Premier Life Barclays Account & The Ombudsman

Taurean-don

Hi Forum,
I wonder if anyone could advise me? I pay£25.00 per month for my Premier account with Barclays, this account includes all different perks. Last year around July 2009 I was asked whilst telephone banking if I would like to upgrade my debit card so I agreed, I was told I should recieve my new card in around 10 days. My new card never come but one day my existing card was just cancelled out the blue, when I called Barclays to find out why I was told that it was due to my new card being sent out, I did tell them that I thought this was wrong to cancel my card before the new one arrived. Anyway, after a month of inconveniences and phone calls, Barclays cancelled the new card as lost in the post and assured me that another card had been ordered. I explained that I was unable to use my facilities without the card and had to go all Aug bank holiday with no access to my money and had to juggle money around with another account to pay bills etc, Barclays said they would reinstate my old card until the new one arrived (which I asked for in the first place). Well after a few embarrassing shopping trips and still not working for internet/telephone banking, I thought it was just best to wait for the new card as I was sick of calling. Several more weeks went past and still no card so I had to call them again, only to be told that no new card had been ordered,anyway, to cut a long story as short as possible, a new card was then ordered. With just an apology and no explinations I felt this was'nt good enough seeing as I pay for my account so I sent Barclays an e-mail via their complaints procedure on their website, I had a tracking number and around a month later, I never heard anything so tried to track what was happening as all the information, times, who I spoke to was in the e-mail which I never had a copy of as it was via their website, I recieved a standard e-mail back, this carried on until eventually a customer relations manager called me and asked if we could resolve this over the telephone, I explained that it was all too much to explain and that I needed to put it into writing but never had all the details as they where all in my e-mail, anyway I did my best and put everything into writing and several days later I recieved a call from her apologising for my inconveniences and offering me £50 in recognition of the problems I had experienced, I asked her to put it in writing and told her that I would not accept £50. I then recieved the letter and realised that she had all of her facts wrong. I called the department as I could never get hold of the lady in question and explained that I was not happy with the offer and that the letter I had recieved had no explinations. the next day I recieved another letter from the lady in question basicly saying that she was unable to assist me further and was unable to provide explanations but still offering me the £50 and included Financial Ombudsman leaflet.
I then wrote back to her explaining that the facts were wrong in her letter, I corrected them to give Barclays a fair chance to resolve the matter and sent as much information as I could remember and even stated on her letter that I would be sending it recorded delivery as they lost my e-mail. Weeks went by yet again and I heard nothing, I kept calling but they said the lady in question was not in the office, I explained I just wanted to know if she recieved my letter but never got a call back, I left messages on the answer phone but nothing. Eventually another lady called me and explained that Barclays had'nt recieved the letter (which I have proved via Royal Mail that it was signed for) but there was nothing they could do about it, she said the lady that had been dealing with the complaint was now on maternity leave and that she was taking over and could we just resolve this now on the telephone, I explained that they had just lost all the information again and I wanted it in writing. I ended up writing another letter to this lady explaining that this was now just complaint on top of complaint and that I wanted explinations, assurance this would'nt happen again and I asked for £450 compensation for the inconvenience, stress, costs and the cost of my account as I still feel that I am paying for my own stress. The lady wrote back and said that she feels that my claim for £450 was unrealistic and offered me £100 as a financial gesture made in the spirit of goodwill anyway I declined and went to the Financial Ombudsman who has in the last few days made me an offer of £200, When I called the adjudicator at the Financial Ombudsman I asked what would happen if I dont accept the offer and she said that it was her that requested Barclays to pay £200 as the going rate for my kind of complaint was about £100 and the rest was for the other problems they had caused me. she said if I dont accept then it will go to the Ombudsman to decide but I have to put my reasons and they will look into them, I explained that my account had cost me £250 since this all started almost 1yr ago but she said that the way that they will look at it is that I had other benefits to the account and I could have down graded so I said to her that if they had called me and said upgrade your account for £25per month and we will stop your card, mess up your financial situation, stop access to your banking, lose your letters and e-mails and cause you loads of inconveniences then I would hardly of taken the account, this was not what I was sold?? Well I have until the 7 June 2010 to accept or not and I dont know what to do as it says if I do not accept the offer then it may lapse and not be available again but I do think that my year with them works out more than £200 worth of inconveniences, stress & costs??
Please advise if you can, sorry this is so long but believe me it is the shorter version!

Kind regards

Danstar_2

I would write another letter requesting all fees back for the year (£25 x 12 = £300) as part of the premium account on the the grounds you were not able to receive the benefits or service associated with the account. Also itemize any costs you think you've occurred THEN add on the £100 for goodwill. In addition you want 6 (could push it to 12) months free service of the Premier Life Account as compensation, to ensure your loyalty.

State if they don't agree to this you will take your banking elsewhere, closing all accounts and moving savings. You will also be seeking it through the courts for a return of all fees and associated costs of their failings as well as court costs.


That is what I would do, be meticulous in the itemization to show its warranted.

Taurean-don

Thanks for your time and advise but I think i've gone too far past that stage? Now that the Ombudsman is involved and after speaking with them today, it turns out that Barclays have to pay the Ombudsman a flat rate case fee of £500 even if they win, thats without what they may have to pay me!!! Don't know why they never just payed it to me, would have saved a lot of stress & money for them too.

Annisele

The Financial Ombudsman Service publishes a technical note on its approach to distress and inconvenience.

If you want Barclays to refund the cost of the account (i.e. actual financial loss) then I think you'd have to show that Barclays didn't provide the additional "perks" that you paid for. The provision a debit card is part of its standard package - was there anything in the "perks" that it didn't provide?

Taurean-don

I understand that & I was fine plodding along with my standard debit card but this all originated from them prompting me to upgrade to a Barclays Premier Black Connect debit card on a totally unrelated call, do you think that counts? Maybe?
Thank you and I do understand what you mean.

Taurean-don

Any more advse would be really helpful?? Do you think I should take the £200 offered or fight for some of my bank account fee back? The strange thing is before the Ombudsman sent me this offer, I had an on-line pre agreed overdraft if I wanted it, a week later, after recieving Ombudsman offer I went online to accept pre agreed overdraft and it had gone?? When I called Barclays Premier team asking why it had gone they got all shirty with me & would'nt tell me why, they said I could apply for an overdraft but they did'nt recomend it as I could end up with any credit cards I hold being taken away or any pre-existing overdrafts could be retracted. I did ask them, is this to do with me going to the Ombudsman and they said no but refused to tell me why??

noah271007

Taurean-don wrote: »

Any more advse would be really helpful?? Do you think I should take the £200 offered or fight for some of my bank account fee back? The strange thing is before the Ombudsman sent me this offer, I had an on-line pre agreed overdraft if I wanted it, a week later, after recieving Ombudsman offer I went online to accept pre agreed overdraft and it had gone?? When I called Barclays Premier team asking why it had gone they got all shirty with me & would'nt tell me why, they said I could apply for an overdraft but they did'nt recomend it as I could end up with any credit cards I hold being taken away or any pre-existing overdrafts could be retracted. I did ask them, is this to do with me going to the Ombudsman and they said no but refused to tell me why??

I doubt it is related to the ombudsman case. You could mention this to the ombudsman service and get it investigated. If i were you, I would follow Danstar's advice on post 2.

Taurean-don

Thanks Noaha, But like I said in post #3 I think its gone to far for this as its already cost Barclays £500 win or lose! still grateful for any advise!!

hippey

Take the money and run!

You could have still used the Premier Benefits that the account offers without the debit card, it is only the debit card and online banking that you were missing.... And the other bits were accessable.

Therefore I think you would be hard pushed to claim all of the fee's back and £200 is a fair settlement, and if I were you learn from you mistake of banking with Barclays!