Alliance & Leicester the sly dogs...

MFW_DannyG

Hiya, hope this is the right place to post this if not, sorry!
Basically in 2008 me & my partner opened a Premier 21 account with A&L we used it for a bit but quickly realised it was rubbish and as we only used it to fritter away spare cash we might aswell stick it in proper savings accounts so we withdrew and left it at that. A year or so later - months after I turned 22 I got a letter to say that as I was over 21 and I hadn't used the account I had 30 days to make a transaction or it would be closed, and so it was closed. My partner recieved a letter to say as hers hadn't been used for a while it would go into 'Dormant Status' (she was still under 22). Anyways fast forward a year and a half later (the missus turned 22 in November 09) we get a letter this week saying her A&L account is overdrawn & when i check it for her on tinternet there is an Underfunding charge of £5. And on charges to be applied next month is £65 of overdraft charges plus another underfunding 5er. I rang A&L customer service who says there have been 2 letters sent to inform us the account is to become a charging account now shes over 21 and this is definate because 'the computer sez so'. We havn't recieved these letters and thats not us trying to dodge out of it... we genuinely havn't recieved them and if we had we would of sorted it straight away. I have sent an email to customer service to explain this and that I will be going to the financial ombudsman etc and hopefully will recieve a reply in the next day or so, but if they say the charges stand... where do we go from there?!

PS really sorry for the long essay and if you do take the time to read it all thanks a lot!!

Consumerist

Your problem appears to stem from you not having received the letters they say they have sent.

Have you moved since you last heard from them ?

If you haven't moved then you should ask A&L to tell you the dates of the letters they wrote to you and the address they sent them to. If they insist that they wrote to the correct address then your only recourse is to their formal complaints procedure. You must go through their complaints procedure first because the FOS will not deal with the matter otherwise.

Head your letter "Complaint" so they are clear that you are making a formal complaint and not just a general enquiry.

Hope this helps.

MFW_DannyG

yea my partner has now moved in with me but the address registered with them is her dads so we always get given her mail as it comes. I am waiting for a reply from their customer service department by both phone and email, so we will have to see what happens. But if they carry on insisting we have to pay I will definately be following your advice and lodging a formal complaint. Thanks alot for your help its much appreciated.

preable

yup you need to lodge a formal complaint

vaporate

That is awful. Just proves bank do indeed screw ppl over given the chance. There's being a business and making money and then there is downright criminal actions.

If I were you I would read the terms and condition in future to beat them at their own game.

Never assume.

Consumerist

I understand that you must be quite annoyed about all this but please remember that you are more likely to get a sympathetic hearing if you are calm and polite in your dealings with banks. By many accounts, Santander has a knack for irritating people. Try to rise above them.

Good luck

julia78

I complaint in letter to A&L last yr due to switchin jobs and unfortunately not having my wage in my bank account on time (ie it was going to be there in 2 days time). They put me onto the phone within the branch and the woman said "under no circumstances" would I be hounoured an overdraft for 2 days in order that I didn't get charged £25 PER DIRECT DEBIT (!!) coming off on the first of the month. She told me to cancel all direct debits til the money appeared. That's including the A&L mortgage, then makin me technically go into arrears.

On complaining, they basically blamed me as it is my responsibility to make sure money is in the account to cover my bills!! Pointless!

MFW_DannyG

Thanks for all your replies everyone. We didn't hear anything back today so hopefully we should get some sort of reply tomorrow as they promised a reply within 48 hours. I will definately try to be calm when i next speak to somebody. Yea Vaporate it's definately taught me a lesson about reading terms a bit closely believe me! And Julia I can't believe what happened to you, thats disgusting. So much for looking after customers. I get Moneywise and Which? Money Magazines sent to me every month and last month they released their customer service awards, Santander came somewhere near the bottom on pretty much every single one. I know after this I won't be dealing with them again for sure!

pippitypip_2

Once this is all sorted out, you should check her credit file. The overdraft charges may be on there (but also could take some time to show up) and affect her credit rating - I'm not 100% sure how it works but if they do admit their mistake (always get everything confirmed in writing), you also need to get any defaults removed from her credit file. There are template letters for that somewhere on the DFW board. It's not quick or easy but worth pursuing.

You need to sort this out ASAP though as A&L charge £5 per calendar day for an unauthorised overdraft, even if that overdraft is caused by their underfunding fee - so those overdraft fees will only keep mounting up. They apply them in the following month. Even once they say it's sorted you'll still need to keep an eye on the account for the next 3 months to really make sure they don't start it up again.

hth,
pippitypip

MFW_DannyG

Just a quick update ... Din't hear anything from A&L for over 48 hours so wrote an email to their official complaints dept. as suggested by Consumerist. I outlined basically my grievances were now not only the changing of her account without prior warning and fees applied, but the shocking customer service.
Anyways that was last night and tonight when I got home I got the missus to check her emails and there was one there basically acknowledging the complaint had been recieved and someone will be in touch shortly. Then about 9pm she got a phone call from a customer service manager and my other half put her on to me. I explained that we hadn't recieved the letter etc etc and although she tried to keep hammering the fact that their system said they had sent a letter I wouldn't let her have it. After about 15 minutes of conversation (all quite friendly given the circumstances) she asked if she could put me on hold and about 5 mins later came back to say they were giving us 'the benefit of the doubt' and would refund the charges and close the account.
Now on one hand i felt like saying something about 'the benefit of the doubt' comment but I thought better of it as I had managed to get the outcome I had hoped for and actually deserved.

So obviously I won't be totally satisfied until i see the confirmation all this has been applied, but i'm quite chuffed with myself. Its thanks to Martins teachings and this site with the helpful people who have commented on this thread that I have got this outcome. So thanks! especially consumerist for providing the official complaints link.
The other point I have learnt from this is how 2 different customer service agents can be so different. The first I dealt with was awful & just kept repeating herself that 'the charges stand because the system says we have sent letters to you'. Yet the manager, despite trying to argue the case over and over (which I totally understand they have to as its not in their interest to refund charges etc), was very friendly and ultimately helpful!
Anyways I'm happy with the outcome and thanks again everyone for your helpful comments!!

Consumerist

Excellent news. :j

Thanks for posting your results. It is an encouragement to others that with a little effort, and some control of your emotions, you can get results.

Well done.