Barclays Bank really messed up!!

Roxy73

I hope that someone can help me with a major problem - will try and keep it short!!I've recently divorced and had 2 joint accounts with my ex at Barclays [plus he has his own current account there too]. In March this year I opened up a new account in my sole name just to ensure that the mortgage was paid as I didn't trust him not taking all of the money out of our joint account [as he's declaring himself bankrupt].I have recently been notified by his solicitor that he is now receiving my statements and letters to his new address!!!! Having checked with Barclays he changed his address which consequently changed my sole account too - which I am really not happy about. I didn't think that they could do this?I instigated a complaint with Barclays as apparently any change of address would have required written consent from both myself and ex which I never had. They have closed the complaint and put it down to 'human error' however, that hasn't helped me! I want to complain to the Financial Ombudsman but is there anything else I can do too? I feel so appalled that this has happened and Barclays are so blase about it!!!!If anyone can help I would be really grateful!

Extant

Not really.

Wait and see what the FOS say about it if you're not happy, they're your method for escalation here.

Roxy73

Ok thanks for that - will try the FOS and see what they say!

SparciaM

you may not get any joy at complaining to the Ombudsman, but atleast the bank will have to pay a sum for the complaint going there. I think it's around the £400 mark.

Roxy73

I didn't know that they would have to pay anything - just want to make a point that this should NEVER have happened.Will give it a go to the FOS and see what happens.Thanks again

Extant

SparciaM wrote: »

you may not get any joy at complaining to the Ombudsman, but atleast the bank will have to pay a sum for the complaint going there. I think it's around the £400 mark.

If the FOS finds in favour of us, we don't actually pay. It's part of the reason why it costs us so much in fees when complaints go against us.

If we paid on everything that went to the FOS, you can be pretty sure we'd kiss your shoes before we let you go to them.

Roxy73

Thanks for all of the information. Just would like to ask your opinion if that's ok? Do you think that it's worth me pursuing this complaint? Don't want to waste anyones time, least of all mine!

jonesMUFCforever

Barclays are right in saying human error. To take this further you need to show you have lost out or been financially inconvenienced by this - if so they will have to compensate you - if not then an apology or a bunch of flowers is all you can expect.

It may be a good idea to open a new account at a new bank.

Extant

Roxy73 wrote: »

Thanks for all of the information. Just would like to ask your opinion if that's ok? Do you think that it's worth me pursuing this complaint? Don't want to waste anyones time, least of all mine!

Any answer I give would naturally be a biased one, so I'm not going to say if it's okay or not. That said, if you are not satisfied with the response given by Barclays, you are well within your rights to go to the FOS, so the issue of it being "okay" or not is pretty much irrelevant.

Barclays is a huge, huge company with lots of people working in it. Some of them will screw up. I'm not going to deny it, or try to dissuade you. Do as you think right.

I can tell you how I would have handled the complaint, but I'd be interested to hear what was done for you already - were you given anything? Did your response come from the branch or from Retail Bank Customer Relations?

gymfiend

I would say COMPLAIN COMPLAIN COMPLAIN - Barclays are and have been the bain of my life for at least a year now. They once sent me a cheque book in my name & some complete random strangers name, rather than my OH's - and then accused me of lying until I took the book in to them - then tried to confiscate it from me to hide their error! It also took 5 full visits with 5 different staff members, wasting 5 Saturday afternoons of my time for me to organise a very simple joint bank account. Then we had fraud on one of our accounts to which the Indian call centre operative replied 'I can sell you fraud protection, Sir' - excellent, very reassuring, if a little late. ARGH.
On the bright side, they did give me £50 and 2 bottle of wine - so really do complain away to them, if for nothing other than a sense of satisfaction!

Roxy73

No problem at all I don't want to put you in a difficult position. I probably will pursue it as the damage has been done and I have now closed my account down. Thankfully my salary wasn't going into that account!I went into my local Branch to query the address etc and was given a Customer Complaint Acknowledgement slip with a reference on it stating that the complaint was being handled by Retail Bank CR DC Complaints Gateway. I hadn't heard anything so I contacted Customer Service and was told verbally that the complaint was closed down, as they didn't want to write to me because of the problem surrounding the address.Not sure whether there is more they can do - apparently someone had trawled through all information but was inconclusive?