Italian Commercial Transactions

No doubt you, like the rest of us, are now fully into the Christmas period of lists of things to complete and so much to do before that Christmas deadline – gifts to buy, food to prepare, tasks to do before everything shuts down for a while….

It reminds me of our second to last day in Italy as we tied up all the loose ends before leaving for the best part of a year.  Tradesmen to pay, parcels to ship, people to meet to say goodbye to.
One of the most pressing tasks was to ship some Fiat car parts back to New Zealand for a friend who had bought them on eBay and had them shipped to our house in Italy, so we could send them on to him in New Zealand.  We also had to get money out from the bank to pay tradesmen.  Sounds easy, one trip to Poste Italiane and one trip to the bank.

Oops, the Post Office in our little village opened only two days a week for four hours each day and it was open NOW!  We loaded up the car with the large package of car parts and headed just up the hill to a building we had never seen open before. Sure enough, signs of life all right, but a bit too much life.  People where queuing out the door and when we poked our heads in the door, all around the sides of the room were the elderly townsfolk, all seated in line, staring back at these two hopefuls lugging a large package.  The sense was that this queue was not exactly moving at any pace and we soon discovered why – it was pension day.  ID to be produced, forms to be completed, back and forth for each person until the cash was finally counted out slowly and deliberately for each person.  It seemed to take about 15 minutes per transaction.  No electronic banking here.  It wasn’t just a day to collect your pension, it was a time to catch up with old friends, no-one was in a hurry.  One person we recognised recommended we try the Post Office in another village.
 

Off to Raiano (about 10 minutes’ drive away).  We decided to split up.  Alan would take the package to the Post Office and Kathy would go to the bank to withdraw the money.

Kathy arrived at the bank and found herself 6^th in line for the single teller on duty.  It was pension day at the bank too…When she finally got to the counter an hour later she asked to withdraw €4,500. 

Teller (incredulously):  “What, you cannot withdraw that much!!”. 

Kathy: “Well, the bank in Sulmona (the largest town nearby) told me I could!” 

Teller:   “They want to crucify me! It’s pension day – what am I going to give all these people if I give you all that money?”  

Kathy (incredulously) -  “You are a bank!”

Teller:  “I know, but we don’t have bottomless funds here.  Please don’t make me do this”.

After rummaging through his cash drawer he started to bargain her down and after some negotiation (and concern for the pensioners waiting behind her, now numbering 14) she left the bank with just over half the money.  Mystified as to why the bank could not plan to have more than one teller on duty on a clearly very busy day and secondly have enough cash to handle the monthly pay-out plus normal requirements, Kathy walked across the street to find Alan longing for her arrival to rescue the situation with the parcel.

Alan had walked in to the Post Office with a similar long queue of elderly people waiting for the pensions.  The ones inside were seated around the wall and seemed to be engaged in energetic conversations which he could not understand.  What he could understand though, was that the two tellers had different job descriptions and the one with no queue handled Post (as well as banking), so he managed to get straight to the front of the line.  Wow.
When he did get to speak to the Post Office teller, he asked in his best Italian if he could post this huge package to New Zealand.  A grudging assent was given.  How much did it weigh was the first question – “Sorry, I have no idea”.  Some security doors open and he was motioned towards them.  He put the parcel down there and heads back to the teller.

By this time the teller was serving the next, by this time, somewhat impatient pensioner.  This one had some kind of disability and had trouble communicating.  Suddenly, the teller stood up and leaned over the glass security panel, shouting at the top of her voice for everyone to BE QUIET.  Meanwhile, Alan’s transaction was long forgotten and eager pensioners would immediately appear before the teller as soon as someone turned to leave.
Finally Kathy returned from the visit to the bank and with full command of the language and a sense of urgency that we have spent nearly all morning on these two simple tasks already, ensured that she gets the attention of the teller at the next opportunity.  It seemed that sending a package overseas was not something that happened very often in this Post Office.  After finally finding the weight of the package, then came multiple forms in triplicate.  Photo copies of tax code documents and then the price - €141!!  “No, you cannot pay that by credit card and the ATM machine outside is not working”.  Right.  Some of our hard-won cash from the bank disappeared and we finally got out of there and collapsed in the nearest coffee bar.

In Italy, especially away from the cities, things move at a different tempo.  Buying groceries every day is an event, not a task.  If you arrive at the little grocery store and a local person is there ahead of you, you can spend up to 10 – 15 minutes listening to their conversation with the shop owner about all manner of things.  It is not about efficiency – no, that is nowhere in the psyche.  It is about experience, relationship and family.

Something to ponder!