A & L migration to Santander

Cheesedoodles

Remember to vote

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/#vote

Edited....now links to the poll...rather than the results

DizzleUK

Cheesedoodles wrote: »

Remember to vote

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/poll/03-08-2010/which-is-the-worst-customer-service-bank

This links to the results page. Actual poll can be found on the main MSE front page :T

Mrs_Ryan

I went into Santander on Thursday to pay some money into Mum and Dad's account and OH's account. Handed over M + D's acc no and the guy pulled a face and said 'Oh is this an Alliance and Leicester account?' It seems they dont like A&L accounts as it makes more work for them...!!

misterfish

Cheesedoodles wrote: »

I might go down the route of a formal complaint too...I'm closing the account, but £30 is £30 Might as well get what I can from them.

Which address did you send it too?

I used the following address I found on the A&L website

Let’s Work it Out, Alliance & Leicester plc, Carlton Park, Narborough, Leicestershire, LE19 0AL

But I changed the first line from 'Let's Work it Out' to 'Complaints Department'.

Misterfish

rawkinrich

After reading the first few posts, why can't some people have some patience?

Ok, 5 days is a long time. But "calling several times a day" is not going to resolve anything. It's more than likely that they are going to have teething problems. They are working on it - is it so desperate that you must check your account that urgently?

"Each time I phone (several a day for 5 consecutive days now) I ask how many others are in the same predicament. Answers range from "Oh, just a few" to "Have no idea" to "I can't say"

What do you want them to say?

Cheesedoodles

rawkinrich wrote: »

It's more than likely that they are going to have teething problems. They are working on it - is it so desperate that you must check your account that urgently?

Teething problems are ok, but please be honest with your customer. Don't lie, fob them off, or hang up the phone(!) This is unnacceptable. Don't tell me "it will be fixed tomorrow" if you don't know. Just be HONEST!

rawkinrich wrote: »

They are working on it - is it so desperate that you must check your account that urgently?

Yes...I check my account EVERY DAY. I do many many transactions and I want complete control. Call me a control freak, but that's why I use internet banking.

rawkinrich wrote: »

"Each time I phone (several a day for 5 consecutive days now) I ask how many others are in the same predicament. Answers range from "Oh, just a few" to "Have no idea" to "I can't say"
What do you want them to say?

Each time you phone it is logged on their computer and adds to their statistics. The more times you phone, the more you emphasize the problem by getting it higher up on their statistics list.

rawkinrich

After reading more posts then I can understand your frustrations. I believe a little more preperation should have been made to make the changeover go more smoothly.

It seems that my changeover has gone ok - apart from a crazy direct debit that has appeared called 'Alliance&Leicester', anyone know what this is?

DizzleUK

rawkinrich wrote: »

After reading more posts then I can understand your frustrations. I believe a little more preperation should have been made to make the changeover go more smoothly.

It seems that my changeover has gone ok - apart from a crazy direct debit that has appeared called 'Alliance&Leicester', anyone know what this is?

Thats what they use to transfer money from your current account to your savings account. Why it's better/needed is still unknown.

misterfish

rawkinrich wrote: »

After reading the first few posts, why can't some people have some patience?

Ok, 5 days is a long time. But "calling several times a day" is not going to resolve anything. It's more than likely that they are going to have teething problems. They are working on it - is it so desperate that you must check your account that urgently?

"Each time I phone (several a day for 5 consecutive days now) I ask how many others are in the same predicament. Answers range from "Oh, just a few" to "Have no idea" to "I can't say"

What do you want them to say?

Teething problems!

This a a major multinational bank that is dealing with both my and others' money; like others I want to be able to control my finances. There have been occasions when fraudulent transactions have occurred on both my and my mother's account.

Having been empoyed in IT since the mid 80s I have been involved in major data transfers and updates and this was not allowed to be carried out in a casual manner. Dummy runs on copies of the data were run multiple times to flag up problem records that were then rectified by the data owners so that when the updates occurred there were only a few remaining problems.

Our next action was to let the relevant data owners know about the problems and it was of highest priority to put this right - we were mandated a 24 hour period to get the data correct.

In my case with Santander I have been unable to access my mother's account details for nearly 4 weeks.

As for phoning - this is not a lightly undertaken action as it involves protracted waiting listening to ever repeating annoying music and voice over. Even worse is the total lack of information or help - being put on hold, transferred and disappearing into their system for nearly two hours is unacceptible, especially when I am paying for the phone call

I have not phoned daily, but weekly, following being told that 'it should be sorted out at the weekend', yet each weekend it doesn't happen.

It seems that Santander are reluctant to admit that they have a problem and that it is of such low priority to get it all solved.

You need to consider yourself in this position - unable to access your account with no way to confirm deposits or payments and in some cases mistakes being made with concommitant charges being added due to the bank's mistakes.

In my and my mother's case we have both been banking with Girobank, then A&L, now Santander for well over 30 years and have become used to a decent level of service and efficiency on line and by telephone.

I would not object if I could contact the bank in a timely manner - a few minutse waiting is one thing but ending up spending hours of my precious time to try to rectify the faults of the bank is unacceptable. Also I would think it only reasonable that having had the problem outlined to them they actually take action to sort things out rather than giving us all the run around.

Misterfish

Simongw

There are well over 200 posts on this thread- so maybe it's understandable that some people don't "get it". However, I'd've thought that if someone wanted to make a contribution to the discussion he/she owes it to those who have gone before to read the lot!
Some "issues" raised in later posts are covered by earlier posts.
It also shows the strength of frustration & animosity felt by people whose money is being "messed around with". Trust can disappear so quickly and takes so long to build up again....but knowing others are suffering the same- or worse- can help.