'Which is the worst customer service bank?' poll discussion

tkwinston4

Been with A&L for a couple of years now with no problems, like many others as soon as that change over happened it all goes wrong. Tried to log into online banking only to find that i had been locked out, i know it wasnt me so i presume they have cocked up somewhere. Spent a week trying to get thru and one of the security questions was "what is the name of your savings account?". My savings account is an online savings account so without logging on i couldnt tell them that. The muppet then tells me that without that information i have to go in branch (which i have to take a day off work to got to in opening hours) and prove who i am. I said that i could tell them a whole raft of information about my current account but she wasnt interested.
Suffice to say as soon as i can get in branch i will be closing my aco!!!! with them.
Stay well away from them, they are rubbish!:mad:

jewellryqueen

I see that RBS has just announced that it is to sell its England based branches to Santander.

I've been an RBS customer for 19 years, had mortgages & loans with them and nothing but excellent service from my branch.

However, I've had no communication from the bank about what will happen to my account after the sale. Having read all the complaints about Santander I most certainly don't want to go to them - but will I have a choice? I know I don't need to go into a branch to get cash but if I stay with RBS & have an account with a Scotland based branch, how do I pay money in?

The branch staff are always very helpful if I need to call them but they haven't been kept up to date on what's happening so how are we, mere customers, to know what will happen to us?

minerva_windsong

If you'd asked me that a few years OK HBOS would have come up as poor for failing to acknowledge you can be 18 and not at uni, holding my interest to ransom and then not telling me they'd changed my account back to a normal one and were charging me interest on it. However, after getting this sorted out by taking a letter from my uni department to them it was fixed in minutes, and they've been very good whilst I've been switching my old student account over to a current account with them, so I put them as OK.

If I'd had a second vote I'd have said very good for First Direct, who were great when I was switching my ISA to them a while back. Haven't really had any contact from them since though, which would have been nice to keep on top of the rates etc - even just a message when checking in to my account.

However I'm concerned that Santander aren't coming out of this very well, as I'm pondering going with their regular saver when my ISA is full. Hmmm...

jonthepom

Have had stupid timewasting row with HSBC.

Phone rang. Indian sounding lady asked to speak to Mrs Pom.

Asked who was speaking, reply "Your bank".

Asked which bank, reply "Not at liberty to say"

Said if she couldn't say which bank, then we couldn't proceed with call.

As Mrs Pom has her personal a/c with HSBC, felt we should ring & check with our local branch, in case they did need to speak to her, or else to warn them that we were being targeted by fraudsters.....

First woman had not heard of our branch, then of course refused to put us through.
Next woman not interested in receiving our info, and simply looking into it and calling us back. Instead, before proceeding with call, insisted on all the security claptrap that one would need if accessing the a/c, which we did not need to do.
Third woman (complaints dept), finally did look into it, denied that HSBC had rung us, but not unduly concerned that someone may have been targeting us.

These calls wasted about an hour. Subsequent emails & letters finally elicited the info that we HAD originally been rung by an indian lady from our local town, but that she hadn't acted properly.

Bottom line - HSBC so tied up in red tape they cannot apply common sense & let customers talk to local staff, who they know, & know them, which gives the best security with the minimum of fuss, and saves everyone time & money.

The bunch of flowers they promised Mrs P have still not arrived!

nessmanuk

In spite of being a long and loyal customer of Bank of Scotland (since birth in fact 61 years ago!) their treatment of their customers is totally appaling. They rarely if ever answer letters and it became so bad I contacted the Ombudsman who found in my favour and it was agreed that I would be paid £50 compensation. Did this compensation arrive - not on your life, well not until the Ombudsman became involved again!! Beggars belief that the B of S basically stuck 2 fingers up to the Ombudsman's ruling. I have now moved my account to First Direct and so far am delighted with their service and positive attitude to customers.

PS - on closing my account with the B of S they managed to transfer my outstanding balance to the wrong account - have written to them about this but, surprise, surprise am still waiting, after 4 weeks, for a reply. Another complaint to the Ombudsman beckons!

lindsay2610

A year ago I changed from A&L to First Direct and would never change again regardless of incentives.

Experience with A&L: On Current Account the online banking system shows money arriving today as credited to your account and in your 'available balance', but transfer it out and the next day, it shows your balance as going overdrawn yesterday, then credited subsequently. Infuriating. They change savings rates such as ISAs without advising you. I asked their customer services for an explanation - they responded that the rates are listed on the website (yes, with much searching). I asked if I was seriously expected to check these every day to see if they had slashed my savings rates. They said yes! Numerous issues with website and money transfers.

Experience with First Direct: Call them and get connected directly to a person, no number selection required. MBNA took a direct debit when I had already paid the balance off the credit card, FD immediately re-credited it back to my account and recalled the DD from MBNA, 2 minute phone call, no further action from me required. Customer service is fantastic. I can never quite believe they're part of HSBC!

matUK

I started banking 5 years ago when I got my first job and had to open an account. Halifax, RBS, Lloyds refused at once as I did not provide a proof of address. Unlike the above, HSBC welcomed me without any hassle, but the debit card they offered was not acceptable on line. I opened another account with Barclays, then Halifax.
To me all the banks are the same, just waiting to make the most of you, moneywise.

Worst customer service: when it comes to branches, I visit Barclays each month to pay in some lump sums, it is Barclays Leytonstone, Barclays Hoe Street - massive queues to cashiers, up to 20 minutes wait while other staff roam around doing nothing or simply they are always short of staff. Halifax Walthamstow - having my electron in hand, a woman in branch did not help at all let me use it abroad, I was offered an upgrade instead. HSBC Startford centre: massive queues, no representatives available ad hoc

Telephone banking: HSBC is good, always using customer's name at least 3 times, try to up sell and cross sell, but not insist. Their Indian call centres make me feel sorry for people who work there.
Halifax - poor: scared to call them as I failed security questions once, all they advise is to go in branch with an id, 3rd year in a row now
Barclays: used only barclaycard customer services, no major issues with them

Online banking: Great Barclays, Nationwide for security options
HSBC for many options available there
poor Halifax - archaic look and not many options to play with

I would seriously advise their websites, online banking and FAQs, then telephone and as the last resort branches.

Doc_N

I used to use cahoot for most of my banking, keeping my long-standing First Direct account as a backup because of its poor interest rates.

That all changed, though, once Santander got their sticky fingers on cahoot, since which time it's got worse and worse. They've done exactly the same with Alliance and Leicester, which used to be OK and is now absolutely awful.

Every aspect of Santander-owned banks is just dreadful. The customer service is non-existent, they don't answer the questions you ask them, and they clearly couldn't care less about customers. Faster Payments still hasn't been properly brought in, despite having been introduced by proper banks more than 2 years ago. That means it takes days rather than seconds to get money into or out of your account.

First Direct now has all my banking back, and Santander has lost the lot (including the savings, which have gone elsewhere). Santander don't seem to be capable of running a sweet shop - let alone a bank. If you're in any way tempted by one of their accounts, do not be taken in by them. You will soon regret it, and I think that's a very commonly shared view, according to posts on here and elsewhere. If you thought British-owned banks were bad, try one of these Spanish-owned banks and you'll see just how bad banking can really be!

3guesses

I had been with Abbey for more than 10 years before they were taken over by Santander, and during that time they were pretty good. It was amazing how dreadful they became - practically overnight - once Santander got involved. Really is a very poor reflection on Spain as a whole, and yet the FSA seems quite happy to see Santander swallow up more and more of this country's financial institutions.

I've recently opened a second bank account with the Co-Op because I really fear being wholly reliant on Santand-nightmare...

pspanton

Just applied for the Santander loan with the 7.8% headline rate.

After the usual 20-30 minutes of questions and answers, the rate becomes 13.4%, even given an excellent credit rating.

Also, still aggressively pushing the PPI, despite being strong armed into paying it back (by the ombudsman) the last time I borrowed from them just over a year ago.

A rather alienating waste of everyones time.