A & L migration to Santander

exel1966

molerat wrote: »

There have been a few minor quirks but anyone who expects a migration to be completely error free is living in a different world to this real one

It was never going to go smoothly, but a few minor quirks ? More like dozens of different errors, just read the number of different threads covering this migration.
It's just shoddy, but at least it's been as you'd expect it to be from Santander so well done for consistency.;)

yee_har

ashleypride wrote: »

I've just logged on after being locked out for ages. My Flexible ISA has been turned into a Direct ISA (with a rubbish interest rate), and my address details have changed to a previous address. When I try to change the address back, it says my password is locked. This sucks.

I am no apologist for this lot at all but do you know for sure that the interest rate has changed?

When they merged my two (relatively new) Abbey cash ISAs and my two A&L accounts the two ISAs both appeared (on the A&L site) as "Direct ISA" - whereas one is a "Flexi" @ 3.2%.

I went in to the (Abbey) branch and following a system/manual look-up and a call to H.O. they confirmed that I had a Direct @ 2.75% and a Flexi @3.2%.

Coincidentally when I got home the last part of my Abbey login paperwork had arrived and when I checked via the Abbey site the ISAs were correctly named (although there was still no display of "actual interest rate in play" which damn well annoys me - Barclays are also guilty of this).

All the above was 4/5 weeks ago.

Logged on thru' A&L just now and they both still show as "Direct"...

Cheesedoodles

Finally some media attention for Santander! And it ain't positive!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/aug/11/santander-alliance-leicester-online-problems. Reader comments are, as always, very blunt!

Paulgonnabedebtfree

I wasn't aware of this thread but I have voiced my own issues on other threads concerning my hassles with Santander.
I have not migrated any accounts to them as I was with Abbey National, followed by Abbey for many years. It was fine until Santander got their incompetent paws on it.
My Santander business account is very flawed. When I receive bank transfers from customers they won't display the reference numbers. This means that I had to guess which customer the payment came from. I tried to get this resolved. They used to display the references but suddenly stopped without warning. I could usually work out who had paid by the surname and the amount but sometimes these were duplicated if it was a frequently used surname. The references I supply are based on address/postcode and I have a largish number of small customers as I clean windows.
Several years of frustratingly trying to get this rectified ended in failure. The result? All my bank transfers payments are now paid into a Co-op business account. However, Santander are more convenient for paying in cash and cheques by ATM so I still use them for this (I live near a branch). So I now have two business accounts for one business.
Furthermore, when cheques bounced on me last year, I couldn't get them to post the offending items to me. I needed to find out which customers had bounced them so that I could pursue payment. They have since resolved ths issue though.
If it was easier to pay cash and cheques into Co-op bank, I would close my Santander one like a shot.
Additionally, it now takes and extra day or so for electronic payments to be received by my Santander personal account (accounts with sort code starting 09-01-xx). This also applies to my Cahoot credit card which is run by Santander. Luckily, the unannounced delays did not cause any bank charges/credit card late payment charges. When I phoned to query it, I was told it was a fault on sort codes starting 09-01-xx and that two IT guys were working full time to resolve it. Two weeks later - still unresolved. Not so bad now as I expect it and allow for it but initially, it could have caused a problem. The odd thing was that I made a transfer from my Co-op account to my Santander personal account and it happened instantly. But when transferring from Santander business to Santander personal, it gets delayed.
I have actually given up with complaining to Santander. Bit by bit I remove business from them as and when it is convenient for me.
Very poor communication is their main problem followed by poor IT management.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

dodecaphonic wrote: »

A&L accounts migrated to Santander last few days. Some improvements ie Transfers between accounts appear straight away but Faster Payments in just have the Legend

FASTER PAYMENTS RECEIPT 316845306001727001

or other number and not where they are from - previously I could move money from my A&L business account and the "reference" I entered there appeared on my private account entries. I rang them and they said it wasn't an error and therefore didn't need changing but they would pass my comments on.

So if John Smith sends you some money how do you know it is from John Smith??

I went through the written complaints process about this very issue. They used to display those references and stopped suddenly with no warning. So I started a Co-op business account just to receive bank transfers. Not only do Co-op show the references in real time, they even show the account number the payment comes from (I don't actually need that last bit of info).
You will not get this resolved. I tried for a long time and just got more and more frustrated with them. I even asked (sarcastically if I could pay my Santander credit card by bank transfer using my name as the reference rather than my 16 digit number. My sarcasm wasn't appreciated but they got my point.
If you need to see those references that you give your customers, Co-op are good for those.
Santander are more convenient for cash/cheque deposits though so I now use two accounts for one business. As BACS increases and cheques phase out, Santander will lose more and more of my incoming money.
I've been fairly polite so far. I actually think their management are a bunch of f***ing idiots.

Zandoni

Zandoni wrote: »

I've been an A&L happy customer for many years.

Got a letter from Santander today telling me that I can get £100 if I switch to a Santander account, I thought this was strange so I phoned the number they supplied. The customer services advisor told me that the letter was sent to all A&L customers by mistake and my account will switch without getting the £100.

They will get a load of grief about this I'm sure

They are now emailing me with the same offer.

I phoned again and spoke to a manager, he told me that the letters and emails were sent to A&L customers with savings.

He was very apologetic but had no idea why they were still telling A&L customers the same thing.

I asked for a written apology for wasting my time phoning, it hasn't arrived yet.

originalbob

I've been a happy RBS customer for many years.:DThe other day I got a letter announcing that their branch operation is to be sold to..... Santander.I feel another storm of grief on the horizon...:eek:

traceyr

I would never recommend Santander and will be leaving if I have any more problems with them.

They changed my sort code without telling me so I had direct debits going unpaid. When I got my new sort code from them I kept getting told it was invalid. It has taken about 3 months to get it sorted out.

I transferred to A&L after being with RBS for the last 20 years and I wish I never the whole process has been a nightmare and caused me nothing but stress.

angel_islington

Zandoni wrote: »

They are now emailing me with the same offer.

I phoned again and spoke to a manager, he told me that the letters and emails were sent to A&L customers with savings.

He was very apologetic but had no idea why they were still telling A&L customers the same thing.

I asked for a written apology for wasting my time phoning, it hasn't arrived yet.

I very much doubt that it will either.

mixu

Abbey/Santander/A&L are truly the worst financial institution I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with — glad to hear it's not just me!

Made an absolute holy mess of our mortgage, took months to process a credit card application and a shocker of a current account. In the process of moving everything away from them.

Absolutely no interest in apologies or putting things right.