Alliance & Leicester - Dont Bother!!

welshwiz · 8 February 2008 at 6:54PM

:mad: Like Many Others, I Was Recently Tempted By Alliance And Leicesters Offers To Grab The Cash.

I Can Honestly Say That This Is The Worst Bank I Have Ever Banked With. Basically, "the Right Hand Does Not Know What The Left Hand Is Doing"!!
Too, Too Many Negative Things To Mention Here.

Trust Me Please, Do Not Swap Your Account To Alliance & Leicester - You Will Have More Hassle Than You Know (please Read The Other Forums/comments About This Company That Calls Itself A Bank)

Regards

ajaxgeezer · 8 February 2008 at 7:09PM

Detail the problems that you've had in a letter to the bank branch, request a meeting with the manager and hand him/her the letter. Tell them that you feel that your complaint will be sympathetically heard by the banking ombudsman and you are certainly prepared to take it that far. Suggest that the only way they can stop that happening is if they refund your costs such as calls, parking charges, petrol to the branch etc, and consider paying you for your time at a rate of whatever you like. They don't want you going to the Ombudsman 'cos it costs them.

My branch made a right couple of boo-boos including duplicating credit searches and opening a duplicate account in my name. I asked for a sweetener, they offered £50 and I declined it - I asked for £200. That was last week, and today the branch manager put £200 in my account. I can't say which bank it was as part of the deal I offered them was that I wouldn't parade it as a trophy on here.

Their poor service should cost them, not you.

robertjonesuk · 9 February 2008 at 11:02AM

i understand that the problemes with A&L coused you inconvenience, however if you did not suffer any financial loss, you should not ask for any compensation.

if, e.g. you have to deal with NHS and they mess up, i bet you wouldn't claim any compensation. why then do something like that with a bank?

sammyjig · 9 February 2008 at 12:47PM

I too swapped to A & L last year to take advantage of the o% overdraft. After 6 months I transfered back to my original bank. I didn't suffer any financial loss, I just wasn't happy with them.

msmicawber · 9 February 2008 at 1:33PM

What problems did you have? I swapped to A&L a few months ago to take advantage of their 0% overdraft and have had no problems switching or since. I also got cashback, so it's been a good move for me.

tanith · 9 February 2008 at 1:37PM

Must admit I have been with A & L for over 20 years (girobank way back when) and I have had nothing but excellent service with no problems at all.. in fact most family members bank with them on my recommendation and as far as I know they have all been well served...

ajaxgeezer · 10 February 2008 at 9:59AM

robertjonesuk wrote: »

i understand that the problemes with A&L coused you inconvenience, however if you did not suffer any financial loss, you should not ask for any compensation.

if, e.g. you have to deal with NHS and they mess up, i bet you wouldn't claim any compensation. why then do something like that with a bank?

....this isn't disagreement really. I did say "Their poor service should cost them, not you". If it was simple inconvenience I'd have said nothing. However, it built and built. I must have made a hundred phone calls, all to 0845 numbers, and of course Indian call centres. The bank in question obviously didn't get the first draft of service advisors as they were awful. I could hardly ever understand them, nor them me. That is a case of a bank creating a problem, compounding it with communication issues and then making a profit from it through an 0845 number. I don't find that acceptable, I find it cynical. Eventually I was given the direct number for the branch.

Even at this stage I was prepared to begrudgingly leave it alone, but then found out that their switcher team had lied to me. They told me that my old bank had refused to pass on direct debit details despite being asked three times and that I had to get them myself. I guess that happens but I found it strange so eventually questioned it with my old bank who provided evidence that they had supplied the info in question three times but it was returned on every occasion despite being complete. Had they made a mistake and owned up then I'd have accepted that but they didn't, they lied to cover up in the hope that I'd never know. Again the only word is cynical. That kinda galvanises a user into a "There's only so much I can take" mindset.

This wasn't all, by the way, there were at least 10 balls-ups which have taken the branch manager 5 months of her time to sort out, and they are still not all done.

missile · 10 February 2008 at 10:31AM

Why don't you switch back to your "old" bank?

ajaxgeezer · 10 February 2008 at 7:21PM

missile wrote: »

Why don't you switch back to your "old" bank?

....I never left them. I fund the new bank with a Standing Order from the old one in order to qualify for the new bank's rates.

DGJsaver · 11 February 2008 at 12:53PM

The worst thing about A&L for me is the hassle and cost of actually calling them , wait times and they are one company that do a very very good job of clamping down on 0870 avoidance numbers

I may go back to Natwest

Dan

YorkshireBoy · 11 February 2008 at 1:09PM

DGJsaver wrote: »

The worst thing about A&L for me is the hassle and cost of actually calling them , wait times and they are one company that do a very very good job of clamping down on 0870 avoidance numbers

Next time, call them for free on 08000 688638

www.saynoto0870.com

Alliance & Leicester - Dont Bother!!

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free