Help!! Abbey have taken all my money!

Lee_Bradley

My wife and I have an Abbey Current account and have had £720 taken from our account for a standing order that was cancelled 2 months ago:-

We moved house 2 months ago (rental) and immediately cancelled the standing order for the rent as you do. The first month went by okay, I checked for any anomolies and no money was taken out so I thought my request for cancelling the standing order had been processed. 7 days ago my wife tried to get ten pounds from the cashpoint and discovered that we were SEVERLY overdrawn so she came home and rang the Abbey straight away. After being moved from pillar to post they finally admitted that it was their fault and that the funds would return to our account by 1700 that day.

Five minutes after this deadline my wife rang the bank to state that no money had appeared and they then stated that it would actually be 3 working days. After chasing the next day and a further 3 hours on the phone to the call centre and complaints this deadline was extended to 7 days - all this time we have £25 to survive as a family of 5 including an 18 month old baby.

This morning I get a call from my wife whilst I'm at work sobbing her heart out saying that the Abbey are apologising and that the problem will now take 4 weeks to resolve and that the operators that gave us the original deadlines should not have done so and have been reprimanded!! So we are now expected to go virtually a month with no money and nappies, food and have 3 kids to pay for various things.

The Abbey have admitted fully that they are at fault but we need to get this money back into our account ASAP! They are saying that we can't even go into the branch to sort it as they don't have the authority!

Can anyone help??!!

willo65

Can they put a temporary o/d on account for you or can they not put it in from a suspense account until they get it back?

daveyjp

Ignore what they say. Go into a branch, demand to see someone in authority and sit there until you get a satisfactory conclusion. If they say you need to call someone get them to do it.

I did this for a disputed transaction and it was sorted in 10 minutes.

Lee_Bradley

willo65 - thanks for the advice but we already tried to get a temporary o/d to no avail.

daveyjp - your approach sounds like the way forward to be honest. Looks like I'm booking tomorrow of as holiday and going down the branch with a flask of hot chocolate!!

Thanks Guys.

jambosans

If the standing order has accidentally been sent to your old landlord then ask them to send the money back. I know this sounds like something Abbey should be doing, but they sound useless, and if your old landlord agrees then it should not take four weeks to transfer, more like four working days. Not that this will make you feel better but I think the reason for some of the delay (four weeks is unacceptable) is down to the fact that even though it is a mistake, Abbey cannot simply remove the money from someone's bank account, especially if it is an account held outwith Abbey.

In terms of Abbey's customer service, sounds like a disgrace, although not surprising as I've heard nothing but bad things about Abbey. Like other posters suggested I would move. Also, as the poster previous stated, going into branch may help escalate things if you speak with the branch manager. Good luck.

Morn

Good luck, I really hope that you get this sorted out.

I don't have anything further to add, but in the past when I have problems with my bank I have always gone into branch and things have been resolved there and then.

Anyhow, as I say.

Good luck.

Lee_Bradley

Thanks for your support Morn.

Does anyone know of any organisations that act on behalf of banking customers as I have been in touch with the Banking Code Standards Board who are saying that Abbey are totally in the wrong and should pay the money back IMMEDIATELY but we have phoned Abbey and yet again it has fallen on deaf ears...

The Banking Code can only advise and cannot act on our behalf, so I really need someone with clout to speak on our behalf.

Calling Martin Lewis!!!!!

simon_templar_2

I doubt the BCSB told you that ''Abbey are totally in the wrong and should pay the money back IMMEDIATELY". You have made this bit up.

mouncey

Good luck Lee -I would call to your local branch and don't leave until the manager or some one in authority has sorted this mess out for you.

simon_templar_2

They have upto 8 weeks to 'sort' it out.

rb10

simon_templar wrote: »

They have upto 8 weeks to 'sort' it out.

They have up to 8 weeks to resolve any complaint that has been made to them.

This is different though - Abbey messed up, so they should be resolving it straight away. (By 'should', I mean from the point of view of treating the customer in a fair manner, I don't know if there are rules that say they 'should' or not).