Could someone explain....?

geordie_joe

Deleted_User wrote: »

Being ultra-cynical, I would wager ten pounds that letters selling a Barclays service (loans, Barclaycard, overdrafts) arrive quicker than letters informing customers that they are about to be charged (e.g. advising them they are over their overdraft limit, or have had a payment bounced).

They will because they are printed by outside companies. Big companies like Barclays can barely cope with the day to day letters they send out, they have no capacity to print a few million extra letters.

Deleted_User wrote: »

I just don't understand why a letter takes 15 days to go from being printed/finished to being posted, especially given it's an entirely automated process. The letter was standard as per the Barclays 'thank you for your complaint' template.

I thought I explained that, the delay isn't between the letter being printed and it being put into the post. The delay is between the person at the computer and the letter being printed. The person doesn't have a printer attached to their computer, all letters go to the print department and are printed by a big machine that also folds the letter and stuffs it into an envelope.

The simple fact is Barclays don't have enough of these machines to cope with the amount of mail they send out. So lower priority mail keeps getting put to the back of the queue in favour of more important ones.

At some point one of two things will happen. Either the system will assign the letter a high priority after it has been in the queue for a certain time, say two weeks, to ensure it gets printed. Or the backlog will reach a whole print runs worth and the staff will come in on Sunday to do an extra print run to get rid of it.

jd87

The first thing I thought reading this was that you gave a deadline in your letter of complaint (eg. "I look forward to your response within 14 days"), and they couldn't meet this deadline, so they deviously dated the letter earlier than they really dealt with it to make it look like they met your deadline. Could this be the case?

catieeb06

See, someone can correct me if I am wrong but I always thought under guidelines from the FSA the company had to acknowledge receipt of the complaint within 5 working days.

geordie_joe

catieeb06 wrote: »

See, someone can correct me if I am wrong but I always thought under guidelines from the FSA the company had to acknowledge receipt of the complaint within 5 working days.

You may be right, but I think you'll find the date of acknowledgement is the date on the letter, not the date you receive it.

The date they acknowledge something and the date you find out they have acknowledged it are two different things.

Debt_Free_Chick

Deleted_User wrote: »

Thanks EdgeX - That's what I was trying to get across in my original post! There may be delays with Royal Mail, but it's taken 2 weeks to get from Barclays to the Royal Mail system in the first place.

How do you know this?

If it was franked by RM and stalled in a strike affected sorting office, then it was franked when they got around to it.

Please - tell us how you know it was delayed by Barclays for 2 weeks; it could change our advice/comments.

Debt_Free_Chick

edgex wrote: »

i believe the important part is the bolded part
ie: it took 2 weeks between being produced & it being franked by either Barclays or their mailing company
that time period has nothing whatsoever to do with Royal Mail

And if the "mailing company" is Royal Mail, given that they are affected by strike action, then it's not possible that the delay is attributed to the strike?

geordie_joe

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

How do you know this?

If it was franked by RM and stalled in a strike affected sorting office, then it was franked when they got around to it.

Please - tell us how you know it was delayed by Barclays for 2 weeks; it could change our advice/comments.

I have a barclay credit card and any mail I receive from them is franked by them.

A company as big as them would get a discount for franking and sorting their own mail. By sorting I mean that when they give the mail to the RM every letter for the glasgow area would be in a sack marked glasgow, any mail for the liverpool area would be in a sack marked liverpool etc.

For all I know it may even be walk sorted too.

jd87

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

And if the "mailing company" is Royal Mail, given that they are affected by strike action, then it's not possible that the delay is attributed to the strike?

DFC you are indeed confused. By "mailing company" the person above was referring to a company that puts together and sorts mail before it gets handed over to Royal Mail. Royal Mail don't do this.

[Deleted User]

On the postal frank it says 'Barclays'. Therefore, I'm making the assumpton - backed up by the fact Barclays would likely receive a discount for franking their own mail anyway - that Barclays franked it and not Royal Mail.

Either way, I can understand the comment on here about printing priorities, but it's still not acceptable that a letter takes 2 weeks to be printed, surely? This letter had my complaint reference number on it, so until this arrived I couldn't chase the complaint anyhow.