Abbey National screwed up again.

PaulK_3 · 16 July 2007 at 6:27PM

Sorry in advance if this is in the wrong place, I normally do what I can to assist in the tech section
What a useless bunch of incompetent s***es Abbey are. A couple of months ago our account was subject to several fraudulent transactions that escaped Abbeys' notice even though 4 transactions were identical and occurred on the same day in a different country. Including one attempt to purchase £815 worth of PC equipment in another country and in a foreign currency which the online company had noticed a problem with and put the money back into our acocunt 2 days later. At least someone was on the ball there.
Upon seeing this on our statements we called Abbey but thanks to it being the weekend they were not taking calls on the fraud line so we had to go to Lakeside to visit the branch in person.
We showed the person there the printed statements and she checked her systems and agreed that there were transactions occuring which were obviously fraudulent so we filled all the forms in and she sent them off and we also rang the Abbey Fraud department to confirm everything to them too.
Several weeks later we were contacted and told the money was being put back into our account and that they were also placing the £815 into our account for 3 days to make our interest back up. (dunno why, 3 days interest is not a lot and we weren't bothered by this)
Unfortunately on the 9th June Visa was due to take the £815 back from our account to put our balance back to it's original amount, at this point both they and Abbey failed to notice that they actually took the money twice in the same day instead of just the once.
Our account is now £815 short, well into it's overdraft and about to bounce our monthly direct debits which are due to go out. This will no doubt incur penalties and fees from the bank and from the people trying to take payments for our utilities etc.
Abbey are aware of this as we went back to Lakeside Saturday and spoke to them again but OH has just got off the phone to them today and it could be another 48 hours before they call us back due to it needing investigating as it's in dispute (no it's not, you lot just cocked up) and anything from a week upwards before they put the money back. Basically they don't care.
How on earth can a bank be allowed to do this? We have no access to money from our main account, our Direct Debits are about to start bouncing and Abbey don't care enough to call us back and admit to c*cking up or allowing money to be taken from our account in error for the second time in as many months. Even the girl at the branch could see the double withdrawal on the account and said that it was obvious what they had done.
Anyone know where we stand and if there is anyone we can complain to in order to try and get our money back BEFORE we incur £100s in penalties from refused debits?
It's the eldest daughters wedding at the weekend and to be honest OH is about to have a flaming meltdown because of this mess up by the idiots at Abbey

Norman-B · 16 July 2007 at 9:04PM

I have EPA of my dad's affairs. I needed to invest the proceeds of the sale of his home, to obtain monthly interest for his care home fees.
So, I tried to open four web saver accounts.

Icesave. What a pleasure to deal with them. Easy to open the account with me as EPA. Nice to talk to on the phone.

A&L. Not so easy but got there.

ICCI or what ever they are called. Bloody useless!! Gave up in the end!

Northern Rock. No problems.

And then we come to the Abbey. Well, if ever a company needs to train staff, it's the Abbey! It took 3 attempts to open the account. Numerous visits to THREE different branch offices. "Sorry, you can't open an account as EPA!" "oh yes I can!" I got so fed up trying to open this, I nearly gave up. In the end, they opened the Websaver account but managed to close his current account by mistake!!! Back we go to a different branch and spend 70 minutes trying to undo the cockup made earlier. Moral of my story, never deal with fools at the Abbey IMHO

sav4it · 16 July 2007 at 9:21PM

Norman-B wrote: »

I have EPA of my dad's affairs.

Icesave. What a pleasure to deal with them. Easy to open the account with me as EPA. Nice to talk to on the phone.

ICCI or what ever they are called. Bloody useless!! Gave up in the end!

Northern Rock. No problems.

This is interesting thank you. I wonder why Icesave is not mentioned in Martin's articles anymore. I'm sure I remember it used to be. ICICI is mentioned however and you had real trouble with them.
You could start a thread on this. I'm sure lots of people have EPA's and it would be useful to know what people's experiences are from this angle.

PaulK_3 · 16 July 2007 at 9:34PM

Interesting indeed but not exactly the response I was hoping for

Anyone got any advice on how to deal with these incompetent idiots so that we can get the money back into our account before we get loads of our direct debits bounced?

sav4it · 17 July 2007 at 6:35AM

Sorry Paul. That was a bit insensitive of me. I don't bank with Abbey and won't now thanks to your post. I hope it gets sorted out for you soon.
I was thinking what I would do if it was my bank.I always like to have a paper trail whenever I have cause to complain for evidence purposes if it goes as far as ombudsman and such like. I know you want to get it sorted asap but it is their mistake and they will have to reimburse you eventually for all fees incurred as a result of their mistake. I don't trust phone calls.
I would be tempted to write a concise letter stating a) problems to far b) contact with bank to date including names/what promises have been made.
I would take the letter to your branch and insist on seeing someone and ask them to read it. Discuss a way forward and get the person to annotate on the letter what they promise to do ( ask for a photocopy of this) and ask them to officially back up with a letter of their own but in the meantime say that the photocopy would do until receipt of their letter.
This is probably going to take time to sort but at least you'll have ammunition.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Sagaris · 17 July 2007 at 6:40AM

Will do - I'm off to the bank today after yet another sleepless night worrying about this. It couldn't have come at a worse time (expense or stress wise) and the patronising attitude of the Abbey/Visa staff beggars belief.
Once this is sorted and we're out of the overdraft I'm taking my business elsewhere - shame as I've been a satisfied customer for over 20 years. It all seems to have gone to hell since they were taken over by Satander - now they don't give a stuff. My daughter is dong the same too.
Thanks for the advice, sav4it.

I doubt I'll get anywhere with Abbey today, though, they are saying it's Visa who have cocked up - and Visa are telling me it will be at least 48 hours until someone phones me to discuss our case, and then it could take 8 weeks to refund our money (as it did with the smaller original transactions)

Crabman · 17 July 2007 at 9:15AM

Moving across to Current Accounts :beer:

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

Crabman

PaulK_3 · 17 July 2007 at 12:18PM

Well, OH has just got out of Abbey and the only thing they will do is extend the overdraft facility. Talk about take the P. All they offered was a leaflet about their complaints procedure and they just use the excuse that the whole situation is in the hands of the Fraud department and that they (Abbey) can do nothing. Frauds department say it will take at least 48 hours to get back to us and never return our calls so we can't get anything from them.
Looks like we are in the smelly stuff till our wages go in and by then DDs will be bouncing all over the place

Dylanwing · 17 July 2007 at 1:01PM

I hope that they have extended it by the full £815 so that you are not inconvenienced in any way. I just find it amazing that Banks can allow this to happen as it causes so much work and stress for you, and will ultimately cost more to them in covering your costs... Unless you get the Visa/ Abbey both blaming each other and shirking responsibility. One option is to cancel the direct debits so that you are not charged, and once the account is back to normal, phone them up and blame 'Bank Error', and get them re-set. That is normally a better option, except maybe for the mortgage.
I would definitely go through the complaints procedure and make a full claim for costs and inconvenience, and make it quite clear that you will involve the Ombudsman if you are not fully satisfied.
Good luck!

Sagaris · 17 July 2007 at 4:26PM

Just got back from a trip to Abbey!
I went armed with a letter stating the facts so far, the assistant (same one we saw on Saturday) took it to the manager who said.........there's nothing they can do!!!! :eek: Apparently braches are unable to do anything in this sort of situation (except have a stupid fixed smile on their face and be incredibly patronising).
In short, they are blaming Visa, who won't speak to us, so were waiting on their call back 'in 48 hours'.
I stormed out of the branch in tears, effing and jeffing (which is not like me at all) - but for goodness sake I've never been this overdrawn in my life, even when I was a struggling single parent on tax credits and a very low income! They did hand me a copy of their complaints procedure, if I wanted to take it further!
Anyway I tried the complaints number, which is permanently engaged then cuts you off! After half an hour of that I turned to another number on the leaflet - the Financial Ombudsman! Spoke to a very nice, helpful lady, when she asked what could be done to rectify the situation I said for me to go in there with a machine gun - she laughed! She said they are not the fastest at resolving things but that it WOULD now get resolved.
About an hour ago I got a calll from a lady - at Abbey! She had read my letter and got on to Visa - and complained she had to wait for 45 minutes to get though! Anyway, we have evidently now got £400 of charges on our account (HOW???) as we have breached our overdraft limit. She said she could see exactly what the problem was (that Visa had taken the money twice) and had told them that it was in their best interests to refund me immediately, as they would have to bear any charges on our account. Their response? To say they can't do anything until they have spoken to me, and that will be in 48 hours!!!! The Abbey lady said this wasn't good enough as I'd already been in the branch on Saturday, the 48 hours must nearly be up! She has increased our overdraft by the missing amount which should help to stop the charges - I said I want any interest paid by this to be refunded too. Visa promised to ring her back this afternoon - she's still waiting!
So that's the state of play at the moment - wonder if it was me stropping off from the branch or if the FO contacted them?
Will keep you all posted and thank you for reading!
The moral of this tale is Don't Bank With Abbey!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course, after this episode, I'll be moving bank accounts from Abbey to another bank - I was thinking of the Co-Op as they seem to get favourable reports - but will the fact that we've been overdrawn (before all this mess started, but well under our limit) actually go against us?

Sagaris · 17 July 2007 at 5:50PM

Oh, I will, this week was supposed to be a good one, DD2's graduation ceremony yesterday - I missed the lunch because I was trying to get though to Visa, we were later on the road than I wanted to be for the same reason. Marred the day for me somewhat! Then DD1 is getting married on Sunday, and we're out for a meal with family and freinds to celebrate DD2's birthday this evening - and this is just spoiling everything.
OK, so Abbey have extended our overdraft - it's just more debt at the end of the day, isn't it? I tried pointing out in the branch that they (Abbey) should be re-imbursing me, and then claiming the money back from Visa - 'it doesn't work that way' I was told!!!!
It is our problem though, we're still out of pocket, got a HUGE overdraft now and £400 charges! I know it (hopefully) will be resolved eventually, but it's not nice in the meantime.

Abbey National screwed up again.

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