Alliance and Leicester - recommend a friend? (Merged)

methrift

I opened my account in mid november and i was paid 50 this week..around 4 weeks! And i didnt even try to chase this up..Reading peoples experiences, i was wondering when i should start chasing up! I am pleased with my experience

But ofcourse, i have just recommended 2 people ..lets see when i get the dough.Well done A&L

ps: I opened my account in branch..dont know if that made any difference

DebtFree

I suggest to those who are chasing up money owed to them by Alliance & Leicester do so by letter only. Make it clear in your first letter that any subsequent letters required to chase up the payment will be charged at £25 per letter. Then make it clear in each of your subsequent letters that they have been charged for you being forced to correspond with them again.

I did this with Abbey National (over 5 years ago) & when I had reached £75, they finally admitted responsibility for the error & we negotiated on the letter fees. I accepted £40.
Most banks charge their customers for letters, you must do the same back.
Good luck.

DemiDee

That is such a good idea! I like it!
Tis no wonder you are Debtfree! :-)

DebtFree

Thank you for your comments DemiDee.

Just to add.....
It is particularly easy to charge banks in the above way, as they make it quite clear that they charge for letters themselves. It is therefore difficult for them to object about you doing something they do.
I use the same method whoever I write a letter to seek redress from, this way when I am on my umpteenth letter I still have the encouragement to continue.
It took me 10 letters to obtain compensation from the Royal Mail (misdelivered mail) & in the end I only got £50 out of them, but it was only because the letter charges were there that I continued.
My experience indicates that the vast majority of companies use a 'fob off' technique for the first two or three letters, then they start to take you seriously. Unfortunately most people give up after the first couple of letters & big companies know it! The thought most people have is "it's just not worth it", so make it worth it!
One final note: never telephone them, especially when they invite you to. Letters take them time to write too, & there is a full record of what has happened.
All the best.

mr1974

Is it possible to leave the letter at a branch and get a receipt rather than posting it at £1 at a time? Plus it's quicker for me than queueing up at the PO.
Thanks,
mr1974

DebtFree

I guess leaving letters at the branch would be accepted at most banks (with an improvised receipt), but I only send letters 1st class (30 pence, no queueing). If I don't receive a response within a reasonable period, I just reprint the letter with a watermark stating "Duplicate Due To Failure To Respond".
The time involved in a reprint is negligible & the cost overall is still only 60 pence.

mrsw

mrsw wrote:

I've just phoned to chase non-payment of my £50 and was told there is a 10 week backlog for processing the payments

I finally got my payment today, without having to chase them again.

nic82

I'm in a similar situation to most of you with A&L.

I opened a joint account with my partner at the end of July. Although we haven't recommended a friend, we should have received a £25 "welcome" payment into the account. SEVENTEEN weeks later, we are still waiting.

On 7th October I emailed the Internet banking department via the website saying that they had my postal address wrong (I have recently moved and did telephone them to tell them my new address and was assured that it had been changed!). Anyway, that was done immediately, so no further problems there. In the same email I mentioned about the £25 incentive. I received a reply the same day saying it would be passed to the correct department (no mention of the department name) to deal with.

I then sent two more emails similar to the above, and they told me to "be patient as this can take upto 8 weeks to be processed".

I waited until 9th Dec and then let loose in one more email. At this point, I must admit that I've only been emailing the Internet Banking dept (as that's the only email address I can find on the website). I said that I was disgusted with how they'd behaved, etc and could they provide me with somewhere to write a complaint to.

The reply to my email was....

1) they have passed my details on the the relevant dept asking for an urgent investigation.

2) the Internet Banking dept can't help, but they do apologise that my previous communications haven't provoked the expected credit.

3) to conform to their complaints proceudre, complaints must be made in writing to:
Alliance & Leicester
Bridle Road
Bootle
Merseyside
GIR OAA

I didn't get a chance to write a letter to the above address straightaway but then a few days later I received a letter from A&L stating that my complaint had been received and they would be looking into it (I'm guessing that someone must have forwarded my emails to the complaints dept, though I'm not sure if emails count as "in writing").

They also included a guide to "making a complaint" which outlines the timeframes that they should be responding to me.

I'll keep an eye on this post and will post back when (if???) I receive a response.

If anyone else has been down a similar route, I'd be interested to find out how long it took to get a response and whether you did actually get your £25 in the end.

Nic

Polly

I waited a very long time for my incentive money too but eventually got it after about 12 weeks and 3 phone calls. I was told during my final call that they were waiting "to see how I conducted my account" before they credited the money. I told them that there was no mention of this in the terms and conditions and therefore illegal. I got the money the very next day. Since then, I haven't been impressed with them either. They did not set up my agreed overdraft of £200 (I opened the account at a branch and had this box had been ticked and signed by a member of their own staff). A series of charges followed, each putting me deeper into overdraft. I have since had them all refunded but its been a nightmare. Am not using this as my main account as I too was "waiting to see how they conducted themselves"! Not impressed and will close it early next year.

frankie

I've been waiting since April for £25 of the £50 incentive for the current account with credit card.

Many letters and duff promises from A+L have produced nothing but standard replies and copies of their complaints procedure.

Anyone know of a 'high up' person that is worth contacting?

Soon as the 0% overdraft is done I'm out of here!

What a terrible bunch of rogues. Their so called best rates are just not worth the hassle.