National City branch visit complaint

To whom it may concern:

I am writing to express my frustration with the new National City branch building at 5550 Ridge avenue in Pleasant Ridge in Cincinnati. It looks very nice from the outside but the method of entry leaves much to be desired.

I don't know why the decision was to limit entry to 1 person at a time. I can only assume that it is some sort of security measure, though upon first glance it seems of dubious merit. Not to mention that I don't really feel like Pleasant Ridge is a particularly dangerous part of town, where a bank might need enhanced security measures.

If it was just me entering, I'd have no problem. But this past week I came with my whole family. I had been needing to get something notarized with my wife and I both signing it, and it can prove challenging to get both of us (which necessitates bringing our 5 young children as well) at the same place at the same time during a bank's normal operating hours. But I was off work last Wednesday (August 12th) and so on our way down to the museum, we stopped by the Ridge branch.

While my wife was getting the baby out of the car, I attempted to go in with the other 4 kids. I saw the signs to enter only 1 at a time, but I went ahead anyways because I had all my kids with me and couldn't just leave them there. I don't know if you have kids, or how old they might be, but the odds of successfully explaining the correct procedures for entering the bank to an autistic 9 year old, as well as 7, 4 and 2 year olds is approximately 0%.

Obviously we were unable to enter the bank. After awhile, a woman came over the intercom and asked how many people were in the vestibule. I replied "1 adult and 4 children". She said "Normally I would make you go out and come in 1 at a time but I will let you in this time." So we finally made it in! Then my wife came in, pushing our baby in the stroller. And unbelievably she had it even worse! Obviously we could not leave an 8 month old to try and enter by himself, so they both went in to the vestibule area. She also appeared to speak to someone over the intercom (I couldn't hear what was being said) but eventually she got the door unlocked, but because the vestibule was so narrow, it was nearly impossible for her to push the door open since the stroller was in front of her. And there was no room to get around the stroller or turn it around. It took 3 tries before she was able to get in.

After that, the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. The wait was longer than I wished it was, but we were able to get our documents notarized and head out. I can't really fault the customer service of the teller. And the manager-type man who notarized our documents was very nice.

But I would like to ask that this method of entry to bank branches be stopped. Or at the very least limit it to branches that really ARE in bad neighborhoods, where I wouldn't want to take my kids anyways.

Thank you