Halifax - Swallowed card and no replacement card.

Johnsons16

Hi,

The mother in law had her card eaten by the machine for her halifax reward account on monday 1st Feb, she rung the bank to see why and they told her it had expired, when asked where her new card was she was told she had not been sent one and they did not know why, whilst on the phone she was convinced into upgrading to the ultimate reward account.

She was then told a new card would arrive in a couple of days.
Its now 9th Feb and no new card, again she rung up to find one has not been sent and has not recieved any info regarding the ultimate account, again they told her 1-2 days fo card as old one had to be cancelled. I had told her to ask for compenation for the hassle so she was put through to compensation dept who said she had no case and whats more her card is likely to be 8-10 days.

I have advised her to tell them she want the address to where she should send a formal letter of complaint and also the address for where she should send the letter of account cancellation.

She does not like to complain so is reluctant to phone so what she has done already is great.

Can anyone give me any further advice and the chances of actually getting anything from the halifax.

Thanks in advance,

Jason

jambosans

Johnsons16 wrote: »

Can anyone give me any further advice and the chances of actually getting anything from the halifax.

Seeing as your mother-in-law has already spoken to Customer Relations, then she would have to request a letter of "Deadlock" or "Final Response".

I would make another attempt at complaining, this time via a letter specifically referenced as a "formal complaint". It will go to the same department, however as per the procedure stated on Halifax's website:-

"you can ask for your complaint to be referred to a Customer Relations Manager for further review. If you are still not satisfied after the review, you can, at this stage, ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to help,"

Below is a link with further details on Halifax's complaint's procedure:-
http://www.halifax.co.uk/contactus/howtocomplain.asp

It's a lot of effort to go to for an apology and a bit of goodwill (we're not talking megabucks).

opinions4u

Johnsons16 wrote: »

She was then told a new card would arrive in a couple of days.

To be honest, they've set her expectations a little high.

The card has to be embossed and posted. As such delivery will take longer than 48 hours.

Its now 9th Feb and no new card

It's the 10th.

again she rung up to find one has not been sent and has not recieved any info regarding the ultimate account, again they told her 1-2 days fo card as old one had to be cancelled. I had told her to ask for compenation for the hassle so she was put through to compensation dept who said she had no case and whats more her card is likely to be 8-10 days.

I think there's a reasonability thing here. A week or so for a new card is not unreasonable (although I'm not impressed at staff saying a couple of days - it doesn't help the customer).

I have advised her to tell them she want the address to where she should send a formal letter of complaint and also the address for where she should send the letter of account cancellation.

Here's the link.

She does not like to complain so is reluctant to phone so what she has done already is great.

What she needs is somebody to tell her "sorry for the inconvenience - I'll check the card gets issued and ring to confirm that it's on the way". It would also be nice if somebody explained why the replacement card wasn't issued automatically in the first place - this is usually down to having exceeded an overdraft limit at some point.

Ask for somebody to take professional ownership in this way. Get their name and contact number and hold them to it.

Can anyone give me any further advice and the chances of actually getting anything from the halifax.

At this early stage I'm not convinced that reasonable opportunity has been given to resolve the complaint.

It sounds like compensation is more important to you than resolution.

If she can show that she's out of pocket and it drags on a bit, then a modest payment may be appropriate. At this stage, it isn't - if I'm wrong you're talking £10ish.

Johnsons16

Cheers for the informative replies, sorry if I appeared to be a cash grabber, thing is all she wanted to know why she was never sent out a new card prior to her old one expiring, all she got was someone convincing her to uprgrade her account to ultimate reward account, then she seems to have been phobed off.
Thing is she is widowed with no other bank account and one credit card which she does not like using.
If like you quote-

What she needs is somebody to tell her "sorry for the inconvenience - I'll check the card gets issued and ring to confirm that it's on the way".

Had that happened then she would have felt a lot more reassured and pleased with the halifax, she and myself like the halifax as a rule, especially seeing I have 2 bank accounts, 1 mortgage, saving accounts and a child trust fund with them so I have no axe to grind with them.

Also a week or so without a card is not exactly great when its the only one she has to get cash from.

Cheers.

jambosans

Johnsons16 wrote: »

What she needs is somebody to tell her "sorry for the inconvenience - I'll check the card gets issued and ring to confirm that it's on the way".

There's absolutely no excuses for the poor and inconsistent customer service. Fire off a letter of complaint, and your mother in law should get a letter of apology. Repeat phone calls to resolve an issue caused by the Halifax and customer service failings is quantifiable in goodwill, just not much, like opinions4u suggest, around about the £10 mark (if any), maybe a wee bit more.