Bank error - seeking compensation

Lokolo

Inactive wrote: »

The fact remains, this should have been sorted by Abbey, it wasn't, it caused the OP severe stress and inconvenience, he is entitled to compensation, no if's, and's or but's.

I slightly can see your point. As I stated before, a £50 goodwill gesture max. Do you agree with the amount that he wants?

andy065

phoning them is a recognised way of making contact. It is the method pushed by Abbey to resolve problems. I haven't had problems in the past which would have given me the level of knowledge you have Lokolo. I simply put my trust in the large international professional organisation. And was let down.
I buy something online and have an issue - a phone call sorts it. I want to change reservation at a restaurant, a phone call resolves it. If the bank phone systems is unable to resolve things, then they should stop closing down branches or invest in sorting their failings.

andy065

My original post was asking for input on level of compensation - i don't know what would be reasonable - but it seemed acceptable to use the banks own charging system. After all, if i had made an error and plunged my account in to the red, i would be responsible for charges and fees for any letters, so why shouldn't they be?

Lokolo

andy065 wrote: »

If the bank phone systems is unable to resolve things, then they should stop closing down branches or invest in sorting their failings.

Although I agree with that why did you not think to go down to a branch after they didn't resolve it? 3 days you lost, come on, sort it out, I am sure any other businessman/woman wouldn't wait that long before going storming into a branch. Think about how much you lost! You could have stopped that from occuring, but instead you took the 'lazy' option and just trying to get the money back from the bank.

And indeed, would you want to payout the same level as you are asking for?

Fair enough, its a right pain in the **** and yeh I agree you should get something but thing is, when most people talk about compensation they want lots more than they should really get (blame the media to be honest). As I said, £50 as a goodwill gesture I would expect, then move banks lol.

Inactive

Lokolo wrote: »

I slightly can see your point. As I stated before, a £50 goodwill gesture max. Do you agree with the amount that he wants?

I personally would be seeking far more than £50 for the amount of stress and inconvenience caused by Abbey, and it would not be in the form of a " goodwill gesture ".

Difficult to put an exact figure on it without knowing all of the facts/ circumstances.

Lokolo

OP/Andy. Have you made an official complaint yet?

andy065

i don't have a branch very close to me (of course many people have mobility problems and would have to rely on the phone). and of course you don't know how long something is going to take until it gets resolved - and it wasn't 3 consecutive days, it was a couple of hours here and a couple there, which added up to about 3 days. The only experience i have of an Abbey branch was when i wanted to transfer money to the US, i was there from 9.30am through till after 2pm - admittedly, less than 3 days, but still way longer than i expected for what should have been a very simple transaction.

andy065

Lokolo - they told me that they wouldn't be able to handle any complaint untill after the charges had been reversed - up to 10 days after i noticed them (14 Jan)

ShelfStacker_3

Lokolo wrote: »

Why? Because you'd rather sit on your phone than go to a branch and sort it out there and then.

Abbey are well known for having little actual service in their branches, and instead directing people onto a phone for most/all queries. It could well have been the case that he would have inconvenienced himself further by walking down to the branch and received the same level of service as he would have done sitting at home eating bourbon creams.

Also going to take issue with the jibes at phone banking I'm afraid - at least with HSBC, most things that can be done in branches can be done over the 'phone, and I've never had an issue with any of my instructions being misinterpreted or not received at all with any of the banks I've been with.

Lokolo

Ok wait for those charges to be refunded. Write an official complaint. See what they offer you first.

As I said, I would expect £50 (I am a tight **** though) but obviously Inactive being the moaning ******* that he is, would expect a lot more.

In the letter don't write how much you expect, just write all the details down, so say you've had to phone for X number of hours costing you money through phone and loss of work. Inconvinience as couldn't go down to local branch as none nearby so had to use phone which ended up being extremely unprofessional (maybe a better word than that, I don't think they were unprofessional, just useless)

ShelfStacker wrote: »

Also going to take issue with the jibes at phone banking I'm afraid - at least with HSBC, most things that can be done in branches can be done over the 'phone, and I've never had an issue with any of my instructions being misinterpreted or not received at all with any of the banks I've been with.

Eh? Take jibes at phone banking? ENGLISH

I hate telephone banking with HSBC, although the time I have phoned up they have been ok, I just prefer branches I think. Also I think workin at Dominos has put the hatred for phones in me.... Oh the number of Inactives we got (hehe)