UPDATE - Anyone else having problems with Halifax online today?

ashleygunn

carpangler1 wrote: »

It will be interesting to see if the Halifax publicly admit to what has gone wrong with the upgrade to there systems at the weekend. I work in IT and to me this is a project gone slightly (even hugely maybe) wrong somewhere.

Some poor IT bod at Halifax is probably being given a major beating as we speak.

opinions4u

ashleygunn wrote: »

Some poor IT bod at Halifax is probably being given a major beating as we speak.

Hopefully they'll let him fix it before the beating commences.

10_66

opinions4u wrote: »

Hopefully they'll let him fix it before the beating commences.

Thank you for making me smile at the image I have in my head about this!

Daisey

We have a DD to Standard Life that usually goes out on the 10th, which as that was a Saturday this month I expected it to go on Monday. Yesterday, when I was able to view one page of transactions it still hadn't gone, so I phoned Halifax, and they said Standard Life hadn't asked for it.

Today, when I checked, the only transaction showing was another DD that went today, so I phoned Standard Life to see if they had presented the DD and they said they had on Monday, but yesterday the mandate was cancelled, so it looks like when Halifax checked it yesterday they cancelled it then, although it is still showing as active.

The problem is if you can't see any transactions except todays, and unless you keep a tight check on your balance, you don't know what's gone out in the last few days.

carpangler1

10_66 wrote: »

Thank you for making me smile at the image I have in my head about this!

Yep can imagine this poor guy coding coding away with his boss whipping his backside.:rotfl: The guy being whipped is then whipping the testers. Mmm - did they actually test any of this change as something like this should have stood out. If it was my project I would be hanging my head in shame. Best watch out for any cv's coming our way from the halifax:j

glider3560

TBH, I think the switch has gone pretty well. It's just a shame they had to switch the customer facing systems at the same time as the back-end systems.

I've been involved in transferring data from one legacy computer system to another in the past, and I'm amazed that LBG managed to get all the account data across in just a few hours on a Sunday night!

The only major problem is that they didn't (and still haven't) kept customers in the picture enough. A prominent message on their website would help, along with information on what may be missing/wrong.

tarquin999

StephenM wrote: »

The comment by Tarquin on Computer World, below, is very worrying if true.

It's very true, Stephen. And I'm absolutely fuming. Let me update you and tell you some more.

All these things appear to have happened as a result of the "migration" of the Lloyds, Halifax and BOS systems at the weekend.

I have several banks accounts - some with BOS Corporate Banking, some with BOS Business Banking, some with Halifax Personal Banking. In short - I have lost control of my finances for the last 3 days due to these system problems, and don't quite know what's going to manifest. I do hope Lloyds Banking Group will compensate me for being unable to operate my businesses and conduct my personal financial affairs.

I have recorded every single phonecall - so hopefully I shall be able to ensure the records are correct!

#1 - BOS Corporate Online Banking

All our pre-agreed overdraft limits have been deleted. I was told by BOS that all Corporate customers are suffering similarly.

This unfortunately happened at a time when I was depending upon the overdraft facility. My "available funds" should be showing a nice positive number but, because my overdraft limit has been deleted, I instead have a nasty negative amount of funds available.

I called customer services and, after around 30 minutes queuing and being put through to the right department, I was told I had to speak to my Relationship Manager. I couldn't get through to her on phone, but after a while she responded to my email saying she was snowed under with fire fighting and could I please phone customer services!

I've tried calling several times again over last couple of days but I have had to give up after 30 minutes queuing/routing because I have plenty else I need to do (not least trying to run a business without banking!).

Latest... loads of DD's and SO's have rejected, I haven't been able to pay for supplies and pay wages. Guess I'll have to try to sort this out once I can use the system properly again.

#2 - BOS Business Banking - unable to login at all

This defies belief. Apparently at the weekend they switched over to new "blue" security tokens, yet they hadn't finished issuing them! But they still went ahead, regardless!

The result - I, like many others reporting the same thing, cannot access Business Banking online AT ALL. What angered me immensely was the callcentre guy I spoke to did not apologise but instead told me that I knew the systems were changing at the weekend and I knew I'd need to wait for a new "blue" token to arrive. He went on to say that with system changes it is inevitable that some things will go wrong and there may be delays. What he could not conceive of, in his tiny little mind, was that it is the bank who have not sent out all the new "blue" tokens in time for the changes! That's both negligence and incompetence.

I have been unable to access BOS Business Banking online since last week - so cannot check accounts unless I endure 30 minutes or more queuing/routing at the callcentre. It's not the same anyway - we have too many accounts and funds movements to be able to talk things through over the phone.

I have also seen other people reporting they've received new "blue" tokens which work initially then mysteriously stop working!

#3 - Halifax Personal Banking - able to access a total strangers' bank accounts

I now know I'm not alone. I have seen one other person report this on the web, and also one of the Halifax callcentre girls accidentally let slip that they have a special team for this specific type of problem and their service time this week has increased from 24 hours to 3 days.

I couldn't believe it when I logged in on Monday - I could see bank accounts of a total stranger. I could see what they'd been spending and where, what DD's and SO's they had set up and, more disturbingly, I could select their accounts to transfer their funds to my accounts (I'm an Honest Joe, so didn't actually try it). I took loads of screen shots because I didn't think Halifax would believe me - but when I called them they were not at all surprised and one person even said it was "inevitable" because there had been a lot of manual data entry behind the scenes leading up to "the migration".

Anyway, because I am an Honest Joe, I phoned Halifax immediately and they said they would have to lock my online login to prevent me accessing the other person's accounts. Unbelievably, it took them over 18 hours to lock my account. Believe me, the temptation to transfer just one penny from one of the stranger's accounts - just to prove I wasn't going mad - was intense - but I do believe that would have been an illegal act, and that's just not me.

What worries me most is that, because I believe mine is not an isolated instance of being able to access other peoples' accounts, I called the Information Commissioner's Office (the Data Protection Act people). THEY WERE NOT THE LEAST BIT INTERESTED, and just told me to write a letter of complaint to my bank! They just could not grasp the enormity of what I was trying to say.

Current situation... my Halifax online banking has been disabled for 2 days so far. They say it's going to be another 3 days because they don't have any procedures to handle this - it's a totally manual process and they are currently overloaded.

GRAND SUMMARY

Because I cannot afford time to wait in callcentre queues for Halifax Personal AND Corporate AND Business banking, I'm going to have to let my finances fall apart and try to recover everything afterwards. Although - goodness, it's been 3 days so far, and the signs are that nothing will be resolved for another few days yet. I do hope some SERIOUS amounts of compensation are paid out.

I truly cannot believe this scandal hasn't hit the mainstream media headlines. All the bank's own press release owns up to is that some customers are unable to see some of their transactions. BOY - that's just the tip of the iceberg!

thegrandad

I too have lost a load of information about my accounts. When logging on I have been getting the following since Monday (after the weekend upgrade) Unfortunately we can't retrieve some of the account information you've requested right now. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you. Please try again later. .
I rang their help desk this morning to be told they "have serious problems, we hope it will be fixed at the end of each day, but no idea when it will be back to normal".
Most competent IT organisation have a back-out plan ready in case an upgrade goes wrong, but perhaps this is asking too much.

Anybody working for HBOS care to comment anonymously.

StephenM_2

tarquin999 wrote: »

What worries me most is that, because I believe mine is not an isolated instance of being able to access other peoples' accounts, I called the Information Commissioner's Office (the Data Protection Act people). THEY WERE NOT THE LEAST BIT INTERESTED, and just told me to write a letter of complaint to my bank! They just could not grasp the enormity of what I was trying to say.

I think the press will be interested, especially in this bit.

[Deleted User]

I have the same situation, I can't cope with the fact that I do not know what I am doing now and that my payments due to arrive in my account have been stopped, and now all of my debit card payments are taking much much longer.

But what can we do....?