ANOTHER Santander tale of woe

slopemaster

I should have listened to all the warnings, but was tempted by good rates of interest.
Opened 2 current accounts (one in my name, one joint), an e-saver, and a 1-yr term account. There was some confusion over opening the accounts, but I got them all up and working OK and didn't think Santander were too bad...
Then my debit card wouldn't let me draw cash. So I tried a payment with it and it was declined. So I phoned Santander to sort it out - still thinking, oh, just a minor glitch... They have blocked my account, without notifying me, and will not tell me why. (They just say I must go into my branch with two forms of ID.) In fact, they have blocked all my accounts. I can't get into internet banking either. None of the accounts are overdrawn, and overall there is quite a bit of money in.
THANK HEAVENS I have other accounts and other ways of paying for stuff. But still, I will be forced to go into a branch tomorrow if I ever want to see my money again. And unless they can give me a VERY good reason why they suspected fraud - I can think of none, no unusual spending - then I will be closing ALL my accounts and running a mile. LUCKILY my 1-yr term account is still within the 14-day cancellation period.

AnonymousForObviousReason

Hindsight is a wonderful educator. Cheer up though, at least you're not stuck with them, be worse if it was 15 days in

IrishGypsy

slopemaster wrote: »

I should have listened to all the warnings, but was tempted by good rates of interest.
Opened 2 current accounts (one in my name, one joint), an e-saver, and a 1-yr term account. There was some confusion over opening the accounts, but I got them all up and working OK and didn't think Santander were too bad...
Then my debit card wouldn't let me draw cash. So I tried a payment with it and it was declined. So I phoned Santander to sort it out - still thinking, oh, just a minor glitch... They have blocked my account, without notifying me, and will not tell me why. (They just say I must go into my branch with two forms of ID.) In fact, they have blocked all my accounts. I can't get into internet banking either. None of the accounts are overdrawn, and overall there is quite a bit of money in.
THANK HEAVENS I have other accounts and other ways of paying for stuff. But still, I will be forced to go into a branch tomorrow if I ever want to see my money again. And unless they can give me a VERY good reason why they suspected fraud - I can think of none, no unusual spending - then I will be closing ALL my accounts and running a mile. LUCKILY my 1-yr term account is still within the 14-day cancellation period.

If they've blocked ALL of your accounts there's a high probability that the ID team haven't recieved your ID (but of course there may be another reason as I don't know your account details), resulting in full blocks. Did you open it in a branch or over the phone/internet?

johnswife

Mr brother in law has just sent a letter of complaint to the chairman, the branch and our MP on behalf of my 93yr old mum.

Her account was with the Alliance & Leicester which was taken over by Santander.
She has short term memory loss, partially deaf, eyesight very poor, glaucoma and takes medication for her heart, diabetis,high blood pressure.

I have authorisation to speak on the telephone for her as we do not have a branch near us.
In the summer whilst I was on holiday she was shopping with my sister and put her pin number in wrong 3 times so her card was blocked. My sister tried to sort it out on the phone but they couldn't help and suggested that we "stick her in a taxi" to the nearest branch.

After that the family thought it best if we transferred the account to the branch of the HSBC in our town so we can talk to the staff face to face if we have any problems.

We opened an account and arranged for the account to be transferred but after 3 weeks it still hadn't closed and they said the information from HSBC didn't match the records at Santander.
So we decided to write a cheque and get the balance to NIL.

Unfortunately a cheque for £10 that my mum had written back in April was debted to her account. It made her £10 overdrawn. So she showed me her statement and a charge of £25 for paying the cheque and a £30 charge for overdrawn was going though later that month (October)

My mum was getting quite distressed so we didn't dispute the charges but after I called them to double check the balance I sent a cheque for £65 and my mum signed a letter to close the account.

They put the cheque through 1 day after the charges were applied making her overdrawn again and on the statemnet which came last Friday they are going to charge her £100!.

My brother in law is furious, as we all are and Mum is so confused.
Basically he has said he wants the charges refunded and we will not be paying any more and if they want to prosecute a frail old woman and get even more negative publicity then go ahead.

slopemaster

@ Johnswife What a sad tale!
Actually when I was in the branch today there was a lady with a v similar problem - she had wanted to close a/c but Santander said she owed them money, so she sent a cheque for that amount but they didn't close the account and continued to apply charges and now say she owes £200. The bank employee was actually on the phone to the complaints dept saying 'look, this is our mistake, the cutomer has done nothing wrong' but was getting totally stonewalled. The staff in the branch appear to have virtually no authority to do anything.

Anyway, I should think a letter to your MP should do the trick, good luck and hope they have the decency to send your mum some flowers or something to apologise

slopemaster

IrishGypsy wrote: »

If they've blocked ALL of your accounts there's a high probability that the ID team haven't recieved your ID (but of course there may be another reason as I don't know your account details), resulting in full blocks. Did you open it in a branch or over the phone/internet?

You are quite right they hadn't received ID. The reason being that they hadn't ever asked for it.
But it gets worse. When I went in with my ID they said it wasn't my ID they needed to see but my partner's. So my going in was a complete waste of time. And he CANNOT provide what they are asking for (2 specific items from 2 separate lists) as he has no bills in his name at new address. A passport is not good enough for them.
So they were willing to allow us to open the avccount, and to put money in, and to transfer all the DDs and SOs. But now have completely blocked it - they will not even pay the DDs!

When I asked why we were given no notice that our account was to be blocked, I was variously told that a letter notifying us ‘would have been sent out’, that a letter ‘was sent out on Friday’ and that a letter ‘could not be sent out in case of fraud’.

To be fair, the manager of the local branch did try to help with the problem - but as the dept which had blocked the account refused to even tell the local branch manager what the problem was, she and I were reduced to speculating as to what the error or misunderstanding might be and therefore how to solve it.
In the end, all she could do was give me the phone to ring the complaints dept.

So I did, and explained everything with exemplary calm I thought.
When I explained that my OH simply does not have the ID they are asking for, and asked how we could sort the problem out and get access to our money, she basically said you can't, and we'll see you in court!!! And hung up on me. /The branch manager herself was gobsmacked. The manager then checked the system to see whether my complaint had been logged - and sure enough it had not. So even to get the complaint logged I will have to send them a recorded delivery letter.

I am just speechless. Almost beyong even being irate, this is just so Kafkaesque. But I will certainly pursue a complaint and close all the accounts. Except, of course that they will not ALLOW me to close the accounts as they are blocked. And they say we have to go to court to unblock them.

slopemaster

Oh, and the whole time I was in the branch trying to get this sorted, only one of the other customers came in to do routine transactions. Almost all had their own tales of woe. I actually felt sorry for the staff who had to try to conciliate. Even the manager appears to have no authority to sort things out.

IrishGypsy

slopemaster wrote: »

You are quite right they hadn't received ID. The reason being that they hadn't ever asked for it.
But it gets worse. When I went in with my ID they said it wasn't my ID they needed to see but my partner's. So my going in was a complete waste of time. And he CANNOT provide what they are asking for (2 specific items from 2 separate lists) as he has no bills in his name at new address. A passport is not good enough for them.
So they were willing to allow us to open the avccount, and to put money in, and to transfer all the DDs and SOs. But now have completely blocked it - they will not even pay the DDs!

When I asked why we were given no notice that our account was to be blocked, I was variously told that a letter notifying us ‘would have been sent out’, that a letter ‘was sent out on Friday’ and that a letter ‘could not be sent out in case of fraud’.

To be fair, the manager of the local branch did try to help with the problem - but as the dept which had blocked the account refused to even tell the local branch manager what the problem was, she and I were reduced to speculating as to what the error or misunderstanding might be and therefore how to solve it.
In the end, all she could do was give me the phone to ring the complaints dept.

So I did, and explained everything with exemplary calm I thought.
When I explained that my OH simply does not have the ID they are asking for, and asked how we could sort the problem out and get access to our money, she basically said you can't, and we'll see you in court!!! And hung up on me. /The branch manager herself was gobsmacked. The manager then checked the system to see whether my complaint had been logged - and sure enough it had not. So even to get the complaint logged I will have to send them a recorded delivery letter.

I am just speechless. Almost beyong even being irate, this is just so Kafkaesque. But I will certainly pursue a complaint and close all the accounts. Except, of course that they will not ALLOW me to close the accounts as they are blocked. And they say we have to go to court to unblock them.

Hmmm, that sounds a bit out-of-the-ordinary (especially for the complaints team). Personally, I'd go back into the branch and ask the manager to escalate it via the internal complaints team (which only the branches can call). They've helped me loads in fixing issues.

If it's the AML team that are having the ID issues, then if your husband doesn't work a recent benefits entitlement letter and a recent bank statement in his name should do the trick.

However, having a valid passport should be MORE than sufficent for ID checks (unless they're asking for proof of address for a specific reason).

Take what you can in with your husband (including his passport) and ask them to refer this issue to the internal complaints team and hopefully you should be able to photocopy and certify/fax off what you have with you.

If it goes internal then it'll HAVE to be recorded on the internal program they have. Best of luck, hope you get it sorted.

slopemaster

They will not accept bank statements, HMRC letters etc because they have old address on.
Thank you for trying to help - and its a pity I didn't know earlier that there was a separete internal complaints system as I could have insisted on that.

But, having wasted almost TWO HOURS of my day yesterday, i am not inclined to go back to the branch and waste more time trying to sort it.
I am working on a letter of complaint to be sent recorded delivery, and will escalate it as far as I need to to get these accounts closed and our money returned. But I know it might take some time.

I really, really wish I had never got involved with Santander. When I have closed all my accounts with Santander, I shall have to see about closing the RBS account before they get their hands on that.

IrishGypsy

slopemaster wrote: »

They will not accept bank statements, HMRC letters etc because they have old address on.
Thank you for trying to help - and its a pity I didn't know earlier that there was a separete internal complaints system as I could have insisted on that.

But, having wasted almost TWO HOURS of my day yesterday, i am not inclined to go back to the branch and waste more time trying to sort it.
I am working on a letter of complaint to be sent recorded delivery, and will escalate it as far as I need to to get these accounts closed and our money returned. But I know it might take some time.

I really, really wish I had never got involved with Santander. When I have closed all my accounts with Santander, I shall have to see about closing the RBS account before they get their hands on that.

Fair enough, I wish you the best in trying to sort it out. This is why when in the branch customers think we're being awkward when we're asking for specific ID, because we know if it isn't right from the start, once it's frozen by the AML team, it can be a real headache (for everyone involved) to get the block(s) lifted.

I hope you get it resolved quickly.

stacy-85

I will never bank with Santander again , there customer service is appauling their branch staff take no responsibility for anyhting , and there call centres barley understand anything !!! - Will be going straight back to Nationwide - ( When i finally recieve myu £100 cash back offer for switching to them in JULY .... )