WHEN DID THEY KNOW IT?

 
 Cross training is a well-known term in the workout world.

In the high pressure world of pushing products it's called cross-selling.

If you've gone lately into your local bank, any of the larger ones for sure, you've probably been solicited for another of the bank's so-called services. At Wells Fargo they're called solutions. It's a euphemism to sell you something like a mutual fund or second mortgage or equity line of credit.

A friend refers to them as SYSs. In many ways, however, banks are under siege, much of it owing to their own greedy devises. It's not just the pressure they put on customers or the increasing federal regulations, it's a lack of service and an growing array of sneaky charges.

At one big bank we know of they even have the lowly-paid tellers answering the phones while customers wait in lines, some patiently and some not so patiently. Make no mistake banks are not stand alone. They represent a huge movement in business toward centralization. And centralization is the exact opposite of local control or any semblance of personal service, despite their claims to the contrary and their huge, costly marketing programs.

Part of this is a result of technology. Technology provides the tools that allow businesses to become more impersonal. Under the guise of becoming less so. Who among us is unfamiliar with telephone menus?  There is even a television commercial, in part meant to be humorous, but really is quite serious, showing a guy repeatedly asking one those answering matching robots to speak to a representative.

It you've seen it you know what we're talking about. Hours later, nearly exhausted and siting on his kitchen floor, the guy's still asking: "Representative!"The piece would probably be more effective if it originators showed they guy aging from his early 30s to being transported to a rest home in his 80s still feebly murmuring: "Representative!"

Now regulators in Los Angeles are going after Wells Fargo, one of longtime shareholder Warren Buffett's favorite banks, for what could be labeled gouging. High pressure tactics for sure. Last May the City attorney of Los Angeles.0, according to the WSJ, filed a lawsuit against the big bank that "cast an unflattering light on a core growth strategy that helped Wells Fargo become the country's most valuable bank."

The Journal goes on: "the lawsuit alleges the bank pressured it's retail employees to commit fraudulent act, including opening accounts for people that don't exist and charging customers for products without permission."

Again, quoting from the Journal: Bank of America's second highest honcho, Thomas Montag, recently " wore a hat and T-shirt to a company function emblazoned 'Cross Sell"--but Wells Fargo is the only major U.S. Financial firm to break out cross-selling in its securities filings." The Journal traces the beginning of the cross-selling to a former CEO dating to 1998-99. 

That leaves us with two questions. Why does the American public tolerate such shabbiness? And what did the Scold of Omaha know and when did he and his sidekick, Charley Munger, know it?