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

simon_templar_2

Abbey cant communicate with their own staff in the branches! Head Office and depts outside of the branches are useless. Fraud are a hopeless dept, currently with a back log going back to October. The Partenon systems have been in use for 2 years and are still riddled with bugs and Spanish error messages.

sallymally

It is worrying when you are trusting this 'Outfit' to look after your money.
I know what you mean though, the departments of Abbey don't communicate with each other, or the staff in the particular department.

When I get my money returned to me I may consider under the mattress instead.

internationaltraveller

Abbey santander blocked my account whilst I was abroad.I had 3 days holiday left and was staying at a top hotel.
I tried to use the abbey debit card at an atm and the card was rejected.I returned to the hotel to ring their Customer services line number that I located on the back of the debit card.
Over the next 3 days I was told of many different reasons why their was a problem and that if I retry everything will be ok.Anyway I told them I only had a credit card to pay the hotel bill and would need cash to leave the airport as this country charged a security and houskeeping fee of 750 peso to leave the airport.Each time I tried the card (after been reassured by people on the customer services line everything would be ok ) the card was declined.Eventually after ringing the abbey santander customer services line about 12 times (yes 12 times) I was told the card had been reported stolen!!!I was very angry as I had not reported it stolen and suspected someone at abbey was up to no good.
The customer services line told me I would have to wait for another card to be sent.I told them I couldnt wait as I was in another country with no cash because my abbey account was blocked.I told them I was in a very poor country and would have to sell a £1000 laptop top gain 750peso about £10 for the airport tax.I rang the british embassy who told me the bank must give me the money if I ask for EMERGENCY CASH.So I rang them and used the magic words emergency cash and was told to give my hotel number and room number and they would ring back within an hour or so.I waited 7 hours and they didnt ring back.I was leaving the next day in a limo to the airport.I was in a state of panic as I didnt have the airport tax to leave the country.I went outside the 5 star hotel and like a street peddler I sold my £1000 laptop and my cell phone to anyone who had £10(750 peso)
Eventually someone had the money and I sold it to them for all they could afford which was £10(750peso)I asked them to sign a receipt and give me their address ,and leave the cell phone number.The address was correct and I still have all receipts.When I received the hotel bill the room phone charges to abbey customer helpline for 12 calls for the same problem whcih they failed to sort out was £300!!!! Yes £300.
So I wasted 3 days vacation and lost £1300 plus the cost of a new cell all trying to get £10 for EMERGENCY CASH from Abbey Santander.
I was told Abbey was forced to give me the money and under the banking code of practise they have broken the rules and left a british national in danger and alone in a foreign land.I am now taking the Abbey to the ombudsman after my initail 2 month compliant and wait in writing.
I advice you all to close your account with the Abbey Santander and do not trust them when you travel abroad.Thsi bank in my opinion is the lowest of the low and worse than useless.I have been with abbey bank for 20 years.I am a hard working man who has never taken time off work has never been in trouble with the law and who is curtious and polite to others.Thank you for reading my thread.

Extant

simon_templar wrote: »

Abbey cant communicate with their own staff in the branches! Head Office and depts outside of the branches are useless. Fraud are a hopeless dept, currently with a back log going back to October. The Partenon systems have been in use for 2 years and are still riddled with bugs and Spanish error messages.

¿esta usted seguro usted deseo para cancelar esta tarjeta de debito? Es exterior SCORCHIO.

sshine123

they should re name the bank Shabbey

Extant

I'm so glad I work for a real bank.

sutton111

internationaltraveller wrote: »

Abbey santander blocked my account whilst I was abroad.I had 3 days holiday left and was staying at a top hotel.
I tried to use the abbey debit card at an atm and the card was rejected.I returned to the hotel to ring their Customer services line number that I located on the back of the debit card.
Over the next 3 days I was told of many different reasons why their was a problem and that if I retry everything will be ok.Anyway I told them I only had a credit card to pay the hotel bill and would need cash to leave the airport as this country charged a security and houskeeping fee of 750 peso to leave the airport.Each time I tried the card (after been reassured by people on the customer services line everything would be ok ) the card was declined.Eventually after ringing the abbey santander customer services line about 12 times (yes 12 times) I was told the card had been reported stolen!!!I was very angry as I had not reported it stolen and suspected someone at abbey was up to no good.
The customer services line told me I would have to wait for another card to be sent.I told them I couldnt wait as I was in another country with no cash because my abbey account was blocked.I told them I was in a very poor country and would have to sell a £1000 laptop top gain 750peso about £10 for the airport tax.I rang the british embassy who told me the bank must give me the money if I ask for EMERGENCY CASH.So I rang them and used the magic words emergency cash and was told to give my hotel number and room number and they would ring back within an hour or so.I waited 7 hours and they didnt ring back.I was leaving the next day in a limo to the airport.I was in a state of panic as I didnt have the airport tax to leave the country.I went outside the 5 star hotel and like a street peddler I sold my £1000 laptop and my cell phone to anyone who had £10(750 peso)
Eventually someone had the money and I sold it to them for all they could afford which was £10(750peso)I asked them to sign a receipt and give me their address ,and leave the cell phone number.The address was correct and I still have all receipts.When I received the hotel bill the room phone charges to abbey customer helpline for 12 calls for the same problem whcih they failed to sort out was £300!!!! Yes £300.
So I wasted 3 days vacation and lost £1300 plus the cost of a new cell all trying to get £10 for EMERGENCY CASH from Abbey Santander.
I was told Abbey was forced to give me the money and under the banking code of practise they have broken the rules and left a british national in danger and alone in a foreign land.I am now taking the Abbey to the ombudsman after my initail 2 month compliant and wait in writing.
I advice you all to close your account with the Abbey Santander and do not trust them when you travel abroad.Thsi bank in my opinion is the lowest of the low and worse than useless.I have been with abbey bank for 20 years.I am a hard working man who has never taken time off work has never been in trouble with the law and who is curtious and polite to others.Thank you for reading my thread.

That is totally inept and a total disgrace on the way Abbey have treated you.
Are you moving banks now?

ShelfStacker_3

sutton111 wrote: »

That is totally inept and a total disgrace on the way Abbey have treated you.
Are you moving banks now?

I doubt that even needs to be asked, to be honest. I don't think anyone would stick around after that sort of punishment.

FWIW, I hope the Ombudsman chuck the book at them.

project46

tanyatheprincess wrote: »

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:

the only reason that you would be oweing abbey money is because you have not paid any fees on your account. If you don't pay the fees you will of course have to pay more fees and interest for being overdrawn all this is explained in your terms and conditiosn which you should have read upon opening your account.

lililis

I couldn't even begin to tell you how much I hate them. I actually worked for them for 6 years and left a few years back. These stories are the tip of the iceberg and I have had so many personal nightmare experiences with them. The latest of these is discovering they have been authorising a monthly debit card payment for the last 12 months. Last January my debit card expired and they replaced it with a cash card but apparently it's ok for them to continue authorising payments with a non-existent card. I started my complaint about this in September and they never responded until I contacted the Financial Ombudsman. They've been 'investigating' for 7 weeks and are still allowing the payment to go through, the last one was on 17th January. I don't even remember what the payment is for. Can you imagine trying to explain this to their call centre? No disrespect but the majority of the staff can barely understand basic English. I remember one Abbey customer who rang up to cancel a direct debit and got a new credit card instead!!

Shabby Abbey indeed!