Santander customer service

anselld

They (Abbey) are hopeless.
Been trying to open account for my daughter since October. Can't even do simple ID checks!! One lost birth certificate, multiple letters and calls to foreign call centres later and still no bank card.
Can't phone branch directly.
Can't even get to anyone to complain in person.
If we ever see the money again it will be going elsewhere rapidly!!

bjorn_again

I also happen to be a Santander shareholder and have now decided to sell my shares as soon as I can. They clearly have no idea how to run a successful business.

Would you care to enlarge on that? From where I am sitting Santander appear to run one of the world's largest and most successful Banks. Perhaps you have some inside info you'd like to share with us.

anselld

bjorn_again wrote: »

Perhaps you have some inside info you'd like to share with us.

Me? No, just had tragically bad customer service. Don't sell on my account!; I might just be unlucky. :cool:

Inactive

simon_templar wrote: »

Euromoney, Best Bank in the world awarded to Santander and best UK Bank awarded to Abbey, what about that then!

I would suggest that the judges have been taken away by men in white coats.

28hudson

Surely they can't stay in business and be profitable with such crummy customer service! I wouldn't invest in them.
I had two car loans with Soveriegn bank that Santander has taken over. In 3 months time they have sent double statments on both loans (one of which I accidentally paid twice), they generate statements 8 days before the payment is due leaving no time to actually get the statement write a check and mail it. Heaven help someone who goes out of town for a week and doesn't pay ahead without a coupon.
They charge a ridiculous $11 to pay on line. They now have an extra payment which they won't acknowledge AND the guy is trying to tell me the account is past due. PAST DUE?? IT is OVERPAID by one payment. He tells me it is my problem to send them a payment, they aren't obligated to send a statement or a coupon book, that's only a courtesy. I don't believe that is actually true.

I am so tired of banks cavalier attitude. They did NOT do me a favor, they agreed to conduct a business transaction which I am keeping my part of the contract.

I was seriously so angry I said alot of bad words and beat the keys out of my keyboard and broke off the little legs. In 3 months time I am so frustrated over Santander I am about to have an aneurysm. I'll bet I've called them 20 times. I can't express how angry I am at Santander. If I ran our business this way we wouldn't have a single customer.

We originally bought 2 classic cars through JJ Best Banc who funded through Sovereign then Santander took opver. NEVER again. We are in the classic car industry and will no longer recommend JJ Best Banc because they still use Santander.

withnell

28hudson wrote: »

Surely they can't stay in business and be profitable with such crummy customer service! I wouldn't invest in them.
I had two car loans with Soveriegn bank that Santander has taken over. In 3 months time they have sent double statments on both loans (one of which I accidentally paid twice), they generate statements 8 days before the payment is due leaving no time to actually get the statement write a check and mail it. Heaven help someone who goes out of town for a week and doesn't pay ahead without a coupon.
They charge a ridiculous $11 to pay on line. They now have an extra payment which they won't acknowledge AND the guy is trying to tell me the account is past due. PAST DUE?? IT is OVERPAID by one payment. He tells me it is my problem to send them a payment, they aren't obligated to send a statement or a coupon book, that's only a courtesy. I don't believe that is actually true.

I am so tired of banks cavalier attitude. They did NOT do me a favor, they agreed to conduct a business transaction which I am keeping my part of the contract.

I was seriously so angry I said alot of bad words and beat the keys out of my keyboard and broke off the little legs. In 3 months time I am so frustrated over Santander I am about to have an aneurysm. I'll bet I've called them 20 times. I can't express how angry I am at Santander. If I ran our business this way we wouldn't have a single customer.

We originally bought 2 classic cars through JJ Best Banc who funded through Sovereign then Santander took opver. NEVER again. We are in the classic car industry and will no longer recommend JJ Best Banc because they still use Santander.

Surely a loan has fixed repayments, so you should know how much they should be? I'd guess that online payment with a card costs them more to process than having a direct bank transfer

Gymgenius

I simply do not do business with any outfit that uses foreign call centres...and especially not banks.

cloud_dog

I've pretty much had it with Santander, we've had a few issues in the last 12 months primarilly since they started to migrate over to the Santander I.T. systems.

The biggest problem we have is that we have a joint acc. with them (for the last 21 years!!!) and they have never been able to issue me with a debit card for the account (some technical difficuly / how they set up things originally). Previously I've used my wife's card via the telephone banking and when I speak with an operator I pass the security checks and continue with my query / issue; unfortunately now they will only speak with my wife.

So we are in the position wherre they are unable to issue me with a card and are unable due to security constraints to speak with me.

I wont go in to the details of the other issues (double debits, a foreign cheque / not a foreign cheque / manual charges applied to the account) so......... it looks like 'watch out HSBC, here we come....'

Gymgenius

cloud_dog wrote: »

I've pretty much had it with Santander, we've had a few issues in the last 12 months primarilly since they started to migrate over to the Santander I.T. systems.

The biggest problem we have is that we have a joint acc. with them (for the last 21 years!!!) and they have never been able to issue me with a debit card for the account (some technical difficuly / how they set up things originally). Previously I've used my wife's card via the telephone banking and when I speak with an operator I pass the security checks and continue with my query / issue; unfortunately now they will only speak with my wife.

So we are in the position wherre they are unable to issue me with a card and are unable due to security constraints to speak with me.

I wont go in to the details of the other issues (double debits, a foreign cheque / not a foreign cheque / manual charges applied to the account) so......... it looks like 'watch out HSBC, here we come....'

Vote with your feet. Leave them and don't let them anywhere near your hard-earnt. That's what we did!

mletters

VERY poor Customer Service. I have moved my mortgage (12 year Abbey loyal customer) to Nationwide for better deals and better Customer Service!). Abbey/Santander did NOTHING to try and retain my business. My Current Account is the next to go very shortly.

I could write a book about the shoddy service from Abbey/Santander, but I will only give one recent example of the MANY problems with this bank.

Every time you call, you are guaranteed to speak to someone who's first language is NOT english. I am in no way racist, but surely it should surely be a simple right to be understood and communicate without having to repeat yourself over and over again, and spell simple words/phrases.

I have just left my local Branch of Abbey, where I tried to pay a joint name cheque into my Current account, but couldn't due to it being in Single name (mine). I was advised to go to my local branch, fill in a simple form and we could then pay the cheque into my Current account with my partner added straight away, with no problems.

We waited over 70 minutes in the branch, due to someone not being able to complete a simple exercise on a computer. She had to keep going to a Manager to complete this simple task.

Anyway, we left the branch 70 minutes later, and went shopping. As I used my Debit card to pay for our shop, guess what - CARD DECLINED!!!!! -. I advised that this could not be possible, as I had an o/d facility and was well within my limit. It was again, DECLINED! We paid with alternative payment and left the store.

I returned home and checked my account online, only to find that my overdraft had been removed without warning.

I called Abbey, and guess what - spoke to someone who could barely speak English, and I politley asked to speak to a UK representive only to be told that they cannot transfer calls to the UK, and I must redial and sit in the queue again, to which I replied, OK so I must keep redialing for the next 100 times until I eventually get through to someone in the UK at MY expense (0845 number). I was told this was correct.

Second time, I redialled - again - another foreign call centre - I explained that I would like to speak to someone in the UK - to be told - no problem - please wait and I will transfer you back to the queue and you may get someone from the UK. GREAT - maybe I'll get straight through.......15:30 minutes later, and guess what....CLICK.....LINE GOES DEAD. I was cut off!

Third time - I called back and explained again that I would like to speak with someone to resolve this issue. This time, the foreign representitive explained that he would like to try and resolve the issue.....and to be fair, after explaining that I only wanted to simply add my partner to my account to be able to pay a joint cheque in, and my overdraft was removed in error.....within 20 minutes, the overdraft was back with no explination of why it was removed in error, in the first place...But I had to sit and listen to the terms and conditions all over again, AT MY EXPENSE.

This is just one example of the MANY issues I have had with this bank, and believe me, it is not worth the mental anguish with SANTANDER. Believe me, I paid the price, and am now shipping out.

I write this in the hope that someone might be saved from having the misfortune of joining Abbey/Santander, because believe me - you will pay the price.

NEVER AGAIN!

Mike.