Compensation from a Bank

Extant

opinions4u wrote: »

I had a similar case as a branch manager.

It was caused by poor systems. Nothing malicious intended.

I went down the grovelling apology route with no offer of cash for a customer who had basically had her bank account details revealed to her ex.

She wasn't impressed and complained to my head office who offered her £200 (which she accepted).

I was genuinely miffed as I thought that they should have backed me up (not to mention that was just about my ex-gratia budget for a quarter).

The response I got was that £200 was roughly in line with what the Ombudsman would order the bank to pay, so better to agree it now.

In other words, the numbers in BarclaysManager's post above seem to be in the right ball park, and the consequences of such an error can actually be far more damaging for the individual concerned.

To be honest, for DPA breaches, it's a perfectly reasonable amount - but anything more as compensation is ridiculous, as you're in FOS fee territory - and FOS would likely award less than £250 in the first place.

As for customer relations siding with the branch/frontliners... it's fantastic when you can, but the reality is that a lot of the time, it's cheaper and easier to just rule in favour of the customer and give them £X.

The real key difference, though, is in how you'd do that - a lot of my colleagues would declare the branch wrong and basically suck up to the customer. If I had to do it, I'd try and approach it as the branch did nothing wrong, this is just a gesture of goodwill. Thanks, bye.

Just so you can see it from the other side.

opinions4u

Just so you can see it from the other side.

With the benefit of career change and hindsight, I can totally see if from the other side!