BBC Watchdog on Santander - Dissapointed

meebsquat

davidgmmafan wrote: »

Never mind apologizing you cretin what about the people who were not allowed to drive because YOU told them there was no record of this licence.

One guy sent his licence off and it came back with a tank licence.

This just made me and half my office LOL for about 10mins!

val2761

Here is another Santander horror story and it will be a long one! I am a Santander customer by default rather than by choice as I opened my first bank account with the national giro bank 30 + years ago and a savings account with abbey national even longer ago than that. Matters outside my control and due to santander taking over the world now finds me with 2 accounts with them. No major problems until an unpleasant sunday night 4 weeks ago when an intruder came into my house and stole my handbag containing (amongst other things) debit card, cash dispenser card and chequebook for said accounts. Whilst I was with the police my boyfriend phoned and reported these items stolen and I then phoned the next day to confirm this and re order 2 cards and a cheque book. The subsequent 4 weeks have been a complete nightmare and I must have spent 20 - 30 hours on the phone to them! I did (thank god) get a replacement dispenser card after 1 week so I can now at least access some money. The debit card and cheque book have been much more problematic. Afer 10 days and no sign of either card or cheque book I phoned to be told thay had never been ordered and it would take another 7 - 10 days to get them to me. I think at this point I raised my first official complaint and did get £50 paid into my account by way of apology. After many more frustrating phone calls and the passage of another week or so a debit card finally arrived. It was however instantly eaten by the cash dispenser and when I phoned Santander was told it was a blocked card?? no one could tell me why it was blocked but they 'kindly' offered to order another one which would be with me in 7 - 10 days!! Official , stage 2 escalated complaint number 2! On wednesday this week a further debit card arrived but no pin number so I phoned only to be told this was not the card they had sent and that was why I had not got a pin number. They were unable to tell me how I had got a card that had not been sent! They promised the 'real' card would be with me shortly. The said 'real' card arrived yesterday with 2 letters containing 2 pins! A further phone call in which I was told to 'just try both pin numbers' to get find the right one. Having logged on to my account later in the day I discovered they had paid out to a cheque from my stolen cheque book! (this turned out to be a valid cheque that a friend had delayed in banking but that is not the point as I had reported that cheque book stolen). When I raised my concern about the cheque I was informed my cheque book had never been cancelled! Why, I asked, had I been sent a replacement cheque book if I had not cancelled the other! Having further cause to ring them yesterday and giving my card number for security checks I am informed the card is not a valid card! They again could not explain why I had been sent a card that was invalid or when the valid one might arrive. I now have 2 invalid debit cards in my possession and the one eaten by the cash dispenser makes 3 but still not one that actually allows me to use it!
One of my calls to them last night saw me waiting for an operqator for 45 minutes at which time I was sobbing with a combination of anger and complete despair to the point I had to hang up and call later. On occasions when demanding to speak to a supervisor I have been placed on hold for 40 minutes and no call has lasted less than 30 minutes. I truly feel sorry for the call handlers as they must get no end of flack from angry customers and they do not appear to have the computer tracking or documentation systems to support the work they are called to do. It remains to be seen when my next debit card will arrive and whether it will be an active one. I do now have 3 stage 2 complaints logged and hold no hope that they will follow my request to merge these into one investigation and response. I refused a further £40 compensation last week as I do not believe that anywhere near covers the time, financial loss or distress they have caused (and are still causing). If anyone has got to the bottom of this and has any thoughts on the compensation amount please do reply. If nothing else I feel better for having got that off my chest. Once I have had some reconpense I will be moving both my accounts elsewhere.

zppp

val, I can't read this. It fills up my screen and is blurring my eyes! You may want to summarise it in bullet points under, what has happened, what they have offered as a resolution (if anything) and what you expect as a resolution. Not only will it make things easier for people to advise, but it will make it easier for you if you have 3 separate complaints on the go.

All I will say is bear in mind that if you are not satisfied with their response, you can continue to escalate to the FOS if you are unhappy.

jumpforjoy_2

soozonholiday wrote: »

Just found this thread after reading the thread: A & L migration to Santander and have now emailed the following:

[EMAIL="watchdog@santander.co.uk"]watchdog@santander.co.uk[/EMAIL]
[EMAIL="Antonio.Osorio@santander.co.uk"]Antonio.Osorio@santander.co.uk[/EMAIL]
[EMAIL="alison.brittain@santander.co.uk"]alison.brittain@santander.co.uk[/EMAIL]

I have filled out 20 online complaint forms (I really am not happy at being ignored!), 25-30 secure messages, made numerous telephone calls and been to branch yet I am still without access to my 3 online accounts. For me the telephone support say branch have to deal with it and branch say I have to telephone. Not sure how many times they want to pull this stunt and I have read of people going to branch and then telephone up to 6 or 7 times before resolving (or breaking down in tears at a branch before being taken to a mental institute). I am going to have high quality copies taken of my ID then get them framed and send recorded delivery.

I'll post any response but frankly I'm thinking about booking myself in for treatment and save them the bother. They can then have a big party on my £6k they have heavily guarded at Santander HQ!

Don't email
[EMAIL="Antonio.Osorio@santander.co.uk"]Antonio.Osorio@santander.co.uk[/EMAIL]

He has jumped ship & gone to Lloyds, so watch out if you have an account there.
Just to show what kind of 'bank' Santander are the new CE is
Ana Patricia Botin, daughter of the Santander Exective Chairman.
Talk about Spanish practises!

mazinmouse

I too cannot read blocks of text - so have broken it up VAL's post

"Here is another Santander horror story and it will be a long one!

I am a Santander customer by default rather than by choice as I opened my first bank account with the national giro bank 30 + years ago and a savings account with abbey national even longer ago than that. Matters outside my control and due to santander taking over the world now finds me with 2 accounts with them.

No major problems until an unpleasant sunday night 4 weeks ago when an intruder came into my house and stole my handbag containing (amongst other things) debit card, cash dispenser card and chequebook for said accounts. Whilst I was with the police my boyfriend phoned and reported these items stolen and I then phoned the next day to confirm this and re order 2 cards and a cheque book.

The subsequent 4 weeks have been a complete nightmare and I must have spent 20 - 30 hours on the phone to them! I did (thank god) get a replacement dispenser card after 1 week so I can now at least access some money. The debit card and cheque book have been much more problematic. Afer 10 days and no sign of either card or cheque book I phoned to be told thay had never been ordered and it would take another 7 - 10 days to get them to me.
I think at this point I raised my first official complaint and did get £50 paid into my account by way of apology.

After many more frustrating phone calls and the passage of another week or so a debit card finally arrived. It was however instantly eaten by the cash dispenser and when I phoned Santander was told it was a blocked card?? no one could tell me why it was blocked but they 'kindly' offered to order another one which would be with me in 7 - 10 days!! Official , stage 2 escalated complaint number 2!

On wednesday this week a further debit card arrived but no pin number so I phoned only to be told this was not the card they had sent and that was why I had not got a pin number. They were unable to tell me how I had got a card that had not been sent! They promised the 'real' card would be with me shortly. The said 'real' card arrived yesterday with 2 letters containing 2 pins! A further phone call in which I was told to 'just try both pin numbers' to get find the right one.

Having logged on to my account later in the day I discovered they had paid out to a cheque from my stolen cheque book! (this turned out to be a valid cheque that a friend had delayed in banking but that is not the point as I had reported that cheque book stolen). When I raised my concern about the cheque I was informed my cheque book had never been cancelled! Why, I asked, had I been sent a replacement cheque book if I had not cancelled the other!

Having further cause to ring them yesterday and giving my card number for security checks I am informed the card is not a valid card! They again could not explain why I had been sent a card that was invalid or when the valid one might arrive. I now have 2 invalid debit cards in my possession and the one eaten by the cash dispenser makes 3 but still not one that actually allows me to use it!

One of my calls to them last night saw me waiting for an operqator for 45 minutes at which time I was sobbing with a combination of anger and complete despair to the point I had to hang up and call later. On occasions when demanding to speak to a supervisor I have been placed on hold for 40 minutes and no call has lasted less than 30 minutes. I truly feel sorry for the call handlers as they must get no end of flack from angry customers and they do not appear to have the computer tracking or documentation systems to support the work they are called to do. It remains to be seen when my next debit card will arrive and whether it will be an active one.

I do now have 3 stage 2 complaints logged and hold no hope that they will follow my request to merge these into one investigation and response. I refused a further £40 compensation last week as I do not believe that anywhere near covers the time, financial loss or distress they have caused (and are still causing).

If anyone has got to the bottom of this and has any thoughts on the compensation amount please do reply. If nothing else I feel better for having got that off my chest. Once I have had some reconpense I will be moving both my accounts elsewhere."

val2761

I thought I might go straight to the topo with my complaint but does anyone know whether Antonio Ortario is still CEO or has he already left. If any one knows who I could email it would be appreciated.

jumpforjoy_2

val2761 wrote: »

I thought I might go straight to the topo with my complaint but does anyone know whether Antonio Ortario is still CEO or has he already left. If any one knows who I could email it would be appreciated.

Its pretty pointless addressing any complaint to the Santander Chief Executive whoever it may be currently.
I wrote to Mr Osorio but received confirmation from Richard Harris, Head of Complaints at Santander

Unfortunately he was too busy to investigate & he passed the complaint to Julie Fallon.
Julie failed to address my complaint but 'took the liberty' of transferring £50 into my account as a goodwill gesture & apologised for the poor service.

It's a shame that so many senior employess of Santander seem to have missed the point of my letter.
I took the time to make them aware of the staff at Alliance & Leicester in Worcester failing their customers and giving adequate customer service, it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
A very poor company to do business with.