Abbey / Santander Customer Service

anamenottaken

rb10 wrote: »

Halifax pays high 'interest' on their current account, and good (for a high street bank) rates on their savings, but their service is generally good. So I don't know that what you are saying is necessarily true.

The "high interest" current account now pays 0.1% like many others but these accounts will be changed soon (or you can do it yourself now) to the Reward current account paying £5/month for those who pay in at least £1K/month.

Lloyds TSB pays 4% AER on a current account on balances totalling between £5K and £7K and somewhat reduced rates below that above £1K. Their offer is not limited to 12 months (though, of course, the rate is variable). Abbey pay 6% but for 12 months only and only on up to £2.5K.

simon_templar_2

Lakeuk wrote: »

A family member went into an empty Abbey branch to draw out a cheque (£200) to pay an annual bill, cashier said they couldn't and handed a leaflet which read:-

Doesn't exactly convey good customer service being handed it when there are no queues. Words 'vote' and 'feet' come to mind

It is to speed up the queues in the branch, this is the one big thing customers hate. By having transaction parameters you can get rid of certain people clogging up the queue who dont really need to be in it. They can open a bank account with cheque book if they have a savings account and need cheques from it. This way they can write them themselves, far easier.

The other thing, and Abbey are more than happy to close accounts if people dont want to live by the new rules, is to simply go somewhere else.

Lakeuk

simon_templar wrote: »

It is to speed up the queues in the branch, this is the one big thing customers hate. By having transaction parameters you can get rid of certain people clogging up the queue who dont really need to be in it. They can open a bank account with cheque book if they have a savings account and need cheques from it. This way they can write them themselves, far easier.

The other thing, and Abbey are more than happy to close accounts if people dont want to live by the new rules, is to simply go somewhere else.

Good customer service is making the best of the situation, in this case there was no queue, no other customers in the branch, in this situation it would of been a good customer service to have actioned the customers request.

From a company point of view it'll probable been better to say that at busy times the xy services won't be available in order to maintain an overall service rather than blanket cancellation of important services to some customers. A lot of people especially the old are not comfortable using cards/cheque books so don't use these types of accounts, a lot in these groups will only need to draw a cheque on rare occasions.

td_007

Lakeuk wrote: »

Good customer service is making the best of the situation, in this case there was no queue, no other customers in the branch, in this situation it would of been a good customer service to have actioned the customers request.

While I completely agree with you, we do not know if the person was perfectly capable of using an ATM - if the person was then it is a good learning exercise in learning to use the ATM for the job and the person can be grateful that he/she will not have face another Abbey staff member.:beer:

Lakeuk

td_007 wrote: »

While I completely agree with you, we do not know if the person was perfectly capable of using an ATM - if the person was then it is a good learning exercise in learning to use the ATM for the job and the person can be grateful that he/she will not have face another Abbey staff member.:beer:

Doesn't have a card so can't use the ATM, person is of the generation who is afraid of these things, tried unsuccessfully to show how the things work, but remembering numbers, what buttons to press and constant reports on our local ATM's being fraudulently tampered with every few months, put any of that generation off.

galba

Lakeuk wrote: »

Doesn't have a card so can't use the ATM, person is of the generation who is afraid of these things, tried unsuccessfully to show how the things work, but remembering numbers, what buttons to press and constant reports on our local ATM's being fraudulently tampered with every few months, put any of that generation off.

Which generation are you talking about ? I'm in my 70s and have no such trouble and do all my banking on-line. I can imagine some people in their 80s and above might have trouble but I often see people obviously older than me using ATMs.

Having read about some of the horrors suffered by Santander bank customers, particularly the cases of people being denied access to their accounts for weeks, I'm seriously thinking of stuffing an emergency fund into an old-fashioned Building Society pass-book account.

simon_templar_2

It is about reducing queues in branches and customers using alternative methods to do their banking. Customer feedback shows people hate long queues. By restricting certain transactions and getting people to write their own checks is just part of it.

hansi

Lakeuk wrote: »

A family member went into an empty Abbey branch to draw out a cheque (£200) to pay an annual bill, cashier said they couldn't and handed a leaflet which read:-

Doesn't exactly convey good customer service being handed it when there are no queues. Words 'vote' and 'feet' come to mind

Yes, that sounds about right for Abbey's service (sic). Wouldn't touch them with a barge poll:mad:

hansi

simon_templar wrote: »

It is about reducing queues in branches and customers using alternative methods to do their banking. Customer feedback shows people hate long queues. By restricting certain transactions and getting people to write their own checks is just part of it.

It's really about crap customer service! It's a bank and they should expect people to come in and bank cheques and/or withdraw their own money, and they should have sufficient staff to be able to let customer do it.. Can you imagine the uproar if Tesco say unless you buy £100 worth of goods, you'll have to shop online! Ridiculous.

simon_templar_2

Not at all. There are other banks that have no counter at all in the branch. People use the machines. Whats the point of taking time to go to a branch and queue when you could just write your own cheque?