Santander / A & L Loan Incompetence

Dodgy_Paella

Today I received a call from Santanders' collections department, regarding a loan that I had with Alliance & Leicester. I paid the loan off in March of 2009, phoned them up at the time, asked them "how much to settle today", and paid them in full. I even have a letter from Alliance and Leicester, thanking me for the final payment, and confirming that the loan had been paid.

In December of 2009, I recieved an odd looking "statement" from them, showing the payments for Jan and Feb, a £0.00 amount for the date after I paid in March, and then charges being made from April onwards.

I phoned what would have been A & L up at the time, and ask them what was going on. I was told that there had been a technical problem, and that it would be resolved. I have had no contact from them until today, and has assumed that the problem had been sorted.

Fast forward to today, and the woman in the collections department telling me that if I don't pay her 94 pounds that my credit rating could be effected. I have asked to speak to a manager, and she has told me that one isn't available at the moment, and that I will have to wait 48 hours to speak to one.

It staggers me that this company is allowed to look after other peoples' money, as they seem incapable of achieving basic stuff, such as closing off an account when it is paid up. My annoyance with them has reached the extent that I've made a "Santander Victims Support Group" on facebook. Please feel free to join if they have failed to achieve the basic levels of service you expect from a bank.

Maldives_lover

Dodgy_Paella wrote: »

Today I received a call from Santanders' collections department, regarding a loan that I had with Alliance & Leicester. I paid the loan off in March of 2009, phoned them up at the time, asked them "how much to settle today", and paid them in full. I even have a letter from Alliance and Leicester, thanking me for the final payment, and confirming that the loan had been paid.

In December of 2009, I recieved an odd looking "statement" from them, showing the payments for Jan and Feb, a £0.00 amount for the date after I paid in March, and then charges being made from April onwards.

I phoned what would have been A & L up at the time, and ask them what was going on. I was told that there had been a technical problem, and that it would be resolved. I have had no contact from them until today, and has assumed that the problem had been sorted.

Fast forward to today, and the woman in the collections department telling me that if I don't pay her 94 pounds that my credit rating could be effected. I have asked to speak to a manager, and she has told me that one isn't available at the moment, and that I will have to wait 48 hours to speak to one.

It staggers me that this company is allowed to look after other peoples' money, as they seem incapable of achieving basic stuff, such as closing off an account when it is paid up. My annoyance with them has reached the extent that I've made a "Santander Victims Support Group" on facebook. Please feel free to join if they have failed to achieve the basic levels of service you expect from a bank.

Can't find your facebook group but agree they are useless. They can't seem to do anything without turning it into a farce.

Dodgy_Paella

Well, I can't put a link in, but the URL is

facebook.com/
home.php?sk=group_188607017836566

If you take the carriage return out, that should work.

Maybe you can copy and paste that into your browser ?

I would warn anyone away from using them. I find it worrying that they are offering best buys that appear on here to be honest, all that proves is that they're willing to run at lower margins. Your money's much safer in a building society any day of the week I reckon.

Dodgy_Paella

I was fed up with this loan problem, so rather than waste my time phoning the call centre, where you invariably get someone who is not in a position to help, I filled out Santanders' online complaint form, on Friday afternoon.

This morning, I got a phone call from Santander, apologising for the mistake, and offering 40 pounds in compensation.

Moral of the story ? Use the online complaint form, I guess.

I can't link to it, but the complaint form is on the contact us page at their .co.uk site.