Grrrr! Alliance and leicester

linz

I transferred my current account to Alliance and Leicester 4 months ago and so far i've had a handful of direct debits going out which aren't mine. Just got off the phone to customer services to try and sort it out. Was promised these direct debits which aren't mine (the woman gave me a list of about 5) won't be coming out of my account again and i'll have the money back by Tuesday.

I noticed on their website that there are 2 seperate numbers to ring for ordinary current accounts and premier current accounts (mines a premier one). Rang the premier number got the "all our advisors are busy at the moment, your call will be answered in approximately 10 minutes. Bit peed off so I tried the ordinary account number and got told the same thing.

I'd have thought there might be better customer service for premier current account holders with Alliance and Leicester rather than having them hanging on the end of a phone for 10 minutes but obviously not. And as for these unknown direct debits, I can't believe it keeps happening. It's never happened with my accounts with Barclays or Halifax. Am sooooooooooooo tempted just to move my current account again to the Lloyds tsb one
>:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(

ED

Sympathies, linz, & do keep us informed about A&L rectifying this serious chapter of errors... :-(

Wonder if you'll write a stiff letter of complaint (on cardboard) making sure A&L credit your a/c with a fair sum for :

- loss of interest on your £'s up to next Tuesday, or whenever they reverse the DDs

- your phone calls (including value of your time)

- angst sorting out the situation

- enticement to keep your custom

Good luck.

linz

oh yeh, forgot to mention, assistant tried to give me a refernce number for united utilities saying I had to ring them and take it up with them myself.  I don't even use united utilities !!!

Good ideas there ed, I'm so fed up with the hassle thev've given me, I'm going to

tight_wad_7

Linz, my advice is steer well clear of the A&L. I hate them for the way they ripped me off with a cashback mortgage had with them 14 years ago when I was young & innocent.
Building societies pretending to be banks just does not work.

linz

The 60 odd quid went back into my account a few days afterwards. Since then i've had a letter of apology from the A&L and a form to fill in incase united utilities also refund this 60 quid. Did write a stinking letter to them so this sort of thing better not happen again or I will be changing banks

robnye

linz,

try this number

01132541566 - A&L customer service switchboard

i bank with A&L and changed to them 12 months ago, whilst the experience wasnt as traumatic as yours, we did hit problems with 2 direct debits, which to A&L's credit wasnt there fault, considering we had 24 direct debits at the time, 1 was my local council..... whom i have previously worked for.... say no more. the other was with Cahoot for online credit card.

cahoot messed my cc account up so badly with missing dd payments, non payment fines, cheques being cashed but not being credited to my account, that I moved to a new card asap. To make matters worse (;-p) they paid me cashback 3 times........ to this day they havent asked for it back.

originally like a lot of people, we held back from switching banks due to the possible hassle, but i have to admit, we had less hassle moving than problems with our old bank, plus we now get 2%+ as against 0.2% interest, not a lot, but it helps... ;-)

linz

thanks for that, i'll make a note of that number should it happen again. Also been credited with a 10 pounds goodwill gesture.

cathy_3

alliance and all that jazz bought giro bank back in the late 80s and use their staff and their facilities to process your account

I was a giro employee ( a manager in fact) and their gross mishandling of accounts then was toe curling,
the problem was then that the old post office mentality reigned supreme everything in triplicate and all that

now I assume the old girobank mentality reigns supreme which , beleive me is not to be trusted with your money

I wouldnt touch them with a barge pole

ginger_nuts

I had a two year discount mortgage with A&I and boy was that a disaster .I moved to A&L in mid November they didnt take a payment in November but took the Normal payment in December .In January I received an end of year statement and my mortgage had increased £200 in six weeks . :oThis was a £28,000 mortgage and I had changed to A&L to get a discount .Some discount that was ..A&L no thanks !! ::) ::)

klondyke

An elderly neighbour has always innocently referred to A&L as 'Aliens & Leicester'. Mebbe she has a point - we don't have an account with them, but they are always known as Aliens here ;D

snarf_3

i know where you are coming from linz. my wife has had almost exactly the same problem as you have described after switching her account from another bank.
they all promise 'hassle free' transfers which couldnt be further from the truth. also they are all to eager to cooperate when they sign you up but when it comes to getting something back you feel like screaming at them down the phone.
dont they realise just how important the customer is!! >:( >:( >:(