Is it time to end "Santander Bashing"?

Arsenal999

My complaint is the amount of time they take to reply to a simple request.
I have been with Alliance and Leicester for many years without any gripes.
I emigrated to Canada in 2006 and have to keep a British bank account for my quarterly pension credit.
Since Santander took over they have frequently levied a 5 pounds underfunding fee despite a substantial quarterly pension credit because I am not in receipt of MONTHLY CREDITS.
I have been waiting for a reply for nearly a month as to my position and have chased them up three times without success!
I cannot get my pension monthly so I am being penalised for that.
It looks like I am stuck with santander as I believe I cannot open a new bank account in UK as I am now a non-resident

pmduk

Arsenal999 wrote: »

My complaint is the amount of time they take to reply to a simple request.
I have been with Alliance and Leicester for many years without any gripes.
I emigrated to Canada in 2006 and have to keep a British bank account for my quarterly pension credit.
Since Santander took over they have frequently levied a 5 pounds underfunding fee despite a substantial quarterly pension credit because I am not in receipt of MONTHLY CREDITS.
I have been waiting for a reply for nearly a month as to my position and have chased them up three times without success!
I cannot get my pension monthly so I am being penalised for that.
It looks like I am stuck with santander as I believe I cannot open a new bank account in UK as I am now a non-resident

Perhaps you could downgrade that account to one that doesn't require a specific monthly funding?

hermante

Santander's customer service is not great but I look at it like this. I also have HSBC accounts and with Santander I can earn about £80 more per month in interest. I wouldn't pay £1000 a year for HSBC's service, which is not bad but not amazing either. But as I keep reading this and other forums I get scared by all the complaints that people are having. So I thought I would just use HSBC for any complicated banking and Santander for saving - one current account that is used as a savings account (as it gets 5% on £2500) which only has FP transfers from me in and cash withdrawals. Then I have a savings account that only has transfers to/from the current. OK I opened an ISA as well but it just sits there. All my bills, DDs and SOs, credit card, overdraft, cheques are dealt with by HSBC competently and if I ever need to move money back into HSBC, I just pop into my HSBC branch across the road which opens on Saturdays, use my Santander card in the ATM and walk 10 feet to the HSBC ATM that takes banknote deposits - no queues or talking needed. If I need to move a larger amount I am sure HSBC can accept a Santander cheque without too much trouble.

The only time something has gone not quite right with Santander is when I opened the new eSaver last month. Some idiot decided to reset my online banking details, and after two weeks I managed to drag myself into a Santander branch to get those reset. The next day I got the letters with my new details, which turned out to be sent 2 weeks ago! I had to wait another week for the new details to arrive. The only other complaint I have is that I took their £50 new account incentive a few days before they upped it to £100!

backsmith

Cheques paid into my A&L business account on the 13th April failed to appear in my account.
My first call to them on the 20th (one week later) was deeply confusing. Whist they said they could see the cheques on their system they tried to say they could not be expected to clear into my account before the 28th. Even with the bank holidays this was eight working days later. No other information available.

My first email complaint (20th) was acknowledged by an auto responder, with no further contact. My second email complaint (21st) was also auto responded and followed up by a holding email from a real person with no further contact.

This morning (27th) whilst collecting the necessary details for a Chief Executive Complaint (I find this the best way to get a company’s attention) I called once more.

Result. The cheques cleared into my account on the 20th but they are not showing on the internet banking service. This is an issue of computer migration that happened on the weekend of the 16th.

Summary.

This is the first issue I have had with them. They have fixed the main problem. They have not yet fixed the internet banking problem. This is a known issue so why not make a posting on the internet banking site advising customers of the problem. My relationship with them is damaged not so much by the problem but by their failure to communicate with me.

Like some other posters I am willing to cut them some slack while they do the migration, but people who make the effort to complain deserve to be taken seriously. A flow of information is the main thing to maintain customer satisfaction through a complaint.
I can contrast this with the only time in 20 years when I had an issue with First Direct. I was immediately referred to a dedicated complaints manager. Issue resolved after first call, apology, and then a follow up questionnaire from a third party company to “measure” their success at dealing with my problem.

Conclusion
Good service is now the base level. My expectations have risen.

Backsmith

AlphaCentauri42

I am sure that some customers get good service from Santander; but far too many don't. The FSA recently reported that Santander were the 2nd worst bank for customer complaints. I have found that, in their desperation to close your call, they will do anything to get it closed: it doesn't have to be what you asked for, and it usually means it's not in anyway resolved. In my case, they have also promised to call back, or send things in the post, and it never happens. Their call queues leave something to be desired too.

One more thing I hate about Santander: you go to the branch to speak to someone, and they tell you to phone head office instead! How unhelpful and unwilling is that?

Oh, and one more thing: I HATE when you go in to ask about something, and the first thing they say is, "hmm, you don't have a credit card with us. Would you like one?". They then reel through a list of stuff to sell you before dealing with your query. Aaaarghh!!!

There. I'm glad that's off my chest!

Cheesedoodles

My complaint with Santander is with the FOS....It's now been 11 months since I lost access to my money...and they still haven't fixed it.

They are STILL trying to fix it, but have not been able too....

I've given up. Waiting for the FOS to resolve...and they're not much better themselves, it's been with them for 8 months

I'm just residing to the fact that as a consumer I have no rights......

Toe-Jam

I went into santander today to close a savings account (I even had an appointment), 1 hour 40 minutes later i finally get it closed. Ended up getting a parking ticket !

southantrim3

Santander bashing will end once they build trust with their current and potential customers (in other words they will do what they say they will do)!

pawnbroker_2

southantrim3 wrote: »

Santander bashing will end once they build trust with their current and potential customers (in other words they will do what they say they will do)!

Totally agree.

The big test will come when they start migrating RBS customers on to their systems. The RBS internet access facility in my view is very good. It works and I cannot recall many,if any, occasions over the last 10 years when it did not work.

Based on what people have said on this site Santander have very very long way to go yet to get things right.

The "bashing" will end when they get things right, if they don't quite rightly it will continue.

If the "bashing" is hurting their business then so be it.

jackieblack

southantrim3 wrote: »

Santander bashing will end once they build trust with their current and potential customers (in other words they will do what they say they will do)!

I agree. But I'm not going to hold my breath.........