Abbey: just how long can they get away with it? Please share your experiences here.

wheelel

Am I missing something here?? Just how long can Abbey get away with their diabolical service record??

Please don't get me wrong... from reading my previous posts and seeing that I have only posted about them some of you may believe that I have some sort of a mission or vendetta against them, but it's not really like that.

I came on here just to take a look and felt compelled to reply to this post:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=16203053#post16203053

because I wanted to share my experiences with the OP who was having a similar experience with them. At the time I didn't realise that anybody had had any similar problems with them. But, as time's gone on I've just become more and more angry as the days have gone by to see so many other posts on here from so many other people, all revealing a series of shocking and upsetting incompetences all at the hands of this one bank . Not only this, but searching on the internet and on these forums, it seems that even more people are deeply unhappy with them and the way they have been treated. I myself have never been treated so poorly by any company ever (please read my experiences in the post linked above), and will be moving accounts away from them as soon as I possibly can.

Why do they seem to get away with this?? Please enlighten me! Have any of you out there been treated awfully by them but still stayed with them? If so, why?? Or, do any of you out there actually have any good points to report about them? Can you phone them up and be spoken to straight away by somebody who actually helps and understands you? Do you actually get to see somebody in a branch instead of being directed to the nearest telephone?? Do they ever fulfil their promises to you? Has anyone ever actually been called back by their complaints department or managers when they've said they will?

Please, everyone, share your experiences with this bank here (good or bad). I am so intrigued to know why people continue to bank with them, and to see what you all have to say. I just can't figure out why Santander/Abbey appear so smug continually ("best UK bank") when they seem to be highly upsetting and mistreating so many of their customers. And rude about it to boot!

It's stopping me from sleeping at night, help!!!

hieveryone

Abbey are a complete and utter nightmare!

I had a current account with them for 12 years and a year ago it all went pear shaped...

My debit card expired but I hadn't received a new one so hadn't noticed (don't buy much online etc). Filled my car up with petrol one day, went to pay, declined - noticed it had expired. Managed to get someone to come and get me and give me money but obviously very red faced and quite annoyed.

Called Abbey and casually explained 'oh I've not received my new card yet and I went to use it and it was expired - can you tell me what's happened?' Cue advisor saying to me 'well what do you expect, the building's six feet under water'. (this was at the time of the floods). I was totally stunned to be spoken to like that but requested a new card be sent out.

Few weeks passed and no card.. phone calls to Abbey, no requests for new cards logged, apparantly I was upgrading my account?, then I was closing? Various mistakes. Asked how I was supposed to get money etc, call centre advisor (with a very strong Indian accent suggested I walk to my nearest branch and lift money that way - hmm ok I'll walk 10 miles to do that, no problem!)

Anyway finally got a new card about 6 weeks after my original one expired, and the next day got another one. Went to cash machine, none of them worked! Anyway to cut a VERY long story short it ended up that:

o I had two cards with Abbey and had to carry the two of them around with me as sometimes one would work and sometimes the other one would work!
o I lost access to my internet banking for about 3 months as they couldn't work out what card was registered to my account or not
o They cut off my card whilst I was in Egypt despite me telling them I was going
o I was spoken to extremely rudely by a good few members of their staff.
o Eventually was offered compensation, took it and closed account!

97trophy

wheelel wrote: »

I am so intrigued to know why people continue to bank with them, and to see what you all have to say.

My business only has a very few transactions each month and no special banking needs. Their old web service work fine for me.

I have had a number of problems over the years - which I wont bore you with.

I blame the senior management 100%. The whole business banking management team should be sacked and Santander should poach the guys that set-up First Direct.

tanyatheprincess

Seriously you dont know how HAPPY I AM TO FIND I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE.

I have been corresponding with the Abbey for the last 8 months as I am unable to contact them by telephone.

I have taken them to the Financial Ombudsman in Sept.

The matter is still outstanding all their fault on charges, the charges started off very small and have esculated in to over £800 - and they are just outright ignoring all letters. Dspuite writing to complains office, head office, local branch etc. You cannot get any response from them.

Having said that the financial ombudsman doesnt seem to be that helpful either and now we are in that situation of them taking our house away. Stressed is an understatement as from here, we have no where else to go really - who else but the ombudsman can listen?

THEY ARE THE WORST BANK EVER. I hate them for what they have done to us.:mad:

Paulgonnabedebtfree

I've had the odd minor glitch with them during about 25 years there. Sometimes it has been inconvenient but resolved pretty quickly. There was quite a fiasco a few days ago with the business account that I have with them and that proved a bit frustrating but it's all sorted now and the service seems to have incorporated a couple of improvements that I badly need (being able to see an incoming BACS reference as soon as the payment is received so that I know which customer has paid me and instant transfer of funds between business and personal accounts). There do seem to have been a few more gremlins since Santander took over and it does feel less personal (telephone in the foyer).
On the whole though, considering I've been with them 25 years, the difficulties have been few and they've been sorted out quite quickly.

No. I don't work for Abbey. Maybe I've just been lucky and I really hope this post isn't the kiss of death. Even when they reduced my OD from 3 grand to £1800 some years back they gave six weeks notice. I did ask for more as 200 a week is a lot to make up as I was near the edge of the limit. They would only offer a personal loan to plug the gap. If I wasn't creditworthy it would have been a problem but I plugged it with a low interest credit card (ironically also from Abbey).
Although I've been lucky, it's also true that I've never exceeded any credit or OD limits with them (or anyone else) and never bounced a cheque. I've run close to the wire at times though.
I can imagine that they would be hard to deal with if I ever needed to resolve something that was a bit more complicated than usual.

Mike1989

Not me directly, but my sister has had a number of problems this year. Now these range from different issues but one example I can bring up is this one. She was wanting to transfer some money from her Abbey current account to a savings account at Nationwide, she hits a problem of not being able to transfer the money. She rings up Abbey and a woman answers, cutting a long story short it comes to a point were the woman asks you want to transfer money?

My sister answers yes, the woman replies then use our online service and transfer it there and puts the phone down. Not solving the problem as she was trying to get the woman on the other end of the phone to understand the fact she wanted to know how to transfer it. Then when she finally gets to transfer money at a later date. She has now transferred her account to Nationwide, I was considering switching to Abbey this year but have now decided not to go near them.

Another issue she had with them was them accusing her of being a lair, they have even told her point blank that she had given Nationwide the wrong account details, and whenever she has phoned up she has got someone in India who cannot understand the problems she is having and solve them. Don't get me wrong UK call centres can be equally as bad. But they have put the phone down not having solved the problem on at least two if not three occasions. Just problem after problem in the last couple of months.

So I suppose you are not the only one who has had problems with Abbey. But by that same notion, other people have been fine with them. And the same goes for other banks. Suppose it depends on luck more than anything.

cottager

Not too much TBH. I only have savings, not a current account. Long-standing, as the accounts were originally with N&P till they migrated to Abbey National (as they were then) on being taken over. Till comparatively recently the bulk of my savings were held in an eSaver, or would return there once fixed rates or whatever matured, but the eSaver rate hasn't compared well recently and I've pulling out to disperse elsewhere. I will keep an account open as a future option in case things change around again.

The only problem I've really had was when the Direct Saver (where the funds were originally) became a 'legacy product' with pathetic interest, and the eSaver introduced instead. I applied to close the DS and transfer the balance to a new eSaver, received a form to sign and return, but the transfer took a fortnight or more. I had been assured the higher rate would apply from receipt of my signed application, regardless of how long it took to set up the new account, but it patently didn't once the new eSaver was up and running and I received the closing statement for the DS. I made a complaint and received a credit of about 10 days' higher interest. They told me initially interest had been applied from when the form was received, but that it had taken longer to arrive than I had assumed; but I'd sent it Recorded Delivery and was able to tell them to the minute on which date it had been signed for

Apart from that the only real moan is the size and staffing of the local branch, if we need it. The staff are all very willing, but it's woefully inadequate for the size of the town and the population of the catchment area. There are invariably queues to the door (sometimes out of it) for the counter, and if you need to see an adviser for anything there's practically no chance if you just walk in off the street... not unless you're prepared to wait for a long time. Sure, we could think ahead and make an appointment I guess, but you don't always realise what you want to do involves more than 'nipping in' and dealing with it at the counter.

Helenw1965_2

Few months ago my employers bank paid my wages in late so starting unauthorised overdraft and bank charges snowball, which has been hellish... my experiences since have been totally random. In India they are reading off a script and can't really help, they even give out inaccurate contact details, opening hours etc; spoken to some people in Bradford and Glasgow centres - some really pleasant, others downright obnoxious. However, went into my local branch this morning and (although they said they could call other departments on my behalf, the other department may not speak to anyone who wasn't the customer) they tried their hardest for me and got a result - see below.

On 1 December there was a problem with Abbey's system with regards to taking loan payments by Direct Debit. My loan repayment was due to Abbey
from Abbey Current Account on 2nd December. Because of their system problem the DD was presented on Saturday 6 December by which time there were insufficient funds to cover it thus incurring two charges, one of £25 and another of £35. Phoned loan department who told me to go to my local branch. Found out they effectively broke their agreement with me because they took it on 6th instead of 2nd so bank have now cancelled my £60 charges. They say they can't do this from the branch but they did.
Hope this helps someone else that this may have happened to.

stiffnuts

Im sorry to say but the vast majority of the stories above seems to be down to the person being at fault not the bank, for instance

post 2 - forget to plan in advance and check the expiry date on their card
post 4 - unable to plan ahead which led to charges
post 6 - someones sister doesnt know how to do a straight forward transfer
post -7 employers to blame for late payment, and if you have a problem with indian call centre then visit a local branch

cottager

stiffnuts wrote: »

Im sorry to say but the vast majority of the stories above seems to be down to the person being at fault not the bank, for instance

post 2 - forget to plan in advance and check the expiry date on their card
post 4 - unable to plan ahead which led to charges
post 6 - someones sister doesnt know how to do a straight forward transfer
post -7 employers to blame for late payment, and if you have a problem with indian call centre then visit a local branch

Er... actually that wasn't me, but post #8
But then I can't really talk, as I've confused postings too in the past!

ShelfStacker_3

stiffnuts wrote: »

Im sorry to say but the vast majority of the stories above seems to be down to the person being at fault not the bank, for instance

post 2 - forget to plan in advance and check the expiry date on their card

Most don't have to, because the bank should send out a new one ahead of time. Pretty much every single one does so.

post 6 - someones sister doesnt know how to do a straight forward transfer

Have you tried explaining what you might see as simple banking concepts to people who have no experience with finance beyond their money going in and them taking it out, or who just simply haven't done that before? I have. I do it all the time. That and the OP explicitly said their sister had had trouble doing the transfer herself, so it's not even clear if she fits into that category.

post -7 employers to blame for late payment, and if you have a problem with indian call centre then visit a local branch

...who according to MSE legend will put you on a phone to an Indian call centre. Not saying you're wrong about the late payment being the employer's fault, but still...