URGENT Free £100 Loophole discussion: MoneySavingExpert.com discussion

Tim_L

Good result today. My wife had had a lot of trouble with her application (usual story). So we sent the following letter to them:

Dear Sir or Madam

I wish to complain in the strongest possible terms about the shambolic way you have dealt with my application for an online Barclay’s current account, and subsequent problems getting any sensible response from your customer services, who seem absolutely incapable of understanding even the simplest query. The whole thing has been a Kafkaesque nightmare.

I applied for an online account 2 months ago, wishing to benefit from your £100 incentive promotion. The initial application went smoothly, and a few days later I was sent through papers to sign, which I returned immediately.

Nothing further happened, and I contacted you by phone to ask what I should do. You told me that I had to go to a branch with ID, which I did, in XXXXX Street, XXXXXX. The staff there appeared not to want to deal with me at all, telling me there was a long wait, and eventually when I persisted I was seen relatively quickly, but the attitude of the person dealing with me was unhelpful. He did however set up the account, but it would appear from later events that despite being asked to continue with my application for an online account he set up a branch account.

I did not receive my online details as expected, and again called in. After a long call and conversation in which it was clear that the operative didn’t have the remotest desire to understand what I was asking, I was sent through some details, and attempted to log on. I was prompted for a ‘memorable word’ which I had not in fact ever set up – on trying to reset this, which your online system appears to allow, the system explained that details would have to be sent through by post. But when I actually got to the point where I requested this, the system put up a message saying I couldn’t do this as I had already set up my memorable word! Clearly this creates a Catch 22 situation, which is impossible to get past without calling a customer services that had already shown itself to be completely useless.

Last week I summoned enough strength to call in again, having noted from my bank statement that the account appeared to be branch based, not online. Once again, I had a very long conversation to attempt to persuade someone to reset my memorable word and allow me to access my online account. There was no indication whatsoever that anything I was asking for made any sort of connection with the operative’s area of expertise (whatever that was), and I had an oddly circular conversation. Eventually I believed I had got the message through, and heaved an inward sigh of relief.

So you can imagine the mixture of hilarity and anger with which I read the letter received on Saturday 18th in response to this call (copy enclosed), in which your illustrious staff explain to me that they can’t complete my application for online banking because I already have an account, i.e. the same account that I was calling them to get online access to!

I would like to ask you why you think anyone would entrust their money to an “organisation” such as yours, which cannot deal with the simplest of queries in any sensible way.

Clearly this is an absolutely intolerable set of responses, and I would ask you first to investigate and ensure they do not happen to any other unfortunates, though I gather by the information I have found online that my experiences are not uncommon at all. Your reputation is clearly seriously suffering from the ineptitude surrounding this offer. I have also spent a great deal of time and effort (including an afternoon at a branch) attempting to sort this out. You will understand that I am at point somewhere beyond frustration and anger.

I note that you have a scale of charges for customers failing to meet their engagements to you, for example if there is an unauthorised overdraft. Since you have clearly failed completely in your dealings with me – not one single contact has received a satisfactory response - I expect a similar payment to cover the time and trouble spent dealing with the account. I would suggest a figure of £30.

I also expect you to keep your engagement with respect to the £100 incentive payment and confirm when this will be paid. I have paid in at least £1000 a month for two months as the offer required. Whether or not I continue to use the account, is really up to the speed and efficiency with which you deal with this complaint, because it is difficult to contemplate, for example, transferring direct debits and salary to a bank of an almost incomprehensible level of ineptitude. Goodness only knows where my mortgage payments would end up!

Clearly I also require an apology.

You may call me on the number given above to respond to the points I have raised, though I do reserve the right to put you on hold for lengthy periods, transfer you to other random people to whom you may repeat your points, and fail completely to understand what you are saying. This is presumably acceptable to you, since you apparently believe it is acceptable to your customers.

There was a pause of a couple of weeks, then this morning we received an apology explaining that the £100 would be credited, and that we were also receiving a £50 payment as a goodwill gesture.

The moral of the story is always to ask banks for money when they screw up - invariably they pay!

cheekymole

Love the letter Tim, do you think if I paste and copy it they'll realise they've alreadu received it - no I didn't think so either!!!

metaphase

LOL it was the closing paragraph that sold it for me! - I'm sure even the people reading must have had a slight chuckle at that (and that's probably why they upped it from £30 to £50! ).

BTW - I agree with your sentiment re. asking banks for money. When I went to Uni I took up the then Midland Bank's offer of a free Young Persons railcard, etc. They managed to completely muck up sending out all my new account info, cards, chequebooks, etc. and ended up (under their policy) paying out £10/mistake - came to about £60

mangoad_2

alanjrobertson wrote:

Hmm I haven't received one of these e-mails. I applied the day Martin's e-mail came out and amazingly didn't need to go into a branch to supply ID. Account was all opened up, received internet banking details and have transferred first £1k in. I suppose I might have lost the e-mail mentioned above amongst all the fake 'Barclays IBank Security' spam messages that I receive multiple times a week, but I'm pretty sure I didn't see it.

Certainly hope it doesn't mean I'll lose out on the £100 - hopefully just their systems not working properly! Will certainly ensure my next £1k transfers in promptly to keep well within the T&Cs!

Alan

funny

i received the email about being eligible for 100 and opened my account first
and my OH account was opened after mine and he did not receive the email but has been credited with the £100 and I HAVE NOT.

My acc was opened on 30th Jan
paid in £1000 on 17th Feb
then 500 and 505 on 22nd march No £100 yet (should get it by 22 April)

My OH acc was opened on 3rd feb
paid 1000 in on 21 feb
paid 2nd 1000 in on 27 march
100 Credited on 03 April

Wonder if it just luck or he has got his 100 cos i paid 1000 in, in one transaction whereas on my account the 2nd payment was made in 500 and 500 .

Will wait and see

exel1966

Payments of £100 issued so far have been very random and there is no pattern to it. Just wait til the 28 days has passed and then badger the hell out of them til they pay up.

I applied 13th Jan, account opened 24th Jan, first £1k deposit 6th Feb, 2nd £1K deposit 9th March, still waiting........................................................

My fingers are itching to dial c/s to listen to the response.......72 hours to go !!!

Nail_Lad

exel1966 wrote:

Payments of £100 issued so far have been very random and there is no pattern to it. Just wait til the 28 days has passed and then badger the hell out of them til they pay up.

I applied 13th Jan, account opened 24th Jan, first £1k deposit 6th Feb, 2nd £1K deposit 9th March, still waiting........................................................

My fingers are itching to dial c/s to listen to the response.......72 hours to go !!!

I'd call now, as you'll be on hold for at least 72 hours...

Stormy

Incidently, has anyone who has deposited the 2k but actually not left 2k in the account been paid?

I paid 1k in in february, but wrote cheques against it. I then paid the second 1k in on March the 10th, no £100 as yet.

28 days comes up on the 6th........

metaphase

Yep - both times I paid in £1k I withdrew it a couple of days later. Didn't get any e-mail re. the £100 offer as some did but received it fine last Monday. There certainly wasn't anything in the T&Cs that said you had to leave the money in the account so you should be fine.

cheekymole

my 28 days are up, but no £100, should I phone or wait a few more days?

Spud_2

I can report another success, I've just checked and the £100 has been credited to my account.

Thanks again Martin for this great loophole - this pays for my flight to Spain!! :money: