailed me the DBS address to sent it to. She has emailed the address.
Then she wanted to clear up a few points. So let her finish then replied. So first was the well yes there are foreigners who have ID cards. My reply to that was that no that is not possible, no foreigners can have Taiwan ID cards only citizens can. Your CEO is a foreigner I am not. After that she agreed. I also said that it is wrong of your staff to laugh at someone when they tell them they are a citizen. OK so she knows I have different nationalities with different names and agreed that under the know your customer, CRS, and tax residency it was good I brought all my documents.
However it seemed to be the attitude that dealing with foreigners is “complicated” so I replied please stop calling me a foreigner. I also said you have to change the attitude that people who are citizens are foreigners. They are not. I asked do you call your Taiwanese born and bred customers with another nationality foreigners as well? crickets… lol After all dual ROC US Citizens must complete FACTA Forms.
Then we discussed about me asking for an investment account only to be told when I asked that DBS Sales staff did not want me to open an account with DBS but to go to a local bank. She said that was wrong she asked did I make a mistake. I said no it’s on the video. I also stated the staff refused to provide me with his business card. She also said yes tellers do not have them but the sales staff do have them.
Then we talked about my recording and she wasn’t sure I could do that. I replied but your bank has camera’s everywhere and records customers and staff. Yes she said that’s true we do that for safety. I told her I would send her the law link where recording oneself is totally legal. I said so you can view your own banks cameras and my video.
Then I said by the way, it is wrong for your staff to assume I or anyone else who walks in is a foreigner by my appearance and that is discrimination. I then said but to laugh at me when I told the staff I am a citizen, that is not just discrimination but racism. I said one staff member had said that 99.9999% I was not a citizen. I told her if she walked into a bank in Australia and the bank staff laughed at her if she told them she was an Australian citizen they would be fired before the end of the day. I asked will you fire the staff for racism in Chiayi?
She said she will arrange a meeting for me to open an account. I asked can Kimi who refused to open an account for me be the staff member to open my account. She seemed a bit surprised and said maybe another staff member.
So we see who will have to meet up with the lame old codger from Alishan in the future.