What has happened to Abbey?

gibby

I have been an Abbey customer for over 25 years.
The service started to slip a year back but in the last 6 months its got so bad Im having to move all our accounts away.

the queues in branches and dreadful. Usually only on person on the counter at lunch time with it taking over 25 mins to be served.

Its impossible to get an English understanding/speaking person on the phone.

Complaints take months to be looked at, letters are ignored and when they do reply its basically "tough luck"

The credit card service has gone the same. when it was MBNA it was great with no problems but now payments go missing, then charges appear & then it takes months for them to sort it out & still they can't put it right.

G

DCFC79

I know they had a new system so i dont know if this is whats caused it or not

trisontana

The main reason was caused by them trying to integrate their existing system with the Spanish bank that took them over. That same bank is probably going to take over Alliance and Leicester. As a customer of A&L I hope the integration of their systems goes better than it did with Abbey.

Pamjohnson

Abbey used to be so good now their service is terrible. No cashback when promised, cannot get changes on account, no reply to letters. I am definitely considering changing my account.

Daytona_nev

gibby wrote: »

I have been an Abbey customer for over 25 years.
The service started to slip a year back but in the last 6 months its got so bad Im having to move all our accounts away.

the queues in branches and dreadful. Usually only on person on the counter at lunch time with it taking over 25 mins to be served.

Its impossible to get an English understanding/speaking person on the phone.

Complaints take months to be looked at, letters are ignored and when they do reply its basically "tough luck"

The credit card service has gone the same. when it was MBNA it was great with no problems but now payments go missing, then charges appear & then it takes months for them to sort it out & still they can't put it right.

G

In a word Santander happened.

I was out in Krakow with a friend of mine. When he tried to draw money out the security kicked in and Abbey refused him money.

He spent 2 hours on the phone at international mobile rates trying to get them to remove the security so he could draw out cash. He was transferred numerous times and got absolutely nowhere.

I subbed him for the weekend so he had cash to spend.

As a result he's changing banks.

d.edna

Daytona_nev wrote: »

In a word Santander happened.

I was out in Krakow with a friend of mine. When he tried to draw money out the security kicked in and Abbey refused him money.

He spent 2 hours on the phone at international mobile rates trying to get them to remove the security so he could draw out cash. He was transferred numerous times and got absolutely nowhere.

I subbed him for the weekend so he had cash to spend.

As a result he's changing banks.

You moan when the banks don't protect you against fraud, You moan when the banks do protect you, To be honest they cannot win can they

Did your friend inform them that he would be using his card abroad? Of course he didn't so Abbey was protecting his money.

As for the phonecalls, that is unacceptable.

Daytona_nev

d.edna wrote: »

You moan when the banks don't protect you against fraud, You moan when the banks do protect you, To be honest they cannot win can they

Did your friend inform them that he would be using his card abroad? Of course he didn't so Abbey was protecting his money.

As for the phonecalls, that is unacceptable.

Yes he did tell them!

Nobody is moaning about being protected. It's about the fact it was nigh on impossible to get the protection removed.

I've had the same problem abroad but have had the protection removed in minutes with a simple phone call to customer services.

No Abbey can't win! Not in this case as they were totally incompetant.

fatpiggy

The service at my local Abbey branch started to noticeably deteriorate within weeks of them being taken over by Santander, so I think therein lies the answer. You never used to see queues, but they are 20 people deep on Saturdays. Talking to other customers they feel exactly the same, so it isn't just me being over critical. And if they count themselves as banks, why don't they want to give me change or accept bags of small coinage without a fuss? Expect the same deterioration in the other financial bodies Santander has recently hoovered up.

Pennywise

I've found the same with Cater Allen which is a subsidiary bank of Abbey. They used to be really good, but even with a UK call centre, their service has been dire in the past few months. They can't even get the simplest of things right. I sent three large cheques to them in the same envelope (provided by them) - only two appeared on my account - took many phone calls to sort it out - they virtually accused me of lying and claimed I must have forgotten to put all the cheques in - eventually it appeared on the account - no apology, not even a phone call from them to tell me they'd found it. In another case, I opened a new account with them and they forgot to order the cheque book and paying in book. In the latest (and last) episode, they've charged bank charges on a charge free bank account. I'm in the process of moving elsewhere.

BYALPHAINDIA

gibby wrote: »

I have been an Abbey customer for over 25 years.
The service started to slip a year back but in the last 6 months its got so bad Im having to move all our accounts away.

the queues in branches and dreadful. Usually only on person on the counter at lunch time with it taking over 25 mins to be served.

Its impossible to get an English understanding/speaking person on the phone.

Complaints take months to be looked at, letters are ignored and when they do reply its basically "tough luck"

The credit card service has gone the same. when it was MBNA it was great with no problems but now payments go missing, then charges appear & then it takes months for them to sort it out & still they can't put it right.

G

Ahh well they should have kept the 'BUSY BEE = The Good Old N&P

I spent 4 happy years in their HQ.

moonrakerz

BYALPHAINDIA wrote: »

Ahh well they should have kept the 'BUSY BEE = The Good Old N&P

IIRC they issued credit cards with your photo on it and your signature engraved into it. When they got taken over they went to "ordinary" cards - I went elsewhere.