ABBEY ZERO - shocking customer service

DPF

Shocking! Reccomend you avoid at all costs applying for an ABBEY ZERO card unless you want lots of heartache, worry, ages on the telephone and no communication whatsoever. Probably the worst service I've ever had. They can't tell you anything useful as their systems do not talk to each other (customer contact centre doesn't have access to the systems the people use to assess the application). I've never had any problems with my post but ABBEY consistently blamed Royal Mail for multiple losses of mail!!
Don't say you haven't been warned!!
Money Saving Expert - suggest you don't reccomend them so highly in future as it was on your advice I approached them!!

HamiltonL

In fairness it was well documented inside the banking world that the Royal Mail lost a load of cheques for ex Abbey MBNA customers about a year ago that caused endless problems. Not sure about other events though including this one.

Exactly what was the problems they said (or did not say?) about your application? The customer services team can track their progress usually although the mailing/sending/receiving of the application paperwork/cards is done through another site in West Yorkshire.

moonrakerz

HamiltonL wrote: »

In fairness it was well documented

In fairness, it is also well documented that Abbey have an absolutely appalling name when it comes to dealing with customer problems !

VfM4meplse

The nickname "The Grabby" is applied with good reason.

Joannef_2

I applied for and got the Zero card. The only time they have sent me a statement was in July! I only found out yesterday that I have to make a payment in the next few days as I phoned up just to see my balance. No statement, so if I hadn't phoned up yesterday I could have missed my payment date and ended up losing my 0% offer! I don't have problems receiving statements from anyone else so it isn't my post that is the problem.

Then, as I didn't have a statement to find out how to pay, I had to hold for nearly 30 minutes just to be told they don't accept payments over the phone!

Good card if you are very organised and don't need statements to remember when to pay but I've decided just to pay it off and stick with the Ulster card.

HamiltonL

Well if you've not been receiving statements that needs looking into and sorting. In the meantime your due date should stay constant anyway while you still have the card.

Payments can be made via Abbey to the credit card, but only from an Abbey current account. If you have not got your july statement, usually the agent can provide you with the bill payment details to pay from any bank account.

Sorry for the problems you have had Joanne. I hope these are resolved by the time you want to close the account.

gwapenut

A shocking organisation.

I applied for the Zero and they told me that as my address differed from their records, they would be unable to progress my application until I went all the way into town and filled in a change of address form.

Not so unreasonable you may think ... except that the out of date address was for an account I closed 8 years ago.

Despite me listing my old address among my "previous" addresses from the last 3 years, this wasn't good enough for them.

No one can tell me now whether my application will resume automatically or if it needs some kind of witchcraft to get it going again. I did call up, but was told they had no reocrd of any application, despite me having a physical letter about me being naughty and not letting them know every time I move house for a decade after I closed my account.

I fear the worst, but no matter. If they mess this up they will join the list of companies I will never do business with again.

I'm also fearful having read that sometimes they send cards to old addresses ...

papi34

Here is my case

Card applied for....forms sent off......pin number for card has arrived....no card.....as yet. How long should I give it before I chase the card?

HamiltonL

Usually the card follows 5-7 working days after the PIN so you should receive it before the end of the month.

gwapenut I'm afraid you may have to apply again as the application doesn't usually proceed if the address is originally inaccurate. I appreciate you put your address info on the application, but unfortunately if the address isn't accurate on the system at the point of applying, it won't go through - not that you were to know that of course. Hopefully they'll be some better news around the corner for you soon.

gwapenut

HamiltonL wrote: »

Usually the card follows 5-7 working days after the PIN so you should receive it before the end of the month.

gwapenut I'm afraid you may have to apply again as the application doesn't usually proceed if the address is originally inaccurate. I appreciate you put your address info on the application, but unfortunately if the address isn't accurate on the system at the point of applying, it won't go through - not that you were to know that of course. Hopefully they'll be some better news around the corner for you soon.

Thanks for the reply. I've decided to give it a miss, I've lost all faith in this organisation and am coming to realise in life that staying put sometimes keeps things so much simpler. The letter I had made no mention of reapplying, though I am suspecting your advice is right - just a pity they gave no thought whatsoever to the wording of the letter.

These days, in my experience, trying to change anything will result in things going at least partially wrong more often than not. So I'm better avoiding those organisations who mess things up for me!

Foggy

I have just posted on the main Zero thread regarding the appalling customer service. Basically they have taken the full amount as a payment 3 days before the due date instead of the agreed minimum payment of £5.

Only by good fortune did I notice the default payment was set to the full amount and changed it to the minimum a full 2 weeks in advance of the due date. At that time I was told that it would be changed in time, the online service showed the minimum payment would be taken and even the 'robot' stated it on the telephone well in advance of 29 September due date. I have been bounced from Abbey Credit card to Abbey Banking, even being sent to my local branch following advice which turned out to be completely untrue.

I have had my main current account with them for 20 years and have savings there. Not for much longer. I feel like I have spoken to every member of staff over the telephone and not one seems to care that I have just had £1160 taken out of my account instead of the £5 which I was expecting.

It truly beggars belief that they can treat people like this. I accept that mistakes can happen but the end result is me being over £1000 overdrawn with not one of them willing to do anything about it. I may get my money back in 48 hours but it will probably take 7-10 days.