Abbey and bereavment torture

andyinlondon

Hi all
I am sorry if this is in the wrong section but I was not sure where to put it.
This is the story of how Abbey treats not only their own customers but also the bereaved relatives of one of their customers.
My mother passed away back in January and I was named the sole beneficiary in her will and the executor of her estate.
All in all an upsetting time, with lots of paperwork to do, people and organisations to inform, claims to make ect, ect.
All the organisations I had to contact were very helpful and sympathetic and tried to make things as easy as possible to resolve, insurance companies the pensions office and the local branch of the Abbey where my mother did her banking.
However the nice chap at the local branch of the abbey was not able to do anything with regard to my mother’s accounts or even the Santander shares that she held from the Santander takeover of the abbey.
He asked for her documents and copied them all, death cert, marriage cert will and my id,
He photocopied them all and said that he would have to send them to the probate department to be processed.
He said it would take 7 to 10 days but it was a strait forward case and would be quickly dealt with.
It went downhill from there!
I left it for two weeks trusting that what I had been told was correct but having not heard anything I thought I would check on the progress.
I called the local branch and spoke to the account rep who said he had sent the paper work in and was surprised I had not had any reply.
He then spoke to the probate dept who asked him to resubmit the paperwork and that they would then deal with it.
Another week goes by and the same thing happens again ... paperwork resubmitted yet again and calls made to the probate dept by the account rep.
This time the probate dept are getting snotty with the account rep but he resubmits the paperwork as they request.
Another week and still nothing so I chase it up and the account rep tries to call the probate dept who hang up on him, so he calls the manager of the probate dept and complains about what has happened. The manager promises to look into it and call him back. Of course this does not happen.
So further calls are made and the bank manager involved and eventually some of my mother’s accounts are closed. The probate dept then sends out a series of cheques from these accounts most of which were for a few pounds each.
At last I think a light at the end of the tunnel it has taken some 7 weeks but finally a resolution.
But of course it is not at all. Another couple of weeks go by and nothing further from the abbey so I call the account rep again who tries to chase it up but gets nowhere.
At this point he tells me that the shares have to be resolved separately and to contact Santander directly to get the claim form.
So 3 calls to the Santander shareholders helpline over three weeks produces no claim form
So I had to call to the abbey complaints line to even get a claim form sent out and i am sure this will be another epic battle.
Back to the rest of the accounts and another week goes by so I call the complaints dept to complain and I am told they cannot do anything as the branch are dealing with it.
So I call the branch who tell m, no the complaints dept are now dealing with it. So I give it a few days and call complaints again who insist that no the branch is dealing with it and they cannot touch it until the branch writes to me and tells me they have failed to resolve it.
So I call the branch again and they tell me they are sending me this letter. At which point I lose it,
I call the chairman’s office and lodge an official complaint with them, this is supposed to be the top level complaint in the whole organisation.
I speak to a polite lady who expresses concern and says that they will take over the complaint at head office and resolve it quickly.
So I leave it another week and hear nothing so I call them again and am told that they have sent out an acknowledgment letter and someone will be assigned to investigate my complaint.
So in other words they have done nothing for yet another week!
I have had to deal with the death of my mother and all the pain and trauma that that has caused but I am not even been allowed to try and begin the healing process because abbey national are forcing me to confront her death on a daily basis and rubbing my face in it buy making me fight and chase them every day now.
Abbey are unlawfully holding my mother’s money with no excuse, they cannot explain why. They claim there is no problem but refuse to process the paperwork
And to cap it all........ The best bit now!
I got a letter from their debt recovery department demanding that I, as the executor of her estate clear a small overdraft that was left on her current account.
This despite the fact that abbey are holding over ten times that amount still in her other accounts.
And of course the probate department are supposed to clear any debts or overdrafts ECT as part of the process of closing the accounts before they release any funds to the estate.
Where can I go from here?
I am utterly appalled by the way I have been treated and I am at my wits end.........
Andy
PS sorry about the length of this post

cifpower

No advice but what you have been through is disgusting and reprehensible. I hope you get a solution soon.

Mikeyorks

andyinlondon wrote: »

.
Where can I go from here?

You just keep plugging away, I'm afraid. Frustration is part of the territory when you're acting as an Exor. And you're actually quite fortunate to have only hit one incompetent organisation ..... as there's an awful lot of them out there. Bereavement tends to be outside the normal script for most UK organisations .... and they don't deal with it at all well - let alone with due urgency and sensitivity

When my father died a couple of years ago - Halifax were utterly useless. Even to the degree of issuing an appointment addressed to him, when my Mother called in to report the death and fix up a meeting. When I challenged them ... they actually defended it as being policy. Took me 5 months to get an apology out of them.

On my Mother's death, a few months ago, I've found Halifax have improved to a significant degree since they've created a direct access Bereavement team ..... as they no longer trust the Branches. But their role at the top of my useless list has been taken by Virgin Media / British Gas and the local Estate Agent I used to sell the property.

I'm afraid you just learn to roll with it a bit. You seem to have most of it complete ..... so just keep at it.

skintmumofone

Hi I am an Executry Paralegal (Scottish Based) and I am not surprised how Abbey and Halifax act re bereavement I deal with this every day and have major problems with Abbey constantly, Halifax are a night mare too and send the wrong forms constantly.

In Scotland if you have more than £15000 in a bank account you need to apply to the court for Confirmation (probate in England) although some banks let you sign an indemnity and then release the funds on sight of the will or death certificate. I cannot believe the hassle and upset you have been put thru and can only sympathise with you I relaly hope you get somewhere with them anyhting you need to ask or any questions you have I will try and help you speed things up - did you have to apply for probate?

andyinlondon

Hi thanks for the kind replies and advise.
my forum name is a little out of date it should read Andyinscotland now as i moved up here 2 years ago.

I checked with the local sheriff court and they said i would not need to apply for confirmation (scottish probate) unless it was demanded by an insurer or my mothers bank, that they the court or the authorities did not require it in this case. They said it was a simple small estate and should be resolved quite simply, and they were right with the exception of abbey it has been quite straitforward to deal with.
No one including the abbey has asked for confirmation to be done it seems to be just a matter of rank incompetance by the probate department and complaints department of abbey national.
The fact that all the rest of my family are customers of abbey does not seem to bother them at all.

All i can say is, if you think you may die one day, then it would be best if you did not bank with abbey as it will cause a lot of distress for your family to try and deal with them during their bereavment.

Scousebird_2

I am sorry to hear about this.

I must say from (previously) working in the banking industry that if it isn't a sale when you go into the branch, then you are not as ''valued'' and hence people do not have as much time for the customer (may I remind who are the bread and butter of the business), and most bereavement cases are dealt with in most banks centrally. I feel this is wrong and every branch should have specially trained advisers to deal with this.

This fundamentally works, but advisers do not sit down and explain it to the customer. I was very proud of the way I dealt with bereavement cases and I always remembered that the person in front of you is overcome with grief. I always knew a death certificate would be presented and that for me was the hardest part. The first thing I did for any of my customers relatives was to make them a brew and ask them if they were comfortable to proceed and to make it clear that there was no rush (I always has tissues in my top draw which I incidentally had to pay for)! I made sure I took copies of all my documents from the customer and addressed any difficult questions there and then to avoid distress later on and explained why I needed the information. I kept copies in my branch folder until each case paid out to the next of kin and also telephoned a few weeks after to make sure everything was ok. Plus if documents ''went missing'' during the transition to probate (I used to fax and send a copy internally so that was rare), I didn't have to distress the informant, I could just re-send from my own files.

I also arranged for funeral costs to be paid from the funds held (which the banks are legally obliged to do unless there is good reason not to) if family could bring in the undertakers bill-to help with the difficult time if the funds had not been paid out in full. And then I explained the process and offered the customer my DIRECT number and that of the back office clerk in case I was unavailable, and also for our probate team who would be sending out the documents to sign for the release of funds. I even used to take the bank details of the person due the money (usually the informant in most cases at my branch), so that when the funds were due for release, I could pay them direct to a bank account instead of unforseen delays or problems with cheques.

Data protection is a pain in the !!!! because even though the person has passed, you always used to get the question-how much is there? Is there any debt?

There is only so much you can say-bearing in mind if the estate was less than 5k, usually this was an easy deal-the money is paid direct to the executor (which the court of probate grants anyway and a document to this effect is produced)-then funds will be released fairly quickly. Complexities arise when the estate has to go to internal probate when the estate is larger than 5k-but even then, if a will&testament is in place, or a grant of probate, then it shouldn't take longer than 3weeks max.

I think you have had an awful experience and it's hearing things like this that made me leave banking because I couldn't cope with the inconsideration of the feelings of human beings. I now work in the NHS and I find my job exceptionally rewarding. Sadly, due to the changes in the banking industry and the corporate focus, with the prevalation of sales agaisnt service, I felt I could not do it anymore and I was pushed out-and that made the Industry lose a very customer centred and focused individual, and that's sad because the banks need people like me to rebuild relationships with customers, not nag them to death with sales. I just couldn't sell, and I am damn proud of the fact that I did everything in the best interests of my customers and used my judgement to help in the best and most professional way I could.

I just hope that things get resolved for you. You shouldn't have had to experience this and the un-neccessary distress that followed.

Sorry for your loss also xx

I notice you are in Scotland so my guidance is not 100% applicable because it works different up there. I reckon skintmumofone is the ideal person to get help from though. Good luck xx

andyinlondon

Just a little update. another two weeks has gone by

Nothing has been done yet by Abbey.

Despite taking the complaint right up to the chairmans office (supposed to be the highest level complaint within abbey) nothing has been done at all.

i called them again this week and all i got was some rubbish about the FSA giudelines giving them 5 days to send me a first letter to register the complaint and then another 4 weeks to actually investigate it, and they had not even bothered to assign the complaint to anyone to look into yet!!

i pointed out that they had already failed in the first case as they took 2 weeks to send me the first letter not 5 days.

they said that my complaint was inportant to them, and to trust them to resolve it!

What an insult,
if it was important to them then they would have tried to resolve it by now or even assigned it to someone so that it could at least be investigated!

scott_lithgows

Abbey refused to accept my dad,s death certificate 6 years ago because it was in Spanish (amusing that a Spanish bank took them over a couple of years later).They wanted to charge £200 to get it translated,my mother saved them the bother by paying the small amount left on the mortgage and closing savings accounts to the value of £15k.Sorry to hear they are still dreadful,they have taken over my Bradford + Bingley accounts and I am also moving my cash to a building society.
Keep at them and just think of the satisfaction you will get when you close all the Abbey savings accounts after it is all settled.Good luck