Payment errors by Nationwide

Midas

Dear All

In October last year I made a payment to my credit card company (Nationwide) of about £400, to clear the bill that month. An error on their part resulted in them crediting my account with this amount twice. When I got the next statement I noticed the mistake (I was in credit despite some further spending), so promptly rang them to point it out.

I was told it would be looked into and someone would call me back. 2 weeks passed and still no call or letter, or any action on the account (I checked on the net); so I called them back. 'Oh yes, its been looked into, I'll flag it up on the system and someone will call you back...'

The call back did come - finally - yesterday! This was to the effect that it was a mistake and the £400 had been debited from my account again - but the operator couldn't tell me what had gone wrong, or why no one had bothered to call me for 3 months!

Has anybody else had this happen? Has there been a big computer crash at Nationwide which has messed up lots of payments? (hence the 3 month wait for them to look into it?)

Anyhow I pointed out that I didn't think this was great customer service after I had done the honest thing and pointed out the mistake they had made. I'm wondering if they would ever have picked up on it if I hadn't told them (is there anybody who works at NW who knows the answer to that one?). The operator said all he could do was put in a 'request' for me to the complaints people.

They've called me today to tell me that they're sending a letter of apology and £15 compensation - so my real question is, is this a 'fair' amount or should I write back and ask for a bit more!

Sorry 'bout the length of the post

JasonW_2

I think you should be grateful. I cant see how this has cost you anything, so I think you are lucky to get compo tbh. OK, it wasnt very good customer service, and if the original £400 hadnt made it to your account or you were penalised or out of pocket, then absolutely give them hell, but they have acted reasonably as far as I can see.

JW

Galstonian

Given that they could probably have taken the money out of your account without notice at a time that was inconvenient to you and offered no compensation I'm tempted to say take the money. However, if you can think of any reason that will justify a greater sum then go for it.

Midas

No it hasn't cost me anything, apart from a few phone calls (if anything I've had 'free money' for a while courtesy of NW ). My only grounds for complaint is that it took them 3 months to respond to my original query - hardly great customer service! I was just wondering what the average kind of 'token gesture' in this situation might be - these companies should prob be trying to encourage honesty after all!

Reaper

I think you are lucky to get £15 considering it was a bank error in your favour and it didn't really inconvenience you much. Compensation is normally for the agro caused when they charge you too much.

I'd take the money.

loan8r

I agree grab it and run!

daveboy

Was this payment actually made online?

If it was, wasn't there any chance you could have clicked the button to authorise it twice to cause this to happen? It has been known to happen many times.

If you did it using another method then like others I'd say take the money.