MSE News: Santander 'worst bank for customer service'

The_Thrilla

I had been with Abbey National for years and years. When Santander bought them out, things went bad big time. I had a problem with one of my accounts. I was told by the staff that in the old days a problem would be sorted out at Milton Keynes, now it had to go to Madrid, which was why I had not received a reply. I did get to speak to the manager, but she was truculent and stroppy, turned on her heel and said something like: "What do you expect me to do about it?" and walked off. I left the branch, crossed the road to buy a newspaper. As I left the newsagent, I remember saying to myself: "Well, !!!! them!" I went back into the branch, and closed the account. Later that day, I went back in and closed all the other accounts I had. I did get the money that they owed me...eventually. But it was too late for them. I have never darkened their door since, and never will.

simplybest

The_Thrilla wrote: »

I had been with Abbey National for years and years. When Santander bought them out, things went bad big time. I had a problem with one of my accounts. I was told by the staff that in the old days a problem would be sorted out at Milton Keynes, now it had to go to Madrid, which was why I had not received a reply. I did get to speak to the manager, but she was truculent and stroppy, turned on her heel and said something like: "What do you expect me to do about it?" and walked off. I left the branch, crossed the road to buy a newspaper. As I left the newsagent, I remember saying to myself: "Well, !!!! them!" I went back into the branch, and closed the account. Later that day, I went back in and closed all the other accounts I had. I did get the money that they owed me...eventually. But it was too late for them. I have never darkened their door since, and never will.

Santander firmly believe they can fool all of the people all of the time.

Robert_Hopkins

My advice to anyone who has a RBS England and Wales branch sort code is to open a similar account with Natwest (Part of the RBS Group) so you still can access a local branch.
A word of warning. I have had nothing but trouble since alliance and leicester changed all the computer systems to Santander.

Southsaver_2

I left Santander because someone took out over a thousand pounds out of my account on the phone (as I had never used phone banking, the fraudster even set up a phone banking password too). They had also messed me about getting my accounts back to normal.
I remember sitting in a branch for over half an hour whilst the manager was on the phone to their customer service, after 20 minutes of being on the phone and being put on hold, she got hung up on. She believed me afterwards that I had been hung up on twice; that was reason I went into the branch to get them to do it in the first place. I was with Abbey for over 10 years, it's a shame Santander ruined the trust I had using their bank.

daymoor

Our experience with Santander Bank has been utterly appalling and we are taking action to close our accounts with them. After being left on hold for more than half an hour,my wife eventually spoke to customer services, answered all the security questions correctly and was told she had failed security! Transfering ISA 's from one Santander account to another Santander account takes a month. When closing an account it takes them 14 days to calculate the closing interest and they have to post it to you. Delaying tactics the whole time. Avoid Santander Bank at all costs!

worldtraveller

Mañana! :think: :whistle:

beeceebee

Have had £14,000 taken out of our joint account in 2 days. Fraud team are looking into it but were very shirty with me. They may deal with this every day but I don't and I expect customer care. This is seriously lacking at Santander. I feel that security procedures must have been breached but I don't think they will ever tell us what really happened.

I also think that Santander is the target of the latest Zeus v3 trojan reported...no news stories are naming the financial institution. However, when I spoke to Santander last night they appeared to have an internal memo describing how it works. I don't believe our fraud is anything to do with this trojan as I don't think there is a trojan yet that is sophisticated enough to visit 2 different branches and withdraw £420 in each...but I am willing to be corrected. Also, we don't use internet banking.

We will be transferring away from Santander as soon as they have sorted this sorry mess out!!

jen_br

I posted this before on the forums ill post it here... I will say santander were decent in the END.

we opened a switched account with Santander which was great they did all the work.. All though some of my DD were not switched so i called up to enquire and was told that the guy on the phone couldn't see what the problem was but he can escalate this to a complaint and an adviser will contact me within a weeks time to discuss. I said great. (as it wasn't a huge deal just wanted to clairify things)

So 2 weeks went by no advisor nothing didn't think much of it but then I went to use my card at ASDA (you know friday night cue of 30 lol) DECLINED! I was mortified i knew i had the money i went to the bank account couldn't even print a balance.

So I called them up....WELL i got some rude guy who told me to go intot he branch I said surely you could see something.. long story short asked to speak to a supervisor he put me on hold for 46 min and then transferrred me to Collections. Collections then hung up on me.

SO i called back and finally spoke to a decent person who told me MY ACCOUNT HAD BEEN CLOSED I said CLOSED??? How the heck can that happen even over the phone you can't do that.. she said she agreeed and tried to look into this for me.

The only answer i got was Banks fault. Fair enough. The only thing closed off was the cards of my and my DH so no worries reoder the cards right?

WRONG.... my husbands got re-ordered mine didn't. FUMING at this point they state i need to bring in ID to the branch *for an account i already have and 24 hours ago at that point had a card for* Fine no problem...

Did that.. Brought it in 9am Branch took and told me to leave it withthem... So at 4:40pm i get a call Im sorry we cant' do this for you its not working

So another freak out and 10 phone calls later.. I found a SAINT at Santander Holly who worked for card services. She told me exactly waht to say to the branch basically a new card account had to be opened

Not the main account but the account for my card... So the branch goes and does this and guess what DECLINED>.. i have been DECLINED for a Visa debit card. NO reason why there was no criedt check so i know its not my criedt.

So NOW the complaintd dept call me up tell me well i can get my money WITH ID from the branch mon-fri 9am-5pm Oh great thats REALLY helpful NOT. And that the FSA grant the banks 8 WEEKS to deal with complaints As this has been esclated to a complaint in order to get it sorted there is NO ONE i can speak to supposivly.

So now i sit and wait up to 8 weeks to hear if i can gain access to the money i put into a bank account.

Sad. really sad. you would think that at LEAST they would tell me ok this is OUR fault and we assure you within 72 hours someone can deal with this... but no.

As a new customer i feel upset and hurt. not to mention the numerous phone calls with CS agents who were rude and one of them who thank GOD the call was recorded actually swore complaints is dealing with them

6 weeks later after I had posted that I wrote to the Managing director of Santander I FINALLY got the account re-opend I had no access to any money my husbands wages and mine all went into the Santander account that was closed and we couldn't do jack all about it. The bank said they NEVER reopen accounts so they were very shocked that this was done to me. They paid all my DD charges that I incured, and large compo. I told them I had to borrow money off my inlaws to feed my family. I had to email the MD and threaten Watchdog actionhowever to get it.

Even the Bank manager at my local branch told me to go to the Clydsdale!

bufflebear

BCB - Sorry to hear that youve just been an account number to them - that simply isnt good enough! So many complaints about Santander is not good news....im gonna get out as soon as my 5% deal ends.

dominic145

I am an A&L customer, recently transferred over to Santander. I mostly use internet banking. All the transfers went smoothly. A couple of days ago I opened a new e-saver account (at +2.75%) to transfer my minimal savings from my old phonesaver account, as the rate had just dropped. The guy on the phone was courteous and helpful, and I was logged on to internet banking during the process. Within 5 minutes the new account was opened and the money transferred, and available. Needless to say I was quite surprised to find this discussion thread, as my experience of Santander thus far, has been excellent (although I have never used a branch with either Santander, or A&L, having always used telephone or internet banking)