Spent way too long on the phone today.
The NatWest bank branch in Andover failed to process correctly a cheque to myself paid in by Clare. Joint accounts being too hard for them to understand, they sent the cheque, the paying-in slip together with an aggrieved note to an RBS clearing centre (rather than to my bank branch, as clearly indicated on the paying-in slip).
The clearing centre, clearly believing we were criminals, sent the original NatWest aggrieved note back to us, and then proceeded to lose the cheque.
Just to explain, NatWest couldn't do this themselves because, despite being owned by RBS for years now, they have failed to integrate their IT systems and consequently didn't know our address. Yes, we bank with the RBS but as there is no branch in Andover, we have to deal with their adopted NatWest division.
Anyway, as a consequence, I have had to stop the cheque and get it re-issued - a process which may take up to a fortnight.
If there was one thing you would think a bank was capable of doing, you might imagine it was taking receipt of a cheque. In this case, the incompetence seems equally-spread between the NatWest and the RBS.