Financial responsibility?

Right now, I am working on a customer service project with a local bank. Part of my job involves monitoring calls to improve training and streamline processes. This is the first time I have ever worked with a regular savings bank, but I have been involved in financial services before, so I know how funny people are about their money (present company included). That being said, I can't believe the abundance of absolute ignorance about basic savings and checking accounts that I have been hearing on these calls. Not from the customer service agents, thank God, but from the customers. You know, the ones with a vested interest in the well-being of their money?

Here's an example: Today I heard a call from this woman who was complaining that her account was accruing overdraft charges because when she withdrew $200 from the ATM, the receipt showed that she still had $8 remaining. What the woman hadn't taken into account was the fact that she had 2 checks outstanding, which overdrew her account when they posted. When the rep asked her what the balance was on her check register, she replied - quite defiantly, I might add - that she didn't have time to write down all the purchases she makes, nor did she feel she had to. Hell, that's what the bank is supposed to do, right? After all, they have all the accountants and the computers. Well, apparently, clairvoyance is something else the bank is supposed to possess, because there was absolutely no convincing this woman that the bank doesn't know about any outstanding checks that haven't been presented for payment.

I wish I could say that this call was the exception, but there are an alarming number of calls from irate customers that fall along the same lines. Now, I will admit that I have overdrawn my bank account once or twice because of my own bookkeeping errors, to which I have owned up and paid them. However, there are also an alarming number of customers who overdraw their account regularly, some of which carry perpetual overdrafts. What galls me is that these are the customers who bitch and moan the most about fees.

Call me old fashioned, but my understanding is that you shouldn't take more money out of the bank than you put in, and that if you do, there are penalties associated with that action. I simply do not understand how people can be that baffled about so simple a concept.