MSE News: Santander says 'sorry' for customer service chaos

terryf

I started to get daily phone calls from a Santander debt collection department asking to speak to various different people who did not and never have lived at my address. None of the operators calling could or would say how they had obtained my phone number. I eventually stopped this by sending emails to all the top Santander management that I could find on the internet (including Spanish ones). I eventually got an apology and the phone calls stopped.
Six months later, the calls started up again so I repeated my emails and again got an apology and the calls stopped.
I don't understand how the names of the persons asked for got linked to my telephone number, I have never had an account with Santander or any of the financial companies taken over by them.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

terryf wrote: »

I started to get daily phone calls from a Santander debt collection department asking to speak to various different people who did not and never have lived at my address. None of the operators calling could or would say how they had obtained my phone number. I eventually stopped this by sending emails to all the top Santander management that I could find on the internet (including Spanish ones). I eventually got an apology and the phone calls stopped.
Six months later, the calls started up again so I repeated my emails and again got an apology and the calls stopped.
I don't understand how the names of the persons asked for got linked to my telephone number, I have never had an account with Santander or any of the financial companies taken over by them.

Are you totally certain of this? Sometimes the link isn't obvious e.g. my Burton store card is run by Santander yet you would struggle to be aware of this - partly because they've never made a balls up with that account.

pmduk

If Santander are struggling to merge the banks they already have why continue to buy new ones?

Years ago Banks such as NatWest were formed by merging may banks (National, Westminster, Martins etc.) I bet customers received better service then!

At least as a result of this fiasco people might start to think more about moving banks in advance of problems.

davidgmmafan

The comments about complaints not being logged or Goodwill Gestures being given are a serious brech of FSA regulations in regard to complaints handling. I'm sure stern action will follow.

Oh look a flying pig.

BTW I'm with A & L and touch wood things went smoothly, but I'm not going to wait around for something to go wrong to find out if thier complaints handling has improved.

pawnbroker_2

There can be little doubt that the service dished out by Santander is really a manifestation of utter failure by regulators at all levels and a signal of the abdication by our MP's who are supposed to represent our interests. Whilst busily filling their bank accounts with taxpayers money do nothing when people cannot even access their own accounts. The FSA (Financial Sleeping Assocation) should be dolling out huge multi-million pound fines to Santander for it's obvious incompetence.

My own MP wrung his hands and said "not me guv" it's the EU who said we had to sell RBS branches. Really... who abdicated the power to the EU in the first place ?

In the small town where I live we already have Santander so when the RBS branch shuts there will be less choice not more as we were told.

I have no doubt when the RBS transfer starts the debacle of A&L will be repeated, Santander's platitudes recycled, and the authorities will still do nothing. As an RBS customer in an English branch I will be long gone.

In the event that the ultimate travesty occurs and Santander is allowed to bid for the 600 Lloyds branches then the manifestation of regulatory failure will be complete.

As a Lloyds customer if there is a whiff of Santander getting near my branch then my accounts will very quickly emptied and closed.

As a customer of the failed Icesave bank I can honestly say that during the problems access to your accounts was still available to check balances, though no transactions were allowed and evidence of the sums involved was easily printed at home.

There is still an obvious number of people who cannot even access their Santander, A&L etc, accounts to demonstrate to the FCS in the event of a failure how much money is involved. We all know now that banks can and have failed.

Personally under these circumstances I would be very worried.

premierfella

pawnbroker wrote: »

My own MP wrung his hands and said "not me guv" it's the EU who said we had to sell RBS branches.

You should have pointed out that the EU may have told them to divest branches, but did not tell them who they had to sell the branches to.

No doubt the Santander service will improve in the coming months as the incorporation of RBS/NatWest branches is a way off yet and pretty much everything in relation to A&L/B&B has now been done, but I would be surprised if the improvement in service is much more than from bottom quartile to third quartile in terms of comparison with their competitors.

mippy

I had the joy of them cancelling all cards on my current account when I called to request a lost one to be replaced. Given I had no photo ID at the time, this left me without access to cash for two weeks despite my stressing on the phone at the time that ONLY ONE CARD had to be cancelled.

I should count myself lucky, though - last time they sent the card to a branch. In Manchester. 300 miles away from where I live and where my statements had been arriving for the past year.

nzseries1

simonlavender wrote: »

I have the Santander Zero Credit Card and that is also bad as it charges you 27.95% interest on the withdrawals abroad!

In their defence (it pains me to say that) - all cards do this, at a similar rate. The difference is that Santander Zero don't charge you a fixed fee as well.

DISCLAIMER - I hate Santander as much as the next person. I was without access to my A&L account for weeks, and closing my accounts there took 7 tries.

leamphil

Article does not mention that other Santander bane of my life - Cahoot.

I should have moved as soon as their "Savings account" offered a lower rate of interest than their current account - how do they get away with that ?

Cahoot has been down for extended periods (messages like it will be back in 5 minutes when it is down all weekend - "sorry we're updating our systems" but they don't add "without any proper testing, change control, support staff, or contingency planning"), there's no customer support at weekends, they have an expensive 0844 phone number to ring (though there is an alternative if you search), help desk doesn't know what's going on & relies on the customers to tell them, and the latest thing is that in deleting my standing orders (I'm moving elsewhere - surprise, surprise) they have paid them out regardless of none of them being near their due date. No they won't immediately recredit my account, I have to wait until the money is returned to my account - help(!)desk asked management because I was demanding my money back in my account (in my opinion they had taken it from my account without my permission - is that theft ?) but insisted on saying that I was "asking" for it back as if it wasn't my money !!

garstora

It took me 3 postal attempts and nearly 3 months to get them to transfer last years ISA into the current year on my Internet registered account.
A visit to our local branch was a total waste of time as "they have nothing to do with internet banking"
Next years ISA transfer will be to anyone other than Santander.