Actually, this is an instance that I can speak to, because I'm a former employee of a big bank. Where I worked, everyone was trained that in that type of instance you were to refuse to serve the customer. You were to send them home. In certain instances, such as with a senior citizen, you were to perhaps suggest that they might want to come back with a family member or some such thing like this. But you were under direct orders to refuse to complete a transaction or to provide a service.
This was where I worked, but I understand the frustration. There were a number of times when I would have loved to be able to phone the son of the 87-year-old man who wanted to buy $50,000 worth of gold and only had $52,000 in his account.