Barclays and the cheque in Euros

krisskross

We recently sold our property in Spain and were looking for the quickest, cheapest way to have access to the cash. The money was being paid to us via a cheque from the Spanish bank providing the mortgage to our purchaser.
There were several options:
We could ask for the moneyto be given to us all in cash,but this would be a bit scary getting it back to the UK
We could have paid the cheque into our Spanish bank and asked them to transfer it to our UK bank. Bit concerned with this option in case anything went wrong as we are now back in the UK.
We could have used someone like Currencies direct.

However on seeking advice from Barclays it was suggested that i open a Euro account and pop the cheque in there. It would apparently take 5 days then it could be transferred to our sterling account. All this at a maximum cost of £40. So this is what we did. I expected to be able to phone up on Friday and have this cash put into the sterling account. Today i get a letter saying the cheque will be sent for collection and it will be 6-8 weeks before we get our money. So I have no idea what is going on, we have committed some of this money that we now won't have. Barclays have done absolutely nothing with this cheque in the last week.And what in heavens name does "collection" mean? Are they going to send the boys round to the Spanish bank?

I have made a formal complaint which should have an outcome in 48 hours.
How on earth can anyone make an informed decision when most of the information is not given? I believe this will cost us quite a bit of money.
In this electronic age how can it possibly take 8 weeks to clear a cheque? I just do not believe it.