Please help. I am terrified.

PROLIANT

lolagirl wrote: »

These ****s have now unblocked my account. Finally. It only took 15 letters, a letter from the Financial Ombudsman, a call from a national newspaper and about 50 phone calls from me to get it unblocked:eek:

Walk into a branch and clear the account - then cut up your card and cheque boox and tell them to stick it!
Well done on enduring this ordeal, now go and treat yourself and relax.:beer:

ChiefGrasscutter

lolagirl wrote: »

These ****s have now unblocked my account. Finally. It only took 15 letters, a letter from the Financial Ombudsman, a call from a national newspaper and about 50 phone calls from me to get it unblocked:eek:

This thread gets more and more odd - as I've previously already mentioned.
This incident first started on the Thursday 22nd April from the first post and we are now at the 29th April - exactly one week or 5 working days later.
In this time was have had 15 letters so that is an average of 3 letters per working day being sent - to I presume Santander and a decision from the Ombudsman!

I actually doubt that in 5 working days the typical bank would have even dealt with the first letter much less the other 14.

And as for the financial ombudsman writing a letter.....please, please. They will not get involved until you have gone through the banks formal internal complaint proceedures and an impasse between the two parties (the OP and the bank in this case) has been reached. At this point the complainer can then request that the matter is referred to the ombudsman for a decision. Typically you are talking about several weeks to register a formal complaint with your bank and for them to formally acknowledge it, investigate it and make a formal reply or accept the complaint as justified. So the Ombudsman will not be involved/informed until after this process has been exhausted: and then there is the delay while the ombudsman investigates the situation. Contacting the Ombudsman direct does not work as you will be referred back immediately to the bank's formal complaints proceedures: you cannot bypass the system or jump the queue.

As I've said before something does not add up about all this...................

iereboy

Chief grass cutter, you're right on all counts.

In her case, its too early for the Ombudsman to get involved.

jambosans

I agree with ChiefGrasscutter, the first suggestion to contact a newspaper was made yesterday at 9:12pm by Olipro. By 12:26pm today, the OP had contacted a national newspaper (who subsequently phoned Santander); contacted the FOS (who subsequently sent a letter to Santander); wrote 15 letters; and spent 50 hours on the phone over the duration of a week (and in reference to the newspaper, less than 24 hours).

Although this situation may not be beyond Santander, this thread is clearly :spam:

dogleish

Also, she said she was self-employed... except she doesn't get paid until the 15th. If you're self-employed you get whatever money and whenever you need it.
Maybe she was trying to get people on here to "loan" her money?

lolagirl

bryanb wrote: »

Now is the ideal time to change banks

I've taken all my money out of Abbey and put it into Barclays for now. I will never trust Abbey again.

partlydave

lolagirl wrote: »

I've taken all my money out of Abbey and put it into Barclays for now. I will never trust Abbey again.

lola, have you put in a claim for compensation to Santander? I had an issue with them, although not as horrendous as your case, and they gave me £70, plus another £20 odd because they couldnt even work that out right. I immediately closed my account

lolagirl

partlydave wrote: »

lola, have you put in a claim for compensation to Santander? I had an issue with them, although not as horrendous as your case, and they gave me £70, plus another £20 odd because they couldnt even work that out right. I immediately closed my account

I got distracted and have been basking in the relief of having my money back! But a compensation claim is a very good idea especially given there can't genuinely been anything wrong with me or my account if they're now suddenly able to return full access and unblock the account. Did you put in your compensation claim by letter, through the courts...?

Petite85

That was quick..... took the ombudsmon 2 weeks to send me a form and they said i had to fill it out before they helped and then when i sent them proof of my dispute they still sent all my stuff back saying id have to have a letter from there complaints department.........

lolagirl

Petite85 wrote: »

That was quick..... took the ombudsmon 2 weeks to send me a form and they said i had to fill it out before they helped and then when i sent them proof of my dispute they still sent all my stuff back saying id have to have a letter from there complaints department.........

Actually you'll find that the Ombudsman despatch a letter to the bank, informing that a complaint has been made, pretty much immediately. The bank is then given 8 weeks to resolve the issue and if the issue's not been resolved, the customer is meant to contact the Ombudsman to move forward with the complaints. By the way, I made my Ombudsman complaint over the phone, not by post.