A & L migration to Santander

AnonymousForObviousReason

Thanks. At least I'm prepared for a long wait too, even with right information provided. You'd have thought with all the practice they'd be really quick now.

RumPunch_2

Well, in most cases with lots of practise yes. In Santander's case.... no!

I wonder which takes them longer? Providing DD details to new bank or restoring acccess to online accounts.

Shall we all have a little wager or sweepstake on how long?

I'll take December 2011....

Gav8

After 3 months they managed to fix my online account some time yesterday. Great. So I'm browsing the transactions to see the lovely people have applied a £5 underfunding charge to my account last month. I can see another complaint letter beginning to form, it definately hasn't been underfunded.

I noticed on the BBC news website they have stats for the 3 worst banks, figures go to June this year and Santander coming 3rd. I'll be surprised if they're not 1st for the second half of the year and I'm glad to be helping to up that number. Maybe I need to comlpain about them dragging their heals with passing direct debit information to First Direct too!

tellmeitsfriday

Scamtander outright refused to give FD my DD details!!!

I just went to the branch, sat down in the enquiries chair and refused to move until I was furnished with the details I needed. She printed them out - one by one, grumbling away as she did it! I faxed them to FD and now everything is working nicely.

I wasted a lunch hour, but I believe it saved stress in the long term!

So my advice - don't wait for them... go and get what you need.


[STRIKE]
The other good news is that they FOUND my ISA this morning... how can you lose it is what I need to know! It's been missing in action since June! I've not been allowed to withdraw money from it, because it isn't on their system, but it's been accepting SO credits <confused> I think that's getting transfered too!
[/STRIKE] I spoke too soon - it's lost again

ginvzt

tellmeitsfriday wrote: »

Scamtander outright refused to give FD my DD details!!!

I just went to the branch, sat down in the enquiries chair and refused to move until I was furnished with the details I needed. She printed them out - one by one, grumbling away as she did it! I faxed them to FD and now everything is working nicely.

I wasted a lunch hour, but I believe it saved stress in the long term!

So my advice - don't wait for them... go and get what you need.

That is getting me worried - I have applied for the account transfer to FD as well, and I hope all works. I don't have many DDs with Santader, just credit card minimum payments (which I pay in full myself anyway), phone and the only important one is the magazine subscription. I think I am going to change the direct debits on CCs myself on October 14th, as I don't trust Santander to work this correctly in passing the details, and I might give a call to Orange as well, just to make sure all goes smoothly.

pawnbroker_2

Gav8 wrote: »

After 3 months they managed to fix my online account some time yesterday. Great. So I'm browsing the transactions to see the lovely people have applied a £5 underfunding charge to my account last month. I can see another complaint letter beginning to form, it definately hasn't been underfunded.

I noticed on the BBC news website they have stats for the 3 worst banks, figures go to June this year and Santander coming 3rd. I'll be surprised if they're not 1st for the second half of the year and I'm glad to be helping to up that number. Maybe I need to comlpain about them dragging their heals with passing direct debit information to First Direct too!

I bet the FSA figures don't include the number of times Santander have paid customers not to complain though.

DP84

I have been with Alliance and Leicester since 2007 and have had no problems but recently I have gone to university (after working for 6 years) and I went into a Satander branch (Clapham High Street) with all the relevant information so I could open up a Student Account. I had an appointment booked and saw a nice lady called Eunice.
For some reason it would not let her open a student account for me, even though she had entered all the correct information. She asked me to leave it with her and she would give me a call.
She later called me and told me that it would not let her do it, I asked her why and she more or less said 'Cause computer says No'.
I asked her to ask her manager and she said she had and her manager didn't know either and maybe I should just try with another bank.
I phoned up customer services thinking that maybe I had just been dealing with a lazy branch and they could also give me no answers. The man I spoke to just kept saying he would book me an appointment in the same branch and I could try again, but considering that the branch had already done two credit checks on me in two attempt to open the account, I did not want to do another credit check on my perfect credit history if the reult was going to be that 'computer said no' yet again.
He said there was nothing more he could do, I said that was fine and could he please put me in touch with whoever was above him and maybe they could deal with it.
He informed me that all the people above him were currently busy.
I asked if they could call me back, he informed me that they were not allowed to phone customer's back.
I said ok then and that I would wait until one of them was free. He informed me that the call centre was so busy that none of them would be available for that day.

Therefore I am left with no answers to my questions, no resolution to my problem and am speaking to staff that just keep fobbing me off.
If the branches are recieving the same support from Satander that the customer's are recieving then no wonder Eunice could only answer that 'Computer says No'.

I shall open my student account with another branch before moving over all of my direct debits etc. and I shall close my account with Satander. I think it is possibly the worst customer service I have ever experienced, not just with a bank, but with any organisation ever.

Acremead

DP84 wrote: »

I have been with Alliance and Leicester since 2007 and have had no problems but recently I have gone to university (after working for 6 years)...... For some reason it would not let her open a student account for me, even though she had entered all the correct information.

A complete guess- but if their systems know you've been working for six years, or are older than 18/19, might it be that they don't think you are a "real" student and thus not entitled to a student account? Sadly Santander staff seems to be as much in the dark as their customers

Gav8

tellmeitsfriday wrote: »

Scamtander outright refused to give FD my DD details!!!

I just went to the branch, sat down in the enquiries chair and refused to move until I was furnished with the details I needed. She printed them out - one by one, grumbling away as she did it! I faxed them to FD and now everything is working nicely.

I wasted a lunch hour, but I believe it saved stress in the long term!

So my advice - don't wait for them... go and get what you need.

Do you still get the £100 for joining First Direct? Thought it was dependent on FD sorting the transfer themselves?

Then again FD are probably both sensible enough and polite enough to figure out what Santander are like and still give you the £100.

tellmeitsfriday

Gav8 wrote: »

Do you still get the £100 for joining First Direct? Thought it was dependent on FD sorting the transfer themselves?

Then again FD are probably both sensible enough and polite enough to figure out what Santander are like and still give you the £100.

Oh, I never thought of that...! Although I emailed FD a copy of the documents I retrieved from s/der, I didn't tfr my DDs myself. To be honest, I am too lazy!

I didn't actually swap for the money though, more for the escape from satan-dan-der!

Maybe I'll ring up in a couple of months and ask, but either way is fine, I am freeeee (well when they find my ISA money!)