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

scotsbob

Santander have just taken 9 working days to transfer money from a Santander business account to my Alliance and Leicester account.

It's the same organistaion!!

Even worse the teller in the branch said it would be "within" the day.

Rochdale_Pioneers

I am also a Santander customer who won't be for much longer. Was pretty happy with Alliance and Leicester, but since the takeover they have collapsed into the pit of awfulness. Their online banking system used to be a joy. Now it seems to lose track of transactions even if only between one of my accounts with them to another. And you may as well not bother ringing customer service. I've done so several times of an evening, and a 40 minute wait at 10pm is preposterous. One night I kept being told "we have an unusually high call volume, please try later" - right up until 11pm as the call centres closed!

They can go forth and multiply for all I care. I'm off to the Co-op.

wendysn

My husband and I changed to Alliance and leicester, now Santander (Both equally dire) , lured by the competitive offers. IT WAS THE BIGGEST FINANCIAL MISTAKE WE HAVE EVER MADE. The online banking, telephone banking and customer service are appalling and if I counted up the hours I have wasted sorting out the errors they have made and charged for my time, it would amount to hundreds of pounds wasted, far outweighing the financial benefits of any of the good rates we initially had with them.I have complained in every way I know how, written, e-mailed , phoned, taken the day off work and gone into branch. They do not care, often not bothering to reply at all and when they do , sending a standard letter which bears no relevance to the nature of the complaint. As soon as I can muster up the energy and take time of work (again), I am going into branch to close all our accounts and move our money elsewhere. BE WARNED!!!

kriss1977

This is a great little poll and I was unsurprised by Alliance & Leicester being resoundingly the worst customer service result as I regularly sign up with them for their 0% overdraft and fab welcome incentive switching the account when a better deal comes along.

EACH time I have tried to either close or switch the account to another bank, there have been unexplained delays or problems and it has always taken up to 6 months and numerous letters, calls, emails to resolve. It has left me wary of signing with them again due to the hassle - it would have to be a very good deal indeed as the time and hassle is becoming less and less worth the £100 or £50 incentives offered!

I was wondering where The Coventry and other building societies were. It seemed a very limited list of Banks in the poll plus if you're like me and chase in-credit interest rates and incentive deals, there are prob many who have regular knowledge of various banks customer service but were unable to comment (being only able to vote for one.)

pedro43

Abbey/Santander

After yet another expired overdraft renewal not working (last year i got £30 apology and it reinstated) i was too cheesed off i moved banks, not to mention the fact my isa and savings account statements were originally sent to a made up address from day one, with no relevance to my address, it wasn't even just a typo on the postcode or something, once fixed i've since moved and it's taken 2 years and they've still not updated their system despite continual visits.

I'm now with HSBC and had the account number the same day. online a few days later and moved all my wages and direct debits first, myself. i am now, knowing their is no way abbey can charge me or mess things about etc, i can now happily close it all down.

Abbey are a joke. and i'm not surprised they have been voted worst.

my advice would be without question AVOID!

edinburgher

If so many people think their bank is "poor", why don't they move to a someone else?

I did.

I had a fairly chequered credit history (years of earning buttons and a default), but had been a fairly loyal A&L customer for 3-4 years (with a 'Premium' joint account managed flawlessly, overdraft, linked savings, the works). Anyway, as a result of a relationship breakdown I ended up needing to apply for a new account and was treated most shabbily. Rude staff, lack of even the most basic of services and being treated like scum due to said default (despite the fact that I'd banked with them for years and they must have had oodles of internal data to show that I was 'well behaved').

I tolerated their basic bank account for a few years before moving to Natwest and it's night and day. My new bank has polite staff and common sense telephone customer service (although their internet offering is great and I'm seldom in branches any more). Makes a hell of a change from being treated as a second class citizen by A&L (subsequently Santander).

It's sad to say, but I almost welled up the first time I was in Natwest and one of their staff seemed genuinely interested, listened to my background and suggested some genuinely helpful steps for getting my account/s up and running

Was recently tempted back to Santander with their 'rate tart' ISA from the start of the year, but it's been a shambles from start to finish. Overseas call centres, letters sent three times or not at all and no way to withdraw money from the ISA unless I go to a cash machine or close it. When the next ISA season starts I will be making a more reasoned choice of provider, regardless of rates. A fraction of a percent isn't worth the stress!

NEH

If you want to leave HSBC they won't let you...

I had to close my accounts with them after several years of banking with them but as I was moving to Scotland there is only about 3 branches in the whole of the country so there was no other option.

My main account was shut down in a number of weeks but one of my savings accounts it took over a year to try and shut it down and the customer service or lack of it I received was hopeless. They kept saying they'd send the forms for closure, i would fill them in, they would lose them. In the end when visiting my mum in England i marched into the branch and refused to leave until they closed the account, the supervisor couldn't understand why i had had the trouble I had had.

My stakeholder pension also changed to HSBC from M and S a few years ago but again, paperwork has been lost, they ask you to go into branches that are non existant and they promise to sort things out but never do. They currently have no record of my change of address a year ago and yet they are sending documents here and asking for me to provide them with ID for this address which makes no sense at all to me.

I was assured last month that I didn't need to send ID and then they confirmed this month I do. I have just told them I will send ID in October as I am moving again next month and can't bear to do it twice and I shall be taking my pension elsewhere.

madjackslam

I was a customer of Abbey for nearly 30 years, but the incompetence of Santander forced me out. In a nutshell, it became impossible to do simple things like getting them to write out a cheque, or withdraw large amounts of cash. They needed passports, driving licence, utility bills, DNA samples, first child held as security, etc etc.

But if you get bad service, move your account. Our local NatWest branch perhaps doesn't give the best deal, but we can go in and take out money. Then and there. Amazing!

Sometimes I wonder whether all the "tarting" savings you can make are worth the increased stress from poor customer service.

Nosmig

"We have successfully transferred your accounts to the Santander system ..." said the message from Alliance & Leicester. Absolute tosh - with no access to my current accountdetails at all. Internet Banking Help and Customer Services were totally indifferent that I had been denied access to my account through their incompetence. An e-mail to Santander HO got nothing more than an automated response - and I'm still waiting for an apology.

They put it right a week later - but it will only be another week or two before I move. Having been a loyal customer of A&L since National Giro days, I've had enough and poor service brings out the worst in me. Do I want to bank with a foreign bank? Not this one.

chopper602

I have another similar tale of woe regarding Santander, but rather than give the whole thing, I'll summarise . . .
Happy customer of Abbey National, then Santander took over and I had a real problem getting a debit card replaced, left Abbey and went to A&L, only problems was during the changover and Abbey being lethargic about tranferring DDs. A&L now taken over by Santander too . . . .

No real problems with A&L so far, but I applied for a Santander 'zero' card for our holiday to USA (no fees for oversea use) and it took over three months for my on-line application to be accepted and 6-7 phone calls & emails before I was actually in a state that I could use it online. I wanted a couple of small balance transfers performing at the time of my application, but it took so long to actually happen, that the balances had been paid off by the time the card came through! So what did they do? Paid some money into both of the other credit card accounts so I was in credit, even though I had told them not to do it !!

If you make a complaint, make sure to send a copy to the CEO [EMAIL="Antonio.Osorio@santander.co.uk"]Antonio.Osorio@santander.co.uk[/EMAIL] I did and got through (eventually) to a competant complaints department and a payment of £50 for my trouble.