Bank complaint

bubbles_bonbon

Hi, I need some advice.
I have been with my bank, Alliance and Leicester, for some years.
They have now been taken over by Santandare. Last week I discovered that since this happened my monthly statements have been sent to the incorrect address.
I received one of my statements through the post last week, it had been opened and re-cealed.

I contacted my bank and explained what had happened. I was told that this happens sometimes.

I was not satisfied with this answer so I asked the customer services to raise a complaint. They did this and as yet I have had no reply. This was over 1 week ago.

Am I right to be a bit !!!!ed about this??? Is this in breach of the data protection act?

Or am I over reacting and should just let it drop.??

Googlewhacker

whilst nice to know I'd probably do the latter

Optimist

Im assuming you haven't changed address's and have been receiving your statements with no problems previously. If so your not over reacting.

The response "it happens sometimes" is totally inadequate However the bank have 8 weeks to look at your problem so a week isn't sufficient to expect a response.

If your not happy with the response when it comes consider moving banks and/or complaining to the financial Ombudsman

There does seem to be a lot of unhappy customers in the santandar group nowadays

ERICS_MUM

sorry I've read this back and it's a bit long, hope it's worth reading

Banks are obliged by law to supply customers with account statements (the format and frequency can vary as long as the customer is advised).

By sending to the wrong address they are not supplying you. They are also flouting data protection law. Their "explanation" is completely unacceptable.

Sounds to me that they have migrated the A&L accounts over to the Santander computer system and somewhere along the line data has been corrupted. and details mis-matched with the accounts.

You need to see the branch manager and get the address corrected and give you proof of this (they should be able to do this by the next working day). They should also provide copies of all missing statements free of charge. IMO this should all be completed within one week.

Once it's all sorted to your satisfaction, raise a formal complaint in writing (don't rely on a member of staff to do it), asking for a detailed explanation of why they ALLOWED this to happen. I would say they should give you a full response within one month.

If all this fails, go to the Banking Ombudsman (or whatever he is called these days).

pmduk

However long you think it should take a bank to deal with a complaint, the fact is that you cannot escalate a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman until either the bank issues a deadlock letter or 8 weeks have elapsed.

Dr_Cuckoo3

bubbles_bonbon wrote: »

Last week I discovered that since this happened my monthly statements have been sent to the incorrect address.
I received one of my statements through the post last week, it had been opened and re-cealed.

Am I on the wrong planet ?

What address was on statement inside the opened and re-sealed envelope that you received ?

Your correct address ?

or

another address ?


If your correct address was on the statement then the item was delivered to the wrong address by the postman , opened in error (at the wrong address) and put back in the post box to be delivered to the correct address as printed on the statement

If the statement was addressed to the wrong address (that means the address printed on the statement does not match your address) ,then how did the statement find it's way to your correct address - are you well known in the area ?

Dr_Cuckoo3

Judas wrote: »

Even if the bank have accidentally stuck it in the wrong enevelope or similar there is very little that can or will be done for a one off mistake.

How many banks send a statement in an envelope with the address printed on the outside of the envelope , rather than a window envelope showing the address printed on the statement ?

Lokolo

Banks have 8 weeks to respond to complaints under guidelines of the FOS.

I don't think the statement going to the wrong house counts as going against the Data Protection Act.

Lokolo

Judas wrote: »

What is it your point; its quite common for 2 peoples statmenets to get stuck together and be dispatched in one evelope; well not common but it does happen.

Happened to be a couple of months ago. Was interesting to read the woman who deposits £1-5 in every day, and withdraw some other days! Very odd.

I just threw it away.

bubbles_bonbon

hello again.
In answer to the question from Dr cuckoo. I have not moved house nor changed address but the envelope and statement were addressed to my name but a completely different address appart from the road name.
The only reason that the statement ever arrived was because the person who had received the letter had put the letter back into the post and written on the front try !"£$$%^ village instead.

Dr_Cuckoo3

There was another post about exactly the same thing on the bank accounts board yesterday

So this could be a sign of a large scale address mix up by Santander

ddm18 wrote: »

Just another thing worth checking on your A&L / Santander account, if anyone reading this thread is planning on staying with them - I'm in the process of transferring my account away, but happened to look at the address they have stored for me (Other Services > View / Update Personal Details), and find that my address is wrong.

It's a similar address to mine, but not actually right. The following details are made up, but the difference is the same, let's say my address is:

8 Bobbins Street,
Cardiff,
CF5 4BL

They have for me:

8 Bobin Street,
Cardiff,
CF14 8HT

So - a different postcode, and a different street; sure enough, according to Royal Mail that street and postcode combination exist - so they're (presumably) sending my post to a totally different address!!! Worse, if I try to change it, I get:

"Unfortunately, due to a temporary problem, your updated address/contact details cannot be processed at the moment. Please try again later, and be assured that this has not affected the security of any of your details."

Yeah. Right. It doesn't affect the security of my details to be SENDING ALL MY BANKING CORRESPONDENCE TO THE WRONG PERSON!!!

Of course, I can't say for sure that this is the result of the merger, as it's not something I check frequently, but they certainly had my address right until recently, looking at old correspondence from them.

As a software developer by trade, with a passing interest in IT security, my mind boggles at how this could happen; presumably there was no manual process here, the details have been copied over automatically, and it's made some kind of best guess at matching the address! I can't see anything more unbelievably and obviously terrible that they could have done; especially because my correct address exists, has existed for many years, and I've never had any problem with it being listed on any company's address system.

Can it get worse? Oh yes, of course it can; I now get to sit on hold to their call centre for the rest of the afternoon. Just how I love spending my weekends.

EDIT: I've made the call (amazingly I was only on hold for about 20 seconds), and spoke to an address expert there, who, to his credit, was very helpful and understanding, even saying that he'd have been much angrier than me, if it had happened to him. However, he said that I wasn't the first, and that they've seen several of the same problem! Great to know that they haven't bothered to do a check their end (which would be very easy), instead waiting for individual customers to discover; presumably merrily sending out newly issued debit cards + PINs in the meantime...

If any MSE'rs are reading this, I really think it would be worth a mention on the weekly email - from this thread and the poll last week it seems like plenty of your users are A&L customers, presumably because you were recommending them heavily, and you're in a position to make sure people are aware before it's too late.