Banging my head against a brick wall with Abbey Bank! Warning V Long

Sunny_Angel

I am soooo cross and frustrated! :mad:

Basically a long story cut short...

I separated from my husband and moved house. Went in to my local Abbey branch to change my details approx a year ago. But they couldn't do it because i had reverted to my maiden name and had nothing in my married name to prove my new address, eg utility bill etc. I spent approx 3 hours in there that day trying to sort it between queueing, and talking to various staff. With three small children those three hours seemed to go on forever.

I had recieved a new card the previous month, and never activated it so assumed (silly me:rolleyes: ) that the balance would remain at zero and it was not possible to spend any money on the account.

Roll on a few months and i get some phone call asking why i hadn't been making minimum payments, confused I thought I must have overlooked something and I paid the balance and a few months later get a similar call. Alarm bells started to ring and i tried to log on to my internet banking, to find i had been locked out.

I keep getting these phonecalls and have various conversations with Abbey staff ranging from, "sorry i cant tell you what the transactions are" (???), to "you need to call a different number , hang on i'll pass you through...." phoneline goes dead!

Until last week when i finally speak to someone who tells me that a company called MBT Ireland has been taking cash disbursements from my account. (Anyone know who they are? google didn't come up with anything i recognised) And what is a cash disbursement from a credit card?

He advises me that i really need to go back in to branch and change my details, even though i still have nothing with my old name and new address on it. So this morning i went into branch, and again got pushed from pillar to post until i put my foot down and got quite firm. So a staff member changes my details, i have all paperwork with me, birth cert, marriage cert, passport, bills etc,etc. She didn't ask to see any! No problem i think job done.
They then put me on the phone to the fraud dept. I was talking to a man who seemed helpful, but he put me on hold, warned me it would be a while, not to hang up. i got cut off after 10 minutes, and couldn't get back on to anyone in the same dept when i redialled the number.
By this time the baby had had more than enough and i left. Floor staff were no help. I was in branch for about 90 mins.
When i get home i try to phone up to set up internet banking, as they cant do that in branch, going through security questions i find out they have changed my name but not my address!!

After numerous calls this evening, I have now spoken to about 30 different Abbey staff today alone, let alone all the other times i have tried to sort it. spent a fortune on phonecalls and wasted a lot of time, but am no further on. Meanwhile there could be any amount of fraud on my account going on. I have no access to any of my statements. And then they ask me what the last transaction on my account is or what the balance is as part of the security questions on the phone. :mad:

I have just been trying again and finally asked to speak to a manager, waiting for one to phone back now, but needed to rant before i burst a blood vessel......if you've managed to get this far, thanks for reading, and take some advice, dont bank with Abbey, customer service is the worst ever!
:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:


And breathe.....

Sunny Angel

TomsMom

I gave up with Shabby Abbey a few years ago. Quite a few cases of their ineptitude on this site too.

If it was me I would now put it in writing. Quite often snail mail succeeds where phone calls fail.

Sunny_Angel

Thanks TomsMom, i am trying to write a letter of complaint, but as you will guess from my OP, i have a tendancy to waffle, not sure how much of the above is relevant in a complaints letter? And i think i am too cross just now and its turning into a very emotive letter.

Going to try another draft tomorrow.

Do i really need to add that i have not had a call back from a manager, which i was promised would happen this evening, or it that just stating the obvious?:rolleyes:

Sunny Angel

TomsMom

Sunny_Angel wrote: »

Going to try another draft tomorrow.

Good idea. You will have calmed down and be thinking more clearly. In your draft write down the salient points then expand to include essential information without waffling too much. Sometimes it's hard to say everything you want to say in a letter of acceptable length. It's advised to keep letters to one A4 sheet, but I imagine that wont be possible here.

It might be worth, in the first instance, just writing to say that you want them to record your change of name and address and see what happens.

I've recently informed 7 financial institutions of my change of address, some I could do online, others I had to write in. All have been done with no problems nor any proof.

I don't know how change of name works other than if you marry you might have to send a copy of your marriage certificate. I can't imagine how it works when you revert to your maiden name .

If you manage to get this sorted by a simple written request, then if you want to complain about your experience in the branch and on the phone then you could do so afterwards. I'd also be moving elsewhere where the service is better .

As you can see, I can waffle too :rotfl:

Sunny_Angel

Thanks Toms mum,
It turns out they changed my name in branch but not my address. Its beyond me really how they can do one and not the other.

Still haven't had a call from a manager....:mad:

Going to sit down tonight once the kids are in bed, and write a letter, just cant for the life of me imagine geting it to fit on just one A4 page, lol.

Thankfully i only have a credit card with them and no other accounts so it wont be any loss to close the account once its all sorted.

Well at least it did the job i needed it to at the time woth its 0% balance transfer to clear my debts, which thankfully are all cleared now.
But i certainly wont be dealing with them again.

Sunny Angel.

CRANKY40

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

AlwaysWorking

Abbey seem to have a problem with names...my brother has banked with them for a few years. Last year his new debit card arrived...in my mum's name. When he phoned they wouldn't speak to him as his name wasn't on the account any longer! My mum then phoned and all the security questions related to her, dispite her never having set foot in a branch of Abbey in her life! After my brother and mum twice having to take time off work to visit his branch (and getting a further two cards in my mum's name) he EVENTUALLY got a card in his own name, but it took a few months of having to use a card in my mum's name and they never did explain how they had all of her details for the security questions. Very annoying for them both so I can understand your frustration.

rl290

I read the Money section of the Sunday Times every week, and Abbey are almost always "featured" at least once in the problems column. They do seem totally awful for customer service. I once tried to get a Zero card with them, and it was such a hopeless uphill battle that I gave up. That combined with the aforementioned newspaper column has resulted in me vowing never to use Abbey in my life. Ever.

Regarding your specific problem, I would write to their complaints department, stating factually what has happened. I would seek the defrauded money back, in addition to a goodwill payment recognising the dire customer service and extreme lengths you have had to go to (especially time wise). Abbey should write back immediately saying the issue is being looked into, and include a leaflet about how to complain to the financial obudsman if you do not reach a satisfactory conclusion. If you do not receive a satisfactory conclusion in the allowed time (someone remind me what this is??) then write to the financial obudsman. Alternatively, write to the newspaper column - it would make good reading.

R