Is it time to end "Santander Bashing"?

richardmk

nothing about santander is good, the signage looks terrible, partenon the spanish computer system is flawed - it might work in spain, but in the uk it is simply not fit for purpose.
anyone who is happy to take a risk that the banking will always be free from problems will generally be ok, but the day something goes wrong you will notice the santander way - they do not care and you will endure the hassle of having to sort it out..
there is so much that is bad, it is difficult to know how they will ever salvage their reputation. if they can asset strip what family silver is left in the business they will probably sell it on at some point!

Malory

ses6jwg wrote: »

T I think people assume we have to deal with hordes of angry and abused customers all day long but we are lucky to see 2 a month these days.

That has not been my experience in Santander branches when I find myself in queues behind people complaining about their pay not going in, money disappearing, etc.

Last time I was in a branch was around the end of last year to close my accounts. Ended up behind a woman who'd had a large sum of money myteriously disappear from her bank account.

If you are seeing fewer people complaining, perhaps it is because many of those who have consistently had problems have switched to other banks. You can only tolerate so much.

bengal-stripe

ffacoffipawb wrote: »

Too late, he has sold his soul to Santander!

One of those intelligent replies, that will elevate the discussion onto a much higher, intellectually stimulating level. :T

scott_lithgows

I would prefer to support my local Building Society rather than a foreign owned bank,prob not politically correct but who cares.

pmduk

scott_lithgows wrote: »

I would prefer to support my local Building Society rather than a foreign owned bank,prob not politically correct but who cares.

But how many local building societies are there? Some of the largest only use their mutual status as a marketing gimmick and behave worse than many of the banks.

scott_lithgows

pmduk wrote: »

But how many local building societies are there? Some of the largest only use their mutual status as a marketing gimmick and behave worse than many of the banks.

I cant get any more local than the Scottish building society!

ses6jwg

scott_lithgows wrote: »

I would prefer to support my local Building Society rather than a foreign owned bank,prob not politically correct but who cares.

A foreign owned bank that has kept thousands of British people in jobs and taken on hundreds more in the middle of a recession.

Without Santander, it is unlikely that Abbey could have continued in its current form as it was inefficient and demoralised

Without Santander, B&B would have gone kaput because of a dodgy mortgage book

Without Santander, Alliance and Leicester would have gone to the wall for punting dodgy PPI loans and endowments.

How many people have our "British" banks such as RBS, Lloyds and Northern Rock laid off in the last 3 years? The answer is thousands upon thousands. Yes Santander made some cuts after acquiring these businesses mostly in back office functions such as HR which were being doubled up on, but theyve taken on more front line staff:

http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/mortgages/santander-to-recruit-600-staff-following-rbs-branch-acquisition/1017936.article

Meanwhile, at other UK banks...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7533113.stm - "Northern rock unveils job losses"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/epic/rbs/7978529/RBS-horror-story-as-UK-job-cuts-top-20000.html - "20,000 jobs cut at RBS"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/08/lloyds-banking-group-job-losses - "LTSB job cuts top 26200"

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/225503 - Barclays cuts 1000 jobs



Foreign owned they might be, but they've done far more for our British economy than the British banks have.

dhj

I had an account with this company ever since it was formed (as National Giro), as did my wife. We have both moved to other suppliers because of the appalling service. I am in the process of moving my mothers account and we have also just moved my mother in laws account. A (very) brief illustration...... my wife has power of attorney over her mothers account. Whilst trying to transfer money from one account to another, Santander locked my wifes internet access and instigated a fraud enquiry. She visited the local branch who confirmed (at the help desk) that this was a mistake and she was indeed properly registered as poa. The clerk then went to another terminal at the counter, logged in, and informed my wife that she wasn't registered! My wife also recently had cause to ring them up and had one clerk hang up on her, another clerk refused to talk to her because they claimed that she didn't have power of attorney! , the third person she spoke to dealt with the query with no problem or hesitation.
I would NEVER use this company again and would never recommend them. If you ever have the misfortune to have to try and register a power of attorney be prepared for a world of pain. And if you think this is just me, I have some friends in the banking/building society industry who tell me that Santander are notoriously bad for this. A dreadful, dreadful company (but with some very helpful branch staff).

pmduk

It's somewhat ironic that this post has provided a focus for many people's Santander problems. Hardly what the OP originally envisioned.

someone

pmduk wrote: »

It's somewhat ironic that this post has provided a focus for many people's Santander problems. Hardly what the OP originally envisioned.

There is a difference between complaints and "Santander Bashing". I wasn't saying complaints should end but that one line unhelpful replies are getting old hat. I don't want to name names or anything so pull up a few Santander threads and you see what I mean.

What would you expect if I posted "I]insert any bank name here that is not First Direct[/I is the best bank" thread, I'm quite sure it would attract complaints too. The nature of bad experiences is you tell far more people than if you had a good one.

The other issue is the lag of feedback, if tomorrow any single bank improved customer service by a significant factor it could take years before people notice and maybe longer for it to feed into independent surveys.