Progressive Building Society

irishgirl23

I'm new to posting here but felt I wanted to let as many people know about the poor customer service at Progressive Building Society as possible and this seemed the easiest way to do it. My mother recently wanted to move her ISAs from Progressive to get a better deal somewhere else - she is trying to sort out her finances as just recently retired. She was also investigating places to have a bond - to invest part of her lump sum. Person in Progressive told her to move her ISA money to one of their bonds with a good rate. She was in a hurry and thought it would save her some hassle to leave the money in the same place. Later on when she thought about it she wanted to change her mind, as moving to a bond she would lose the tax free status of that money. Someone in the branch AND at head office when she complained said that she could not change her mind, they had no cooling off period and it was not their job to advise my mum what would or would not be a good investment for her money. When the bond period is up, she NEVER intends to invest with them again. Granted moving from an ISA to a bond is never a good move unless it is an ISA bond but my mum knows nothing about ISAs and bonds and never had the spare capital to worry about these things until now. This is just a post incase anyone else did not know about the poor customer service at Progressive.

steveymp

Well after trying to open a saving account for my kids a few years ago, progressive where the only people interested in doing it for me, Abbey, A&L, Nationwide etc... all wanted me to make an appointment with them and the earliest any could give me was 10 days:o

Walked into Progressive on a Saturday morning and a few quick photocopies of their birth certs and both accounts sorted:T

Interest rates better than any other children's account too at present:T

All banks and BS's can be good or bad, suppose it all depends what staff are on:o

absoluteutopia

I had bad cs in a shop in ballymena this morning but i didnt feel the need to come onto a forum and !!!!! about it. Do you have no friends or a dog you can moan to?

Snoozle

irishgirl23 wrote: »

Someone in the branch AND at head office when she complained said that she could not change her mind, they had no cooling off period and it was not their job to advise my mum what would or would not be a good investment for her money.

I don't really understand what your complaint actually is. Were they rude to her? That definitely would be poor customer service. But from this sentence, it sounds like your complaint is that someone in the branch and in head office told her there was no cooling off period. If indeed there is no cooling off period, then what else did you expect them to say? The staff in banks/building societies aren't there to advise you, they are not trained in financial advice, so to give advice would be unethical, and when I worked in a bank we were always told that it was illegal to give advice (someone with more legal knowledge than me would need to confirm if this is correct or not).

Unless there is more to this than you have told us (e.g. did someone 'tell her to move to a bond' or did they 'tell her she could move to a bond' - they are very different things), it basically sounds like your mother made a decision about her money that she later decided was a poor one, and you are now angry that there is no one else to blame. I'm not unsympathetic to her situation, it must be frustrating, but ultimately we have to take responsibility for ourselves.

blueberrypie

In fairness to the OP, someone working in a building society shouldn't be suggesting to customers that they remove funds from ISAs without ensuring the customer understood the negatives of that move - i.e. the loss of tax-free status - and if the particular staff member isn't trained to advise on ISA/non-ISA investments, they should have found another member of staff who is. If the OP's mum has a number of years of ISA allowances accumulated, the sums involved could be quite substantial.

OP - did your mum make a formal complaint, and if so, has she had a final response from Progressive?

deirdre42c

Hi

Its worth checking again about the cooling off period. I know some Fixed Term Deposits do not have a colling off period but most bonds carry a 12 day cooling off period.

I would say not to let it go- if nothing else all te banks subscribe to a fair conduct policy initiated by the FSA and it it would appear your mother was given poor advice if they did njot advise her of the loss of her entitlements.

How long after signing up did she change her mind? This might have had something to do with it if more than 2 weeks later

irishgirl23

Thanks to blueberry pie and deirdre 42c for their replies. In answer to ur questions my mum changed her mind 24 hours after she had been at Progressive. She phoned them up to make an appointment to change to a better deal and was told there was no point in making the appointment as she was not allowed to change her mind as there was no cooling off period. As blueberry pie said the amount involved over several years of ISA with Progressive was considerable and my mother was going to move her ISA allowance to another bank with a better isa offer when the person in Progressive told her to transfer it to their bond instead. Now I know I wouldnt have done this as I use Martin Lewis' website a lot but not everyone knows what to do and what not to do with their spare capital. My mother didnt as she always had specific things to spend it on before ie: kids, mortgage, university etc. I was just writing this as a way to warn others who might have been unsure themselves. Also u r rite deirdre 42c - both the Ulster Bank and Santander have advised my mum to make a formal complaint because legally they cannot tell u what to do with your own money but both banks said they would have at least advised against moving money with tax free status to somewhere where it is taxable. All banks try to sell u their products but there is a HUGE diff between them forcing u to take one particular product and them talking u thru the pros and cons of each option and letting u decide for urself. I personally reckon those banks / building societies that follow a 'fair conduct' policy will be the ones with the least complaints!