Is Santander customer service improving ?

slush

Toe-Jam wrote: »

Why didn't you take their £100 and then tell them to sod off. £100 is better in your pocket than theirs. Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face.:cool:

Because the £100 is an insult compared to the incovenience they have caused us.

We've all got a price... and mine's a lot more than that!

I'm not looking for compensation. But action to be taken by the FSA & the Information Commissioner against Santander.

Toe-Jam

slush wrote: »

Because the £100 is an insult compared to the incovenience they have caused us.

We've all got a price... and mine's a lot more than that!

I'm not looking for compensation. But action to be taken by the FSA & the Information Commissioner against Santander.

Yeah i'd still rather do all than and take their £100 as well.

slush

£100 equates to about £8 per closed account for us... not a life changing amount for me thanks.

Mrs_Ryan

I had a nightmare with them this morning.. I rang up on OH's behalf to query something to do with his overdraft which is on an arrangement with Collections although the account is still operational.
His ID and PIN wouldnt work even after trying 4 times, so he went through to someone. I explained that I would put him on to go through security, and normal practice for him is to repeat the question he is asked and I will tell him the answer - never had any problems with this in the past. So he was asked to name a Direct Debit and the amount and I told him, which he did and then he said something like 'well thanks for nothing.' I took the phone off him and asked what the problem was, and was told 'because he was being told what the answer was we cannot continue with the call!'
I explained OH has a recognised disability and due to this he has no short term memory so how could he possibly know the answer to what he was asking, and why hadnt it been a problem in the past? To which the answer was somewhat unbelievably 'we arent allowed to take into account whether the customer has a disability or not which may affect their ability to answer security and they should know the answers!' to which I said er hang on, isnt that a breach of the DDA?! I also said it wasnt just a case of him being a bit scatty, he's got several serious mental health problems which mean not only can he not remember things but speaking to strangers on the phone is very difficult for him - additionally the bloke on the phone wasnt giving him enough time to answer.

I hung up on this bloke as I could feel my blood boiling and we re-dialled and this time thankfully his security details worked fine and we got through to collections, who to be fair were brilliant and not only gave him time to speak but asked him simple straightforward questions which he could answer with no help from me.

So there you are - Santander, if you are unlucky enough to have a disability they dont want your custom. Disgusting!!!

Rob_Wills

Santander are an absolute shambles.

I have been trying for months to transfer monies out of an instant access account and they say it can't be done. I am having to take legal action to recover; my guess is that they will be the next financial institution to collapse.

Martyn_F_2

Would I recommend Santander - you be the judge. I have been a customer of theirs for several years - mainly with savings products. New products with better rates are often exempted to existing customers and I am also a bit concerned about a Spanish based bank with Spain being fourth on the list of failing economys.
Anyway, I decided to close the savings account and move the captal with interest to date to my current account where I could move it elsewhere for a better return. I put in the request on 11th April and was told that the money would be moved in the next 7-10 working days. I am still waiting.
In the mean time they paid me £45 on the 9th May for the inconvenience of not having wound up the account but by 17th they had closed the CURRENT account and moved the few pence in it to the Savings account. When I suggested they might be incompetent, they raised the game to their second level complaints department who are "looking into the problem". On the 1st June I rang the Banking Ombudsman who has written to the bank. I wrote to Santander yesterday explaining yet again that all I wanted was the transfer of the money from the savings to the current account - their reply:
"I understand this matter has been passed to your (our) Second Stage Complaints Team, I have passed on these comments to them.
They will contact you shortly once they have fully investigated this case."
I don't know whether to laugh or weep but if you have money with Santander I would certainly try to get it out now while you can.

hermante

Martyn_F wrote: »

I am also a bit concerned about a Spanish based bank with Spain being fourth on the list of failing economys.

Santander UK is a different company to the one in Spain. If Santander UK collapses the government should reimburse you. If it can't you will have far greater things to worry about than a bank balance.

Anyway, I decided to close the savings account and move the captal with interest to date to my current account where I could move it elsewhere for a better return. I put in the request on 11th April and was told that the money would be moved in the next 7-10 working days. I am still waiting.

How did you attempt to do this?

Last year, I got sold a Santander 4% fixd monthly saver. This ended a few weeks ago and I wanted to close it. Unfortunately this account couldn't be accessed by internet banking or ATM, so I had to go to the teller and queue up.

Firstly I wanted to check that I actually got the interest on the account. I gave him one of my statements for the account number. He wanted to check my details first, but asked for my address. My address was printed on the statement which I gave him - I pointed this out and he flipped the paper over before realising that that was a bit silly. Oh well.

Next he said I needed photo ID to close the account. I didnt' have any on me at the time, and I said I didn't want to take the balance anyway, I just wanted to transfer it to my other savings account. He said I still needed photo ID. I said - why can I transfer £1000000 at an ATM (theoretically at least) but not £2000 at the teller between my own accounts? And anyway I wouldn't have needed to go to him if they let me do it online.

He agreed that it was a bit silly so he went to the back office and brought a big chart out - which said I needed to show my debit card for transfers under £10000. It then took him about 10 minutes to do this transfer by pressing buttons on his computer. Afterwards he had to write the amount, my date of birth, my name and the debit card number in triplicate on some forms that he printed.

So all that took 20 minutes just to transfer a small sum, which could take 20 seconds online if I had been able to. Not as bad as Martyn F, but still a bit over the top.

I went back later with some photo ID to close the account. This took 30 minutes and involved him photocopying the ID several times, printing some forms and filling them in by hand in triplicate again, and bringing them to the back office. He was there for a long time... and came back with a bag of 2p coins as I had 2p interest that hadnt been aded to the account yet. (there weren't any coppers in his drawer). I said - maybe you should just have transferred it to my other account..

In contrast HSBC took 20 seconds to close an account, didn't have to go to the teller and just signed a form. OK, there was 0.00 in it but I think my point stands.

pmduk

Martyn_F wrote: »

"I understand this matter has been passed to your (our) Second Stage Complaints Team, I have passed on these comments to them.
They will contact you shortly once they have fully investigated this case."

I believe it's the fourth or fifth stage complaints team that can both read and think on the same day! They get extra rewards for multitasking.

giorgio992

Mrs_Ryan wrote: »

I had a nightmare with them this morning.. I rang up on OH's behalf to query something to do with his overdraft which is on an arrangement with Collections although the account is still operational.
His ID and PIN wouldnt work even after trying 4 times, so he went through to someone. I explained that I would put him on to go through security, and normal practice for him is to repeat the question he is asked and I will tell him the answer - never had any problems with this in the past. So he was asked to name a Direct Debit and the amount and I told him, which he did and then he said something like 'well thanks for nothing.' I took the phone off him and asked what the problem was, and was told 'because he was being told what the answer was we cannot continue with the call!'
I explained OH has a recognised disability and due to this he has no short term memory so how could he possibly know the answer to what he was asking, and why hadnt it been a problem in the past? To which the answer was somewhat unbelievably 'we arent allowed to take into account whether the customer has a disability or not which may affect their ability to answer security and they should know the answers!' to which I said er hang on, isnt that a breach of the DDA?! I also said it wasnt just a case of him being a bit scatty, he's got several serious mental health problems which mean not only can he not remember things but speaking to strangers on the phone is very difficult for him - additionally the bloke on the phone wasnt giving him enough time to answer.

I hung up on this bloke as I could feel my blood boiling and we re-dialled and this time thankfully his security details worked fine and we got through to collections, who to be fair were brilliant and not only gave him time to speak but asked him simple straightforward questions which he could answer with no help from me.

So there you are - Santander, if you are unlucky enough to have a disability they dont want your custom. Disgusting!!!

To be fair it does seem fair the account holder shouldn't be prompted for answers to security questions. Surely the best bet if he's disabled would be for you to get power of attorney for him in order to manage the account yourself. At that point you shouldn't have any troubles in managing the account on his behalf!

Mrs_Ryan

Its a bit of a strange one this as I have authority on his other things - things like his loan account I had to sign a form to say I was able to speak on his behalf. He can answer obvious things like his date of birth and stuff but he doesnt know exact amounts of DD's etc and things like that - and plus they asked him a question which he couldnt answer as he was ringing to query it! Unfortunately POA isnt an option in our case (I cant really go into why on here but its to do with his illness) so next time I think I will just have to write it down and dangle it in front of his face..!