MSE News: Santander 'worst bank for customer service'

REDMADCURLS

THE most horrendous bank of all time = Absurd&Ludicrous

Now that its Santander, I expect it to get worse and if I could do without O/D I would be gone!

ses6jwg

izools wrote: »

Yeah fair enough but surely there's a stigma of working for what is widely accepted as one of the worst brands on the high street? And isn't it embarrassing to have to call the call center for the things you can't do in branch to be met with immense levels of sheer incompetence?

I wouldn't be able to hack it myself.

We can do a lot more in branch than we could as A&L.

The only thing we can't really deal with is fraud.

izools

Acronym city? Well that's useful consumer information there.

izools

Thank you

Now that is useful consumer information! :beer:

steve_jo

Currently trying to close an old A&L savings account with Santander. Three weeks and counting. (I have of course already transferred the money - I'm just after my interest)

They reply to messages sent via their on-line banking message facility saying 'the relevant dept will be in touch shortly (my italics). Then nothing happens. Send another mail, get another 'shortly' reply.

There really is no excuse for this dreadful service. The odd 0.1% isn't worth it. We'll never use them again. It's the only way to get the message across.

Yes I'm grumpy!

olly300

ses6jwg wrote: »

A lot of the bad experiences also comes from opening accounts online and the rigmarole that comes with it in terms of money laundering etc. If somebody came to see me in branch and said they wanted to open a current account, it would all be done and dusted within an hour without endless back and forth of ID and signing etc.

How comes Coventry BS and HBOS have no issue with opening accounts on line, and complying with the Money Laundering Regulations?

There is clearly something wrong with a bank who can't work out a system of verifying people's identity that other financial institutions in the same sector have no problems with.

olly300

steve_jo wrote: »

Currently trying to close an old A&L savings account with Santander. Three weeks and counting. (I have of course already transferred the money - I'm just after my interest)

They reply to messages sent via their on-line banking message facility saying 'the relevant dept will be in touch shortly (my italics). Then nothing happens. Send another mail, get another 'shortly' reply.

There really is no excuse for this dreadful service. The odd 0.1% isn't worth it. We'll never use them again. It's the only way to get the message across.

Yes I'm grumpy!

Banks and building societies don't like you closing accounts with them.

If you are really determined to close it then if you have an account book or card then go into a branch.

If you don't as you have sent lots of emails then send in a written formal complaint by recorded delivery stating you will report them to the FOS if they don't comply. If the interest is less than the price of postage just ignore it and be thankful you don't have to deal with them.

stclair

littlepinky84 wrote: »

Great! i shall look forward to Santander taking over my Natwest branch!!!

Transfer your account to an english branch

stuartbe31

I am sooooo glad that this has coem up. I thought it was just me getting angry with A&L. This week I experienced them messing up a DD which ended up as a mark on my credit rating., After being passed to various departments it was dealt with by the original one I rang...

I then had to set up a new DD and passed my details for it to be returned as an error. My investigation found that my sort code had been changed when changing to Santander. Very polite of them to tell me about this. Unfortunately as they hadn't told me I began panicing as it was the day before payday and my payslip had the old sort code.

10 minutes of phone queues and I found out the new sort code only applied to new DDs being set up.

I put the phone down and completed hr application to go to the CO-OP. A&L seem to have decent OD charges but for the slight difference in price I will pay the tiny bit extra for peace of mind and good quality service if anyting goes wrong.

(I'm also trying to close an old Nationwide account I dont use and climbing their obstacles)

BANKS!!! Grrrrrrrrrrr

simplybest

I have just spent a boring 20mins on the telephone at my exspence talking to a trainee moron from the imfamous complaints Dept. at Santander U.K., by the sound of his voice he was doing a good impression of the waiter in Faulty Towers, but with a twang of Irish(no disrespect to the Irish).My complaint that I was unable to recieve my interest from a closed mature savings e account although the original invested amount had been paid to my designated account minus interest(no wonder they do so well) his answer to this question confirmed to me that perhaps the Staff at Santander are not playing with a full deck, or perhaps should of been in the cast of Walt Disney Mickey Mouse, answers as follows,

1.Interest will follow within 2 days to your chosen bank account.
2.Interst will follow within 3 days to your chosen bank account.
3.Sometimes Interest will follow within 10 days.
4.Sometimes up 16 days.
At this point I said and sometimes not at all, where I was told to calm down even though I had not raised my voice(normal procedure when they do not have an answer) by this time his script had run out, he then suggested that he would check for me(WOW) this woud be the fourth time.
He got a little hot under the collar when I said that I would check with the Fraud Squad.