My Santander CHAPS complaint

BardLucyHumeXI

I have just sent this to Santander.



On Friday 11th February, I needed to make a CHAPS transfer before 10am. I arrived at Santander Muswell Hill to be told that I would need to make an appointment. The next appointment time available to make this same day transfer was the following week. To not have any staff that can carry out a routine branch transaction on a working day is unacceptable, and as I may need to make such transactions in the future I am looking for a new place to bank.


Because of this inadequacy, I had to make an unexpected trip to Santander Crouch End, and the unexpected rush to make the transaction before 10am caused me to receive a parking ticket. However, I needn’t have rushed, as even after waiting 45 minutes for an appointment, the transaction took an hour to complete, which is shambolic.


Paying £25 for a CHAPS transfer should not entail a 2 hour marathon in two branches and a £100 parking fine. I hope to leave Santander soon.

NFH

I used to have similar problems with Barclays, as I used CHAPS quite often before FPS was introduced. Some Barclays branches would do CHAPS over the counter whereas some would insist on using personal bankers for which a long wait or appointment was required. If I was visiting a branch that insisted on using personal bankers, I would deliberately turn up just before 14:30, which is the bank's internal deadline for CHAPS, just so they would have to find someone to deal with it urgently.

You should at least ask Santander for the £25 back. I could never do this with Barclays as I get free CHAPS payments.

money_maker_2

Well first of all, its not Santanders fault you got a parking ticket. Either you didnt get enough time on your car park, didnt pay at all, or parked somewhere illegally.
I agree that being told to make an appointment for a chaps is ridiculous! I dont think they will do much about your parking ticket but maybe they will refund the £25 chaps money.
Have you not got internet banking? if not register! Its easy. You can do it from home then. Or was the amount too big for internet banking?
I think you have a strong case for getting the £25 refunded as having to go to another branch for something as simple as a chaps is pathetic.
Lol, can anybody actually post a thread on here where its not Santanders fault?

Good luck

BardLucyHumeXI

money_maker wrote: »

Well first of all, its not Santanders fault you got a parking ticket. Either you didnt get enough time on your car park, didnt pay at all, or parked somewhere illegally.
I agree that being told to make an appointment for a chaps is ridiculous! I dont think they will do much about your parking ticket but maybe they will refund the £25 chaps money.
Have you not got internet banking? if not register! Its easy. You can do it from home then. Or was the amount too big for internet banking?
I think you have a strong case for getting the £25 refunded as having to go to another branch for something as simple as a chaps is pathetic.
Lol, can anybody actually post a thread on here where its not Santanders fault?

Good luck

Thanks for explaining why I received a parking ticket. I was under the impression that it was in some way related to my Chaps transaction.

As for online banking:
i) the transaction was too large for internet banking
ii) as noted, I needed to do the transaction that day. Santander only support faster payments over the phone, and to a maximum of £250.

Thanks for all your help!

DrSyn

After this experiance I can not understand why, "you hope to leave Stantander soon".

Why not "certain" and "switch to day"?

BardLucyHumeXI

DrSyn wrote: »

After this experiance I can not understand why, "you hope to leave Stantander soon".

Why not "certain" and "switch to day"?

Fair point! The last 3 paragraphs are all pasted from my complaint to Santander. I guess I was giving them a chance to redeem themselves...

DrSyn

For some reason I can not remember ,the following well known saying springs to mind.

"You will be sorry!"

Let us know how you get on.

:rotfl: :rotfl:

bfinn

Oh, your experience is nothing. I tried to make a CHAPS transfer with Santander a couple of years ago, which ended up requiring:

• 4 visits to a variety of Santander branches over two days, totalling about 4½ hours
• 8 phone calls to Santander, totalling about 3½ hours (most of the time on hold)

My final lengthy branch visit culminated in the staff asking me to sign a *completely blank piece of paper* (!!) so that when the authorization for the CHAPS transfer eventually came through, they could print it above my signature. (Not that I blame the staff, this was the best solution they could come up with.) To this day I still don't know exactly what I ended up having signed.

Brilliant customer service & security.

Wyndham

BardLucyHumeXI wrote: »

Thanks for explaining why I received a parking ticket. I was under the impression that it was in some way related to my Chaps transaction.

Hmmm.... well, you do seem to in your original post!

BardLucyHumeXI wrote: »

Paying £25 for a CHAPS transfer should not entail a 2 hour marathon in two branches and a £100 parking fine. I hope to leave Santander soon.

artbaron

No way would I stay with a bank as incompetent as that. I have a few criticisms against NatWest, my bank, but compared with what I hear about some others - often Santander - maybe I shouldn't moan. Last time I made a CHAPS I arrived unannounced, I was seen within two minutes and out the door 15 minutes later (meaning that I left having completed the transaction, not that I was forcibly ejected...)

bengal-stripe

Why do people feel the need to comment on a posting that is almost two years old and whose OP hasn't visited the forum ever since?