Atrocious Customer Service from Egg

D_Brundle

Since January 2006 they have added unwarranted interest charges twice. I always clear my balance.

When I pointed this out through secure message the customer service department didn't look at the complaint but parroted a standard reply numerous times. It was obvious they hadn't actually read my complaint. In the finish I had to phone them on both occasions to sort it out.

They originally gave me a £10,000 credit limit, which is completely ridiculous I could never pay that much back. I reduced it to something more manageable. When I bought something the payment went through during the couple of days it took my monthly balance payment to process (it had been taken out of my bank account but wasn't added to my egg account). I went over the credit limit I'd set by £2, they charged me £20 for the privilege.

Despite complaining I've had their standard reply the terms and conditions are set out in the contract. They won't refund the £20, I think they rely on the fact that sueing them is too much hassle over £20.

On returning from a trip overseas I had my pocket picked at Stanstead airport. I have the panic numbers in my mobile, so I had the cards closed within minutes of the theft.

Its taken 6 weeks to sort out my online account, I couldn't pay my balance so they were going to add interest charges till I complained. As soon as they sorted out that mess, I paid the balance off. Except that wasn't enough and as soon as it was sorted out they also took payment by direct debit as well. It'll take 5 working days before I get my money back.

When my card was sorted out a few days ago, I made the mistake of using it. Both transactions were declined because I tripped something in their "Falcon" fraud detection software. This is despite the fact that both transactions were with companies that I regularly shop with.

I had a phone call at work through their automated system. I cleared both transactions and resubmitted my order. That was the end of it or so I thought.

I've had 1/2 dozen calls on my mobile, a further 1/2 dozen calls on my home phone.

I rang them back and confirmed for the second time the transactions were in fact genuine. I asked them to stop ringing me, politely.

Think that was the end of it...oh no.

I had further calls today asking the same thing.

Called tonight, not in the best of moods, but remained polite and not abusive. I asked if they would stop ringing again. Made the mistake of getting into a conversation with the guy on the phone about why I wasn't happy with their customer service. I didn't get an apology but a lecture about how their terms and conditions are set out clearly on their website.

If you're thinking of getting an Egg card, my experience is their customer service used to be first rate. No longer, it blows chunks. Soon as I get my money back I'm cutting up all my egg cards.

Mutton_Geoff

Egg used to be a market leader with a low rate, and large cash back. I too have had trouble with them recently. Cleared the full balance on the due date, still a couple of quids worth of interest the next month.

It turns out their statement date/due date/interest calc dates are not standard like other cards, so you can settle in full by the due date but still accrue interest!

I cancelled mine after condescending stock responses to my complaint.

toomanyshoes

I've stated elsewhere that I'm on a plan to get rid of mine. It was a great card when I first took it out which was over 6 years ago apparently.

I had a consumer issue recently over accomodation I'd paid for with my CC. Egg finally repsonded by sending loads of forms but by them I'd already called consumer direct for info on the relevant parts of the Supply of Goods and Services Act and resolved it myself wth the retailer.

I asked for a loan recently (was gonna do a loft extention but have put it off to next year now). I was on the phone ages going through my life; past present and future. In the end they offered me the loan (£13k) but only if I closed the card which has a £9.6 limit. As I told them, I saw that as a £3.4k lend and so thanks but no thanks.

Anwen_2

D_Brundle wrote:

Its taken 6 weeks to sort out my online account, I couldn't pay my balance so they were going to add interest charges till I complained. As soon as they sorted out that mess, I paid the balance off. Except that wasn't enough and as soon as it was sorted out they also took payment by direct debit as well. It'll take 5 working days before I get my money back.

Sorry, I don't understand, why couldn't you pay the balance, couldn't you have just set up the direct debit, or made a BACS payment? I also don't see why you think it's their fault if you went over your credit limit. Surely you know that the payments take a couple of days to clear, and during that time, your balance is still at whatever amount it was before the payment left your current account.

I do agree that it's very frustrating when they reply to a secure message with a totally irrelevant stock reply, mind you.

D_Brundle

Anwen wrote:

Sorry, I don't understand, why couldn't you pay the balance, couldn't you have just set up the direct debit, or made a BACS payment?

The balance was on my old card, which was frozen because of the theft. You can't put money into a frozen account. So I couldn't make a BACS payment.

They hadn't transferred it to the new card, which was showing a zero balance. I have a direct debit set up to pay it off at the end of every month but as it was zero the DD didn't work.

@Anwen, BTW its not the fact that they charged for going over the credit limit. Its the fact they charged me £20, which is a penalty fee that in no way reflects their costs. Its also the fact it was only £2 for no more than a couple of days at best and in the six years I've had the card I've never missed a payment or done that before. As a family, we use the Egg Money card for everything, so all of our disposable income is put through the card. They make a tidy profit from all of the fees they collect on our purchases. A little goodwill would have gone a long way, particularly after the way they'd messed me around earlier in the year.

ex-egghead

To explain, without sticking up for egg...

The staff at Egg have a messages per hour targets. The more they do, the more they get put on sending messages as staff are multi trained to answer queries via telephone and on ICS. Working on the telephones is pretty awful I can tell you, so they do anything they can to get on to messaging.

I myself worked on this for a period of time and unfortunatly its dpwn to whether you get someone good at there job or not who answers your message. I had countless problems caused by lazy staff, with messages of all nature from customers. Some were very insulting and abusive, but quite amusing. I tried to do my job properly, regardless of the backlash for taking too much time on things and sort customers out with the right service.

It sounds like you've had an unfortunate experience with Egg and customer service. I am on side with Egg on the charges for going over your limit. People always complain about being charged £20 for going over limit, however it's a high charge not just to cover costs but to stress the importance of staying in your limit as it does affect your credit rating etc.

I will tell you now on the Falcon Security issue, it will not stop calling till you answer it and go through it to confirm the transactions. Its a seperate system that is outsourced and not owned by Egg itself, they have no real control of it to be honest.

You can still make a payment to a frozen card. The account still remains open to receive funds, but the available credit is set to £0 so no funds can be taken from it. Your direct debit would fail because it takes a number of days for your bank to change the direct debit details once the file has been received by your bank. Any charges incurred you will be able to get refunded by Egg if you ask them.

Anyway, I hope I've been of some use to you.

ex-egghead

D_Brundle

ex-egghead wrote:

I am on side with Egg on the charges for going over your limit. People always complain about being charged £20 for going over limit, however it's a high charge not just to cover costs but to stress the importance of staying in your limit as it does affect your credit rating etc.

A high charge to stress the importance of staying within your limit makes it a penalty charge. A penalty charge is illegal under British law. You implicitly acknowledge yourself that it is in excess of their actual costs.

Given I have 6 years of good conduct in the bank so to speak, you'd think they could be a little flexible. A little good will goes a long way.

Also they had my money, it had left my bank account, they are tardy in crediting it into my account.

ex-egghead wrote:

I will tell you now on the Falcon Security issue, it will not stop calling till you answer it and go through it to confirm the transactions. Its a seperate system that is outsourced and not owned by Egg itself, they have no real control of it to be honest.

Except that I did answer it, twice in fact, and they still kept on calling.

You can still make a payment to a frozen card

You may well be right but not according to the customer service rep I spoke to. I was told a frozen account, meant that, it was frozen and money neither went in or out. If you're correct then thats just another reason for me to be upset with their level of customer service.

To be honest, right now I've had it with Egg. As far as I'm concerned all their marketing BS is just that BS. They market themselves as different from other banks but like any other bank they're just looking for any excuse they can get to screw an extra couple of quid out of their customers.

I used to be really happy to deal with Egg, so much so I recommended them to several friends. And they were good but recently they've really gone to the dogs.

Jo_Mack

Mutton_Geoff wrote:

Egg used to be a market leader with a low rate, and large cash back. I too have had trouble with them recently. Cleared the full balance on the due date, still a couple of quids worth of interest the next month.

It turns out their statement date/due date/interest calc dates are not standard like other cards, so you can settle in full by the due date but still accrue interest!

I cancelled mine after condescending stock responses to my complaint.

I had the exact same problem with that! I cleared my account, next month £2 interest - paid it and cleared account again, next month 10p interest. Needless to say i went beserk! I asked how they could continually be charging me interest on a card i had never used for god knows how long and had cleared the balance twice! All i got was a 10p credit.

BOO ot EGG!:mad:

ex-egghead

A high charge to stress the importance of staying within your limit makes it a penalty charge. A penalty charge is illegal under British law. You implicitly acknowledge yourself that it is in excess of their actual costs.

I don't know the in's and out's of where the costs are incurred when you go overlimit. The point is, if you say, lowered the charge to £2, how many people would think, meh f*** it, it's only £2, i'll spend it anyway. Is that responsible lending on a banks part to let someone spend more than they think is sensible and charge them only £2. Then when you get into financial trouble, its the banks fault too!!

Also they had my money, it had left my bank account, they are tardy in crediting it into my account.

Untrue. You should have been aware after your six years of being with Egg that the DD payment takes some time to appear on your statement, but then, when it doesnt, as per normal, and it causes you problems, its not your fault.

I am just pointing out here that there are two arguments to every story. When things dont go to YOUR plan it isn't always someone else's fault. I understand you've never missed a payment or gone overlimit before. But if I parked my car on double yellow lines and got a ticket, does it matter that i've never done it before? No.

Yes the banks do screw people over. It's happened to all of us at some point. But that is why you get the 0% deals here there and everywhere. Customers screw banks over as much as banks screw customers over. How much money do you think it cost banks when everyone was switching between 0% cards when there were no BT fee's involved? Who brought that around? Egg was the 1st 0% card.

D_Brundle

ex-egghead wrote:

I don't know the in's and out's of where the costs are incurred when you go overlimit.

The simple fact is a penalty charge is illegal, are you incapable of acknowledging that? Just because banks have got away with it for years doesn't make it acceptable.

Is it acceptable for a bank to break the law?

ex-egghead wrote:

But if I parked my car on double yellow lines and got a ticket, does it matter that i've never done it before? No.

A foolish analogy, Egg aren't law enforcement. An annoyed motorist can't take his "business" elsewhere. An annoyed customer most certainly can.

It might be within the "rules" but it isn't good business practise.

ex-egghead wrote:

Yes the banks do screw people over. It's happened to all of us at some point.

Except that Egg markets itself as DIFFERENT to the rest.

ex-egghead

I think D_Brundle may need some anger management classes here.

I'm not the bank, I no longer work there and there is nothing I can do for you (even if there was I would still tend to side with Egg on this one).

Please do not attack me for what I have said, saying things like "are you incapable of acknowledging that?" and saying things I've said are "foolish".

People on here are only trying to help. On this matter I am simply trying to put it to you that any bank would do the same to you and whilst you may take your custom elsewhere, it may happen again and certainly no bank will loose sleep, tears or any sort of money which will affect them over you leaving.

I appriciate that this all has been very annoying for you and dispite what you may thing, I do understand from your side of things what you are saying and how you feel. When working at Egg I spoke to customers who were equally as unhappy with things as you, I also spoke to alot of customers who were extreamly happy with the service given.

Just please bear in mind when your writing on this board that people are trying to help.

ex-egghead.