Is it time to end "Santander Bashing"?

benji1902

blueberrypie wrote: »

While there were a lot of issues stemming from that, there are still many people experiencing problems, and Santander seem to be remarkably bad at dealing with those problems when they come up. They've also managed to send out thousands of statements to the wrong people, and their Faster Payments implementation is woeful.

Bear in mind too that Santander had incorporated Abbey customers into their own systems some time before merging A&L, and had experienced many of the same problems with that process - but still didn't fix those problems before moving ahead with the A&L customers.

Overall, they display a remarkable unwillingness to learn from their mistakes, to fix their mistakes, to get new things right, or to improve their ongoing service.

If there were just one or two posters who were diving in to bash Santander at every opportunity, preventing that might be reasonable. But it's not - it's *lots* of people, all of whom feel the same. Would you prefer that those who ask about Santander accounts were not informed of the issues? I would certainly rather be given full information (and opinion) and then make up my mind, rather than making a decision without being aware of the existence of a problem.

Santanders system is Abbey nationals system... Thats the problem its old and extremely bad and clearly can't handle the shear volume of customers the bank now has. For example sending hundreds of customers statements to the wrong address.

The online banking is ver very basic.... again the same online banking from abbey national. Faster payments is god awful anyway so I'm not to bothered about that. I worked on the payments help desk at barclays when it came in, its got so many bugs its unbelievable. At least BACS payments gets their! Hence why its still only available to personal customers and business still don't use it.

The customer service is inconsistent. In branches and their english call centre its great, happy and helpful. The offshore call centres are so bad its unreal. I phoned to tell them that one of their cash machines had charged me and was told the charge was correct!! Phone the complaints line and the english guy refunded it immediately and told me the bank are aware it was an old A & L machine awaiting an update. I never should have had to compline in the first place!!

It does seem like their improving though.

Toe-Jam

benji1902 wrote: »

Santanders system is Abbey nationals system... Thats the problem its old and extremely bad and clearly can't handle the shear volume of customers the bank now has. For example sending hundreds of customers statements to the wrong address.

The online banking is ver very basic.... again the same online banking from abbey national.

The online banking got an upgrade this month. Its 1/2 decent now.

benji1902 wrote: »

I phoned to tell them that one of their cash machines had charged me and was told the charge was correct!! Phone the complaints line and the english guy refunded it immediately and told me the bank are aware it was an old A & L machine awaiting an update.

This used to happen to me all the time, I live very close to the border in Northern ireland and it was charging me international withdrawals for domestic transactions.

It still does it but i have the Zero account now so the fees are waived. Problem still there tho.

scott_lithgows

Toe-Jam wrote: »

The online banking got an upgrade this month. Its 1/2 decent now.



This used to happen to me all the time, I live very close to the border in Northern ireland and it was charging me international withdrawals for domestic transactions.

It still does it but i have the Zero account now so the fees are waived. Problem still there tho.

Hope your not in the (London)Derry branch!

ses6jwg

benji1902 wrote: »

Santanders system is Abbey nationals system... Thats the problem its old and extremely bad and clearly can't handle the shear volume of customers the bank now has. For example sending hundreds of customers statements to the wrong address.

The online banking is ver very basic.... again the same online banking from abbey national. Faster payments is god awful anyway so I'm not to bothered about that. I worked on the payments help desk at barclays when it came in, its got so many bugs its unbelievable. At least BACS payments gets their! Hence why its still only available to personal customers and business still don't use it.

The customer service is inconsistent. In branches and their english call centre its great, happy and helpful. The offshore call centres are so bad its unreal. I phoned to tell them that one of their cash machines had charged me and was told the charge was correct!! Phone the complaints line and the english guy refunded it immediately and told me the bank are aware it was an old A & L machine awaiting an update. I never should have had to compline in the first place!!

It does seem like their improving though.

That is not true Santander use the Partenon system which they use across the world. In my experience when we first started using it it was god awful slow and full of bugs/ glitches. It has improved greatly over the last 6 months though.

Abbey used the Ledger system and A&L the ALISS which was quick and efficient but limited in terms of functionality.

Toe-Jam

scott_lithgows wrote: »

Hope your not in the (London)Derry branch!

The one that got "redecorated" recently ?

No thankfully not. But on the plus side with all the buy ups the guys in Derry have a backup branch across the road from that one.

slush

someone wrote: »

Is it not time to look at Santander again and not jump to any conclusions?

I speak as I find.. from experience... it will NEVER be time to stop bashing Santander.

pawnbroker_2

ses6jwg wrote: »

That is not true Santander use the Partenon system which they use across the world. In my experience when we first started using it it was god awful slow and full of bugs/ glitches. It has improved greatly over the last 6 months though.


As a retired IT worker and an online banking customer I would suggest whatever software is used is of no interest or relevance to the customer.

Any online system should allow the customer to :-

To make fast payments on amounts up to £10,000 (eg RBS to LLoyds in about 15secs and vice versa).

Manage DD's and Standing Orders.

Instant transfers between accounts

Examine all their accounts online.

Print off statements.

Manage personal details .

Order cheque books and paying in books.

Any branch should be able to take cheques over the counter.


The primary objectives of all banks should security,access and service.

I suspect Santander have made a fundamental error is assuming customers will be impressed by technology rather than service. The admission that the "system" was full of bugs and glitches is of no consolation to customers and confirms what many posters have complained about.

Toe-Jam

ses6jwg wrote: »

.
As a retired IT worker and an online banking customer I would suggest whatever software is used is of no interest or relevance to the customer.

Any online system should allow the customer to :-

To make fast payments on amounts up to £10,000 (eg RBS to LLoyds in about 15secs and vice versa).

Manage DD's and Standing Orders.

Instant transfers between accounts

Examine all their accounts online.

Print off statements.

Manage personal details .

Order cheque books and paying in books.

Any branch should be able to take cheques over the counter.


The primary objectives of all banks should security,access and service.

I suspect Santander have made a fundamental error is assuming customers will be impressed by technology rather than service. The admission that the "system" was full of bugs and glitches is of no consolation to customers and confirms what many posters have complained about.

To be fair tho , their online banking does everything in your checklist bar send faster payments for 10k

And I don't know about everyone else, but I don't have 10K to wizz around in cyberspace.

I do agree tho that their £300 limit and the first 1 going by bacs is a stupid irritating system that needs to be changed.

Why I find myself defending Santander is beyond me, i think they're as rubbish as the next person.

But best to bash them based on facts.

Naf

7sefton wrote: »

but they genuinely don't seem to understand how basic banking works nor do they understand Santander's products in any amount of detail
Different members of staff contradict each other at every stage of an enquiry. I know this might sound rude, but it's the only way I can put it: the majority of customer-facing staff seem to be slightly chavvy, straight out of school and quite ignorant if you ask them to do anything other than 'please pay this cheque into my account.' Sorry, but that's just my honest experience.

You know, I'd actually be inclined to agree with you. The general workforce are extremely young (at 25 I'm looking at assistant branch manager) and little is given in the way of training to really understand banking properly. Some products are somewhat obscure as far as staff (particularly counter staff) are concerned; Home Saver would be one, as they are very rarely dealt with. There isn't always the air of professionalism we're used to from other banks; and I actually feel this is a major factor in the complaints ON BOTH SIDES. Yes, there are problems, and yes they don't always get fixed properly or quickly (I have pointed out on other threads the amount of other branches'/individuals' mess I have had to clean up) and this is an issue, but it is an issue with all banks and, to be honest, all large institutions (there's plenty complaints re: BT/Orange/Vodafone around the forum). There's a general feeling throughout the public worldwide that they are treated with contempt because businesses don't value them as customers. But I also think that because many of the service staff are young, and don't have the experience you might find in other institutions, that the same words aren't taken with the same respect as they would be from, say, HSBC's or Lloyds' counter. I'm not saying everyone s this way, or that its the entire reason there are complaints, but I have definitely seen it as a factor when dealing with many, many customers.

7sefton wrote: »

Moreover, Santander's processes are way behind the rest of the industry and cause busy customers significant inconvenience. A lot of basic admin seems to require a branch visit, their security is taken to bizarrely extreme levels for even basic transactions, staff stick to scripts and don't seem to have any authority to show flexibility,

Santander are very focussed on minimising fraud. The high ID procedures make it extremely difficult for someone to fraudulently pose as a customer and get away with any reasonable amount of money. (i.e. max. counter withdrawal with just a passbook/debit card is £500; any more and additional signature proof is required. At Lloyds [an example because I used to bank there] they'll quite happily give in excess of 3k with just the card). This means fewer losses for the company, lower insurance premiums and therefore more to pass on to customers in headline rates.

anselld wrote: »

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/markets/article.html?in_article_id=526457&in_page_id=3

"The new boss of Lloyds Banking Group has hired another senior executive from rival Santander in a bid to tackle the lender's lamentable customer service reputation." :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Perhaps we will all be Lloyds-bashing in the future.

I'll go first... I can't stand them. Didn't surprise me when they merged with halifax; the two treat customers with less than £10k savings with equal contempt.

scott_lithgows wrote: »

When English RBS transfers to Santander,some towns could have 4 santander branches,its only a matter of time before they announce massive job losses..

I think you ought to have a look at the way Santander do business; they generally have a lot of branches, more than any other bank worldwide so far as I'm aware. Some may move; probably to more remote areas to allow more customers easier access to a counter.

jackieblack

My colleagues and I have been compiling a list of companies that, if they were the only organisation in their field of business in existence, we would go without that product/service rather than be forced to deal with them .

From all of our individual experiences, Santander topped our list.