A+L's idea of customer service

creditavenger

. .

ioscorpio

A&L never seem to like admitting they are in the wrong.

I'm in dispute with A&L over how long the internal transfer of £3000 2006/07 ISA is taking.

equitydealer

I think you need to write to A&L giving all the details and problems encountered on the way and request compensation. Include a copy of all the charges from your current account provider.

They might apologise and offer you a goodwill gesture (e.g. £100) plus a refund for all your current account charges.

If they don't you need to write to the Financial Ombudsman.

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

I assume you will also have to sort out your wife's ISA allowance? If the money was withdrawn you will have lost your entitlement to this years ISA, include this in your letter. Not sure how this would be sorted out though.

Good luck

meanmachine_2

A&L used to be a lovely company to deal with - when they were a mutual.

Then they became a bank, and it was downhill all the way.

They don't actually give a monkeys about costumers, only shareholders.

Chadsman

I would write to the money section(s) of the broadsheets asking them to help.
Banks often find matters to be rather urgent when the press gets involved. I would want a serious amount of compensation not just an amount to cover the charges.
Best of luck!

Chadsman

creditavenger wrote:

The A+L Customer Relations head then went on to say that "it had been made absolutely clear to me that this would happen if the 3rd DD payment was not actually met when I agreed to accept the Chaps payment”.

I also think it is totally unnecessary for any of the payments to have cleared for A&L to refund what is after all your money.
They made the mistake so they should pay for it. If that poses a risk or inconvenience to them that's their tough t1tties.
:beer:

Mikeyorks

I have some sympathy as I'm currently going through a not dissimilar problem with the Halifax. First it was my wife's account unfunded, then it was mine. Still waiting resolution on that - but in the interim find my wife's Fixed Rate ISA - is actually a variable one, and at the lowest rate on offer? However, that's my problem - as to yours:-

First - WRITE to them, stop using the 'phone. Address it to :

Alliance & Leicester plc
Customer Service Centre
Carlton Park
Narborough
Leicester
LE19 0AL
- and consider sending it Recorded - tends to grab a modicum of extra attention, as it signals you are really serious.

You have the bones of your letter in your original post. But bullet each point / change of date, for extra clarity - and concentrate on the facts, not the compensation. Leave that to the last - and then set out actual losses and ask (non-specific value) for a further amount to cover distress and inconvenience.

But - have you got a terminology problem?

I used the A+L site to invoke the payments via the previously setup direct debits.

You can 'delete' a DD, via your online current account that it's aimed at. But you can't initiate / vary account / vary value etc - only the people (in this case A&L?) you filed the mandate with can do that?

So I suspect it is a 'bill payment' or 'transfer' (but that then begs the question as to how they grabbed the 3rd payment ???) that has been set up - and I think you need to substitute / confirm the appropriate terminology before you write.

Had it been a DD. When you invoked the DD Guarantee - it was a mistake to go to A&L - you needed to go to the provider (it's implicit, but not explicit in your post - that it's a different organisation?) of your current account. And demand they restore the funds taken in error. They would have protested - they all do - but it is they who have relinquished the funds when you have not given permission for your account to be raided for that extra sum? They won't actually know that in the case of a variable mandate (as most are). But it's academic - 'cos the Guarantee isn't about 'intelligence' - it's about money taken 'in error' - for whatever reason.

And similarly I'm a bit unclear as to why the 3rd amount of £3k appeared to exit your account but was revoked 'at clearing'. Suspect your own Bank has a little explaining to do there as the £3k should not have de-funded your account if it wasn't going to make it out of the Bank? But again - relatively academic - as that's the situation you were presented with.

Finally on the subject of your wife's 'de-funded' ISA. Don't think A&L have the proverbial pot to do anything with there. In compounding their previous errors - they have taken the money out of the ISA - you didn't. You asked for the erroneously taken payment to be refunded - not an authentic one (worth elaborating your note to that effect??) So - in correcting their errors - they simply put it back in. It's an accounting mechanism to do that - not playing fast and loose with HMRC regulations governing ISAs? Halifax are going to backdate my payments - once resolved - so it is doable.

Write to them - but keep it to relative facts and don't get too carried away over the compensation. The primary objective is to get the ISAs / money sorted out.

I have read your post several times and there is an unclear bit - regarding the whereabouts of one of the £3ks?(as my own situation with the Halifax) I assume that both the 2nd (your wife's initial £3k) and 3rd have finished back in your current account? Which does muddy the water a modicum - but I'd still quietly concentrate on the A&L jugular.

Aark

I used the A+L site to invoke the payments via the previously setup direct debits.

You can 'delete' a DD, via your online current account that it's aimed at. But you can't initiate / vary account / vary value etc - only the people (in this case A&L?) you filed the mandate with can do that?

It's a fairly common way for savings accounts to work. You give the savings provider a Direct Debit mandate to your current account, but no regular amounts are taken. You then instruct the savings provider that you want to make a deposit of £x and they use the Direct Debit to "pull" the deposit in from their end.

Mikeyorks

Aark wrote:

It's a fairly common way for savings accounts to work. You give the savings provider a Direct Debit mandate to your current account, but no regular amounts are taken. You then instruct the savings provider that you want to make a deposit of £x and they use the Direct Debit to "pull" the deposit in from their end.

Right. It's not something, despite several savings accounts outwith my normal Bank, that I'm used to. But I did phrase it with some clear hesitancy, just in case it was something like this.

But if 'you' have jurisdiction over this 'pseudo DD' - does beg the question how A&L freely availed themselves of the 3rd amount, which they had no entitlement to?

If the DD is capable of being initiated by all and sundry, and for any value - I certainly feel safer being a 'pusher'.

Aark

Mikeyorks wrote:

But if 'you' have jurisdiction over this 'pseudo DD' - does beg the question how A&L freely availed themselves of the 3rd amount, which they had no entitlement to?

I think the original poster is saying that they gave an instruction over the phone for a third deposit, as someone at A&L told them that one of the Internet instructions had not gone through but which subsequently actually did.

Somewhere in A&L's systems they will have three requests for deposits.

realaledrinker

Sorry to hear of your problems. It won't help but the general consensus here regarding A&L (and Halifax for that matter) are that they are a bunch of useless t*****s. I've never forgiven them since they slashed their childrens savings rates by 1.6% a year or so ago.