'I lost my rag in a Lloyds TSB branch' blog discussion

minerva_windsong

peterbaker wrote: »

@minerva ... possibly going for a Lloyds Advantage account to use as a second stream savings account at 4% was it? I tried to apply onlne as an existing CC customer, but gave up recently

Ah OK, I don't have that many savings that I need a second stream which is probably why I missed it!

jd87

There's nothing worse in any customer service situation than being passed from pillar to post and being given the wrong information. All it needs is good staff training and management, these are basic things. Another company I have found to be terrible for this would be Vodafone.

laalaa41

Somebody somewhere must surely be thinking of opening something that looks like a bank only better? RBS let me down in Jan 2008 - very provable mistakes by THREE organisations (unbelievable but true). Suffice to say I avoid direct debits like the plague (the mandate is useless too). In disgust I moved accounts to Bank of Scotland with their automated transfer only they didnt. All my bills arrived at RBS whilst my wages were sitting in Bank of Scotland. They transferred some money over at their own cost but got bored with that and the rest I had to ferry from one side of town to the other. So we can strike off RBS, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds - I dont hear much good from anybody else either so if you're out there...... Here is a very lucrative business opportunity - open a finance house that does what it says on the tin!

digitig

PlasticMan wrote: »

Obviously you're the expert, but how much is your time worth? After you've written two letters, spent however long on the phone (cut off twice) to not get your query settled, gone down to a branch and then waited in a queue for forty minutes, not to mention the accompanying blood pressure increase. And by the end of all that you still hadn't got the contact info changed.

Have you still saved yourself money, and even if you have was it really worth it?

Who says he was saving money? Maybe he had the account so he could research their customer service

Gordon_the_Moron

I wouldn't worry about being rude to the member of staff, I used to work for Natwest and I got used to fair worse than that (usually from credit card customers because I always found the card services department to be a useless bunch of farkwits and we really couldn't do a lot more in branch for customers than they could do themselves, get info up on the screen that you get from online banking and then phone up if you need to find anything else out)

MoneySavingUser

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Hi folks

As for questions about products and things - I've kept it really lose for ID fraud reasons - but I promise it was appropriate and the best deal for me - don't worry on that score.

I say, old chap - aren’t you the Money Saving Expert? :rotfl:

bethesda

danclyon wrote: »

"close my account please" there and then

i thought when i first saw this that i'd be caught having a paddy in my local branch:rotfl:

i've tried this (just saying 'close my account') i got 'is there anyway we can help you with this account?' i astounded myself by politely replying 'just close it':rotfl:

DaveF327

listening to an overseas with poor English being wrongly told ”you are not allowed to bank with us if you have any other accounts”,I was already feeling a little angry with the branch

I was feeling a little angry after reading that too. It's not just banks, but sales staff from all kinds of different companies are prepared to tell complete and utter lies to prospective customers in order to get their way and sell what they want to sell you.

I understand sales skills and a good salesman should use his patter to sell the goal and make dreams come true rather than the product or service. When a salesman feels he has to "bend the truth" or tell a big black lie to sell something, it's time he looks for another job. Really.

Back to banks (and Lloyds TSB in particular), I approached them over 10 years ago with a view to opening an account to be used as a second account - I already had one with Natwest which I wanted to continue using. After being coerced into stepping into a private room to be subject to a sales pitch, (it seems they can't just hand you a new account form to fill in yourself any more), I couldn't believe what I heard:

Me: I'd like to open an account, please. Here's all my ID.

Suit: (after taking all my details and typing them into a computer) We can set you up with our <name of gold plated account> which gives you various benefits including AA breakdown cover, holiday travel insurance and emergency budgie replacement plan* for which we'll debit £x per month from your account.

*Ok, I made that last part up, but the real crap he was offering me was about as much use to me as a budgie replacement plan

Me: I'm sorry, did you say, you'd debit my account by £x? not credit any interest? What if I don't have £x in my account at any given time?

Suit: Yes, we pay 0.000001%* credit interest, but whatever balance you have in your account, we'll take £x a month in any case. You do get AA breakdown cover etc.

* actual number of zeros may vary, but whatever the actual number, I wouldn't be popping any champagne corks soon

Me: But I don't want AA cover.. I'm already in the AA!

Suit: But it's included as part of the account anyway, sir.

Me: But I'll be paying for something I neither want nor use. And I don't actually want travel insurance. I just want a basic bank account where I don't pay any fees. I don't mind if I don't get all these gimmicks.

Suit: This is the only type of account that we can offer, sir. It's what all the banks are offering at the moment. Wherever you go, accounts have a monthly fee, and you get...

Me: That's the first I've heard of that. Don't you do a basic bank account without charging any fees when in credit? My friend has an account here and he doesn't pay a monthly fee.

Suit: That's an old account and is no longer available, sir.

Me: (gets coat)


Ok, it was a long time ago, long before MSE and public awareness of basic bank accounts, but what a tale to spin to a new customer! I walked out, went over the road to HSBC where I told them what I wanted and what Lloyds TSB had tried to sell me. Within an hour, I left having opened an interest paying account with no monthly fees.

somethingtypical

I work for a bank, I won't say who but judging by previous posts you may be able to guess. Through looking at the vast number of posts similar to Martin's blog I find it desperately difficult to understand why other banks make things so difficult for themselves.

stebiz

Well if that happened to you, then 'we've' got no bloody chance!!