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Alliance and Leicester/Santander rant
GlasweJen
Posts: 7,451 Forumite
I got a letter in from Santander today saying that a direct debit for £108.62 had been returned unpaid because there weren't sufficient funds in my account. As I have no direct debits for that amount of money I went onto online banking and checked, the direct debit was for pet insurance and usually only costs £48.60.
I tried to call the pet insurance company but they were not answering so I called santander to see if they could shed some light, the call went like this:
Operator: Good morning you're through to Santander, can I take your name?
Me: It's ...............
Operator: My name is ........... how can I help?
Me: Well this morning I had a letter to say a direct debit has been returned but the amount being charged is wrong.
Operator: Well what do you want me to do about it?
Me: Well, I'd like you to tell me what I can do to stop being charged for a transaction I never authorised?
Operator: Well we don't do direct debits, you'd need to contact the pet insurer.
Me: They're closed for the weekend, is there anything I can do in the interim to stop them taking my money?
Operator: NO
Me: Surely I can cancel the direct debit? Isn't there a guarantee for direct debits? I can't afford for £110 to go out of my account
Operator: That's isn't my problem.
I saw red at that point, she was so rude! Her tone of voice was "can't be bothered working Saturday morning" and to be frank she sounded hung over. I asked to talk to a manager and she said that the manager will tell her the same thing. Got her to put me through to one anyway and the manager said that she'd listen to the call and give the operator feedback on her technique!
I can't believe that's the service I got for an account I pay for, will be changing banks on Monday and sending a complaint in while I'm at it.
I tried to call the pet insurance company but they were not answering so I called santander to see if they could shed some light, the call went like this:
Operator: Good morning you're through to Santander, can I take your name?
Me: It's ...............
Operator: My name is ........... how can I help?
Me: Well this morning I had a letter to say a direct debit has been returned but the amount being charged is wrong.
Operator: Well what do you want me to do about it?
Me: Well, I'd like you to tell me what I can do to stop being charged for a transaction I never authorised?
Operator: Well we don't do direct debits, you'd need to contact the pet insurer.
Me: They're closed for the weekend, is there anything I can do in the interim to stop them taking my money?
Operator: NO
Me: Surely I can cancel the direct debit? Isn't there a guarantee for direct debits? I can't afford for £110 to go out of my account
Operator: That's isn't my problem.
I saw red at that point, she was so rude! Her tone of voice was "can't be bothered working Saturday morning" and to be frank she sounded hung over. I asked to talk to a manager and she said that the manager will tell her the same thing. Got her to put me through to one anyway and the manager said that she'd listen to the call and give the operator feedback on her technique!
I can't believe that's the service I got for an account I pay for, will be changing banks on Monday and sending a complaint in while I'm at it.
0
Comments
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do you do online banking ? you can cancel a dd that way . we had vodafone take out £158 just before last xmas when they should have only taken £25 ! after that we paid on reciept of the bill as it took 2 months to get the money back .This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com0
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