Barclays Bank and Rudeness

Holteender_2

Hi everyone..

Long time reader of this site and forum, so I thought I would share my story with you about Barclays Bank...

I have dyscalculia, which basically means I am numerically dyslexic, I can't understand my bank statements or online banking screens so I have to, mostly, calculate my finances in my head. That doesn't always work so I end up gettting my finances in a bit of a twist quite regularly. This leads to monthly charges of between 150 and 300 for returned Direct Debits and Unauthorised Overdraft charges. I can accept a certain level of charges but its a lot of money to lose every month, especially when Barclays would refuse to extend my authorised overdraft.

I rang Barclays a couple of months ago to request an extension to my £100 overdraft. They refused, so I appealed to them to stop charging me so much so often and explained about my dyslexia. I can't remember exactly how I worded it but it was similar to what I typed above; the woman on the other end of the phone said "Numerically dyslexic? That's a new one. You're probably just stupid."

Cue Holteender immediately terminating the conversation and applying to another bank, one which answers the phone with a human being and there are notes on my account about my dyscalculia so the telephonist is immediately aware of it and can deal with me patiently.

I went to my branch to close my account and handed to manager a letter explaining why I was closing my account. She was very nice and told me how shocked she was and that she understood why I was leaving Barclays. She passed the letter on to Consumer Relations who wrote to me some weeks later saying that they were unable to locate the person or find any record of the call so there was nothing they could do. Oh, and they were sorry as well. Interestingly, I have a recording of the conversation because I record all calls with financial implications, for reasons I explained above.

Anyway, I spoke to the CAB about my options under disability discrimination legislation etc, and while there was little they could do to help, they pointed me towards the Consumer Action Group and I've started a process to recoup some money from the charges I have racked up. And there's quite a bit.

So I've written to the Customer Relations guy at Barclays twice in the last 4 weeks requesting my charges be refunded. And I've heard nothing back from him.

Zip.

Nada.

Sweet f**k all.


So much for Barclays attempting to resolve your complaints within 24 hours and at least acknowledging your communications with them within 5 days eh?

mountainofdebt

they are probably snowed under with the amount of people trying to claim their money back, so to be blunt you're going to have to have some patience.

And please remember Barclays will probably put up a fight as well, just to see how far you are prepared to take matters, once they do acknowledge your letter.

ts_aly2000

Well... There was a story round here a while back, actually I think it was Barclays in Ipswich. It involved a Downs child who they muddled up the account and then, treated him/her in much the same way as you.

Lemme go search... Back in a bit...

There it is!! Bank discriminates against disabled teen

It would seem with Barclays, that this isn't the first time...

However, under the Disability Discrimination Act, a bank cannot refuse to open an account just because a person has a disability.

Under the Disability Discrimination Act, a bank has to make reasonable adjustments for someone with a disability.

I think what the woman at Barclay's said to you is a personal statement being made by someone being paid to do a professional job, unfortunately (for the bank) she said it while acting on behalf of her employers. Can you get it burnt onto CD and post it up on the Internet? I'm sure some of the disability sites would host the audio file.

Hope it works out

Aly xx

Jamsi

Get in touch with GMTV or another popular daytime show they love running stories like yours and usually get answers from the banks or whoever pretty quickly!