More outrageous behaviour from Santander.

fathippy

I am not surprised at all reading the various examples of bad service from Santander. I dont know whether they have imported a different style of customer service to the UK, but in my experience they are outrageous and sail as close as they can get to being charlatans and spivs. I hope that at some point the ombudsman gives them a severe rebuke.

My experience was that in January 2009 I deposited a not insignificant amount of cash into my mother in laws (MIL) Abbey mortgage. I was given a full and clear receipt, signed by the cashier - which I still have. I think the statements only come out yearly or six monthly, and even with that the MIL isnt the best at taking things in or dealing with them, but it was apparent in summer 2009 that this hadnt been applied to the account. I rung the helpline and they basically said that it wasnt on any of the records so please go away - they also tried to be as difficult as possible with the data protection act - ie only the MIL can speak to them, and she cannot nominate me to do so - which made things impossible.

Eventually they requested me to bring the receipt into the branch for them to "see it" and after several lengthy calls with the manager of the branch she reluctantly accepted the deposit and said she would deal with it.

You can imagine how surprised I was when i spoke to the MIL in late 2010 to find that this had never happened! I penned a letter for her to send, together with a copy of the receipt demanding answers and threatening to go to the ombudsman or to court. The letter I received back was apalling. The gist was that it was now too late and the matter had been fully dealt with previously. The writer also said that the photocopy was not legible so had no value. He never requested another copy or asked for any other info, just that "your case isnt good enough - I cant read it". Not only that, but having called up to chase this letter, was told in no uncertain terms that "I am employed to make decisions, so I have made this decision and I am allowed to do it". The only logical implication was that he believed this to be a forgery and that this was a plan to extort money. I put this to him but he denied it point blank, so I am not sure what stance he was taking at all.

Dont know what to do now. My gut feel is not the ombudsman since this can get bogged down and take months/years. I am tempted to just go straight to court, but not sure what damages to claim or how to play it. The amount in question was £5000 btw! The whole thing has been a hell of a strain, not to mention that I am sure the MIL at some level is suspicious that it may have been my fault and I am a crook.

le_loup

Best to try their complaints procedure first. It won't get you any further forward but courts like to see that you have tried. Threaten them with the Ombudsman, then the court and give them (I think) eight weeks to sort it. When you get their refusal, you can then proceed. The other alternative is one of the Saturday/Sunday papers money section helpers.

Loughton_Monkey

Yes, the procedure is fairly standard.

You should have your MIL write an official letter of complaint. Doesn't have to be emotive - just simply setting out the fact, asking for the amount of £5K to be added immediately, together with commensurate adjustments to interest going forward from date of payment.

If they do that, fine. But if they don't, then go straight to the FOB (you cannot without their official denial letter).

Even if FOB is against you, you still have the court option, but clearly an FOB refusal would be a difficult hurdle to climb in a court.

The FOB doesn't (as far as I know) deal specifically with 'compensation' as such. His ruling in your favour would, as a natural consequence, force them to adjust the complete mortgage account 'as if' the £5K had been correctly applied at the time.

As for additional compensation, you would be within your rights to request 'reasonable' sums for time/phone/postage etc. sorting all this out, but also you would expect a substantial 'sorry payment'.