I stopped at a cash machine outside a Halifax on the way home on Monday. Well I was on the way to the pub that was on the way home (pretty much the same thing). I put my bank card in and waited. And waited. And waited until I was pretty sure that absolutely nothing was going to happen and that the machine had just swallowed my card. Profanity ensued. I managed to borrow a bit of money from friendds, assuming that I could simply pay them back the next day after I got my card back. Foolishness on my part to expect a bank to act rationally or reasonably.

So the next day I go down to the Halifax. General Unremarkable Typical Bank Woman comes to the counter.
"Excuse me, last night one of your cash machines outside malfunctioned and swallowed my bank card" I say politely.
"Yes. They do that sometimes. Was it a Halifax bank card" GUTBW replies.
"Ummm...no" I say, knocked slightly off-balance.
"If it isn't a Halifax card, then you'll have to order a new one from your bank"
"So there's no way for me to get my card back here?"
"I'm afraid not".
At no point does her customer service smile slip in the slightest, even though she's essentially telling me that they screwed up, but can't (or won't, I've no way of knowing if this is a policy for the branch, the bank, or the practice in general) rectify it because the account wasn't with them, even though I was practically up to my eyeballs in ID, bank correspondance and the like (considerably more than it would have taken to get a loan).

I then spoke to my bank. I can expect a new card in  7-10 working days. Which means I have anything up to 2 weeks where I can only pay by cheque. Fantastic.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know of/can anyone think of a rationale for a policy like this?

So as the new halfbakery idea has pointed out, a brand of Welsh sausages (snappily known as Welsh Dragon Sausages) has been forced to rename to avoid mistaken consumers purchasing them believing them to actually contain dragon meat.

To make it easier for them, scaryjim and I have been coming up with our own list of possible mistakes, just to ensure that nobody actually gets confused.

James' so far
Buffalo wings
Baked Alaska
Manchester and Bakwell tarts - for not containing a slapper from that region.
Shepherds pie
Snowballs
Animal Crackers
Cupcakes

Mine:
Anchor Butter
Madeira Cakes
Hob Nobs

Any others that people can think of?