Grrrrrrr Halifax Customer service

herewegoagain2010

What happened to good old fashioned customer service? I'll try and keep it short. Called in August to increase my morgage payments from £600 to £800 a month with effect from October's payment. This was done via the phone and everything seemed in order. My next payment was due on the 11th Sept, but not collected. I left it a couple of days and called. Was told they couldn't tell me why, kept on hold for 10+minutes and then told to call back the next day. Another call and same again, by this time I'm getting worried. I've worked too hard to keep my credit history in tact and was worrying that I'd get a late payment mark. Another 2 days later I called back again and was put on hold for over 25minutes whilst they investigated it. They couldn't find a reason why they hadn't collected the money, but told me I'd have to pay immediately which I did. My next payment was due today and I checked and it's fine this month. I explained to the customer service about my worries and he still couldn't give me an explaination or apology. I expalined I'd had to call several times and had been on the phone for over an hour trying to sort their error. I asked if they'd refund anything to cover my call costs and was told no. I've registered a complaint because I'm so cross at the way they've dealt with the problem and would like to know what happened to my account. Had anyone else had a similiar problem?

opinions4u

herewegoagain2010 wrote: »

Called in August to increase my morgage payments from £600 to £800 a month with effect from October's payment. This was done via the phone and everything seemed in order. My next payment was due on the 11th Sept, but not collected.

Very simply, they updated the system after your August payment to make the next payment in October.

If you'd called after the September payment had left your account there wouldn't have been a problem (that's not your fault though).

I'd feel pretty confident saying that it is a Halifax error and you are right to ask for some form of compensation.

I'd suggest:

1) That they backdate the mortgage payments to the date they were meant to have been collected, otherwise you will be paying a small amount of extra interest on them.

2) They reimburse you for the (reasonable) cost of any telphone calls.

3) They reimburse you for your time at a rate of £10 an hour.

The person who dealt with your original request made a mistake, pure and simple. While there's no need for anybody to be hung, drawn and quartered, you should be put back in the position that you would have been in had this not happened, and receive a polite apology.

herewegoagain2010

Thanks for your reply Opinions. Your explaination makes sense, but you can understand my frustration that after so many calls the Halifax can't tell me the same. Everyone makes mistakes I understand, but an apology and explaination is all i'd like. Thanks for the suggestions about them backdating the payment, I hadn't thought of that.

opinions4u

herewegoagain2010 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply Opinions. Your explaination makes sense, but you can understand my frustration that after so many calls the Halifax can't tell me the same. Everyone makes mistakes I understand, but an apology and explaination is all i'd like. Thanks for the suggestions about them backdating the payment, I hadn't thought of that.

I do understand your frustrations.

I know the answer because I made exactly the same mistake with a customer a few years ago .

But a "sorry" and putting things right isn't unreasonable to expect.

xyellowx

op did halifax not offer to phone you back?
always looked into it then got a manager/supervisor phone me back

herewegoagain2010

Each time I called they said they'd look into it, but never rang or called back. I hate to make a fuss, but all I wanted was a simple....we're sorry, we made a mistake by....and it won't happen again. I'm pleased to say they've now called and explained it was their mistake and that the driect debit had been cancelled during my original call in August....simple. It didn't take much to explain and I do understand these things happen. What has annoyed me, is the way it's been handled since the error. They've now closed my complaint and have gesture of good will payment of £25 to cover my time, calls and inconvenience.