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

sutton111

Where did you find that out?

wheelel

sutton111 wrote: »

Where did you find that out?

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/motor-racing/title-in-my-grasp-says-hamilton-958620.html

"Abbey will be rebranded as Santander over the next three years, and the problem is exacerbated by Santander's purchase of Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley, who will also get the makeover treatment."

Frozenace

A+L have got cr*p customer service as well and their Internet Banking takes ages to refresh. I'm just using them because I can instantly pay off my Barclaycard with the Visa Debit.

ShelfStacker_3

Frozenace wrote: »

A+L have got cr*p customer service as well and their Internet Banking takes ages to refresh. I'm just using them because I can instantly pay off my Barclaycard with the Visa Debit.

You realise that numerous other banks issue Visa Debit, and that even if they don't and use Maestro instead the Barclaycard payments will be just as quick...?

sutton111

wheelel wrote: »

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/motor-racing/title-in-my-grasp-says-hamilton-958620.html

"Abbey will be rebranded as Santander over the next three years, and the problem is exacerbated by Santander's purchase of Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley, who will also get the makeover treatment."

That piece was quite interesting because regarding Lewis Hamiltion and santander as Santander will be sponsoring ferrari in 2010 so it don't make much sense in using Hamiliton in a rebranding exerise.

Serfur

Santander may have won best bank awards from shareholder magazines for making big profits but they have not won any prizes for customer service. Only last week Abbey was featured in the Telegraph for messing up small business accounts. In a follow up article they were criticised by the Telegraph for misleading it about the extent of the problem.

Over the last 18 months Abbey has been taken to task by the personal finance columns of the Telegraph, the Sunday Times and the Observer. It has come bottom in customer satisfaction polls by BBC Watchdog, Which & JD Power.

In these forums and newspaper comlaint columns there have been reports of applying the wrong interest rate, applying incorrect charges, sending cards and PINS to old addresses, failing to send replacement cards, maturing bonds on the wrong date and deducting tax from ISAs. There are also regular complaints about them losing identity and probate documents.

Some of the problems seem to stem from I.T. issues. Abbey usually claim that only a tiny minority of customers are affected although reports often suggest the numbers are not so tiny. The excuses have a tendancy to evolve - last year's fiasco re-issuing debit cards (or more accurately not re-issuing cards) was initially attributed to flooding, then the Royal Mail strike and finally to I.T. issues.

The F.S.A. no doubt has lots of other matters to worry about right now but perhaps it should break the habit of a lifetime and take action before a problem becomes a crisis rather than wait until afterwards.

exel1966

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

A great deal of the problems reported are due to customer fault, HOWEVER it's not so with ShAbbey which is why they have been reprimanded and fined by the FSA on more than one occasion for shoddy and misleading customer service/advice.
Currently being investigated by the FSA is ShAbbey using the term of 'Financial Advisor' by staff who are nothing more than unqualified customer service staff.
It's is common knowledge here and outside these forums that ShAbbey have an appalling customer service record towards general consumer banking whereas it quite different in the commercial banking world.

andyhay

I'll try and keep this short - With Abbey 20 years, 1st December 2008 reported fraudulent entry on my account which emptied my account. On-line banking suspended as agreed with their fraud dept. I transferred funds into my account which hit the Abbey account on the 3rd. Yesterday, 17th December I rang the fraud department and was told I can expect a refund in the next few days. I thought, ok a bit slow but problem sorted. Today received a bank statement from Abbey, on the second of December a direct debit for car insurance was taken from my account which resulted in the account being £9 overdrawn. Abbey have charged me £50 for this for an instant overdraft arangement and something else. They are refusing to refund this payment and the person I spoke to was so patronising saying I should monitor the account on-line or at the branch to ensure sufficient funds were available - I had told her at the outset about the fraud. I have today opened a new account and will be closing the Abbey account ASAP.

wheelel

Andy - please don't let the charge slide and pay it, if not for the money, then for the principle!!...bottom line is if you hadn't have been defrauded you would have had enough money in the account to cover the DD. If they're refunding the amount you have been defrauded by then their charge as a result of this fraud should be inclusive of the refund. I know how patronising and unhelpful Abbey staff can be, but the ones in the branch or in the call centres don't really have much authority and will say anything just to get you off the phone.

Have you tried ringing Abbey's complaints department directly on 01908680123?

When I had to deal with Abbey to complain they seemed to take me a little more seriously there. If not write to them with a heading of 'Formal Complaint'.

hieveryone

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

Which incidently was mines, ok so maybe I didn't check my bank card every day to see if it had expired yet, but as someone else said, most banks automatically issue them BEFORE they expire meaning I don't have to eyeball it every time I get it out my purse.

And anyway, even if it was my own fault, I don't deserve to get spoken to in the way that I did when I called to casually ask where it was...the events that happened afterwards were completely Abbey's fault and not mines.

Also forgot to mention that I had fraud on the account that they were most unhelpful with, and sent bank statements to my old address for about 3 months after I changed it in branch!