Alliance & Leicester "lost" a large (to us) amount of cash for nearly 2 months !

Dodgy_Paella

Hi all

This is my first post, so apologies if I fail to follow etiquette, but there's something I'd like to get off my chest. My wife has a savings account with Alliance and Leicester / Santander. She upgraded this account recently in order to avoid her money being dropped into one of their post 12 month "slum" interest rates.

4 days before the changeover to the new savings account, she moved a sum of money from the old savings account into her current account at the HSBC.

The money never arrived into her current account ! After 1 hour 40 minutes on the phone in mid-July with an Alliance & Leicester / Santander telephone robot, she was told that a "trace" would be put on her cash. This trace never happened. We went on holiday for 2 weeks, safe in the belief ( don't worry, they're doing a trace ) that the problem would be resolved on our return. We got home to find that the money had not been paid into her current account, nor returned to her savings account, but it was showing in her savings account as an "unpaid direct debit" (e.g. "lost"), with the sum deducted from her total savings.

What seems to have happened is :

1) the money leaves A & L to be paid to HSBC.
2) The savings account gets moved / upgraded. e.g. Old savings account closed, new savings account created with the balance transferred.
3) HSBC have refused to take the direct debit payment as A & L have failed to provide adequate information, attempting to bounce it back to the old savings account.
4) A & L have failed to link old savings account with new savings account to bounce the money on, despite the fact that my wife can access the new savings account with the old credentials !

Anyway, she contacted the A & L complaints department, to be greeted by a rather facetious and snide character hiding behind the name "Alan from Bootle" - if people don't want to serve customers, why do they get jobs in customer service ? After about 25 minutes which consisted mainly of hold music as "Alan" spoke to an adult to ask what to do, "Alan" tried to pass the blame onto the HSBC. When my wife contacted the HSBC, she was informed that the transfer had failed because A & L had failed to provide adequate account information.

The HSBC, who were very helpful indeed, also informed my wife of the direct debit guarantee, where any money paid by direct debit and then lost would be returned by the bank responsible, in this case, the alliance and leicester, and questioned the legality of A & L effectively withholding access to the money, by not paying the money straight back into her account under the direct debit guarantee.

After speaking to the HSBC, my wife then called A & L (about a week ago now), to ask for the money to be returned under the direct debit guarantee. It still hasn't been repaid.

So to recap, Alliance & Leicester / Santander have :

* Failed to transfer money via a direct debit with adequate information for a transfer to take place.
* Failed to Link my wifes new savings account with her old savings account, even though these accounts are linked and visible to her via their own online banking system.
* A & L customer services have shirked responsibility, and attempted to blame HSBC, in an attempt to make them make an indemnity claim against the money.
* Failed to return the money they have "lost" for approaching 2 months, which is a breach of the direct debit guarantee.

Sometimes a good rate isn't the only thing you want from your bank.

We have completely lost trust in A & Ls' ability to perform basic tasks such as money transfers, give a straight answer over the phone, or do what they say they are going to do. At every stage of an everyday transaction they have comprehensively failed. My wife would happily close the account down after this is resolved and never deal with them again, but who's to say that they wouldn't electronically "lose" the whole balance of her account if she tried to do so ?

Anyway, the ombudsman is looking into this for us now, so we're not looking for answers as such, just wanted people to know about the complete lack of service from this supposed bank.

tbw

I can only agree with your assessment of A&L/Santander!!! dH and I have both finally given up the unequal struggle with them and have closed/transferred/withdrawn cash from them and effectively now have no products left with them. This step was taken after similar dreadful service (or should I say lack of service?).

Now we are just waiting for our ISA 's to be transferred to a competitor bank. I gather they have up to 30 days to do the transfers - although I have heard several horror stories about customers waiting months for the transfers. I will be looking at how to sue them for my lost interest if they give us the run around but no point in stressing yet.

Dodgy_Paella

Thanks for letting me know I'm not the only one , although I'm not sure that it is good to know that a high street name that had such a good rep as a building society has stooped so low.

Actually, thinking about it, I had a loan with them, which finished with a balloon payment, this was a couple of years ago. The loan ended and I asked for a letter to be sent to me confirming that it had ended, which they did. About 8 months later, I got a letter from them with a statement on it. My balloon payment date was shown, with the balance reverting to zero, but after this were interest payments stretching across the 8 months, with a total of 560 pounds in interest "due". I phoned the call centre at the time and was assured that the problem would be dealt with - I did ask for written confirmation but never recieved it. After my wifes' experiences, I'm now wondering if that account was indeed closed, or whether there is an account sitting with them, accruing interest... I think I have a call to make...