Appalling service from Alliance & Leicester

scottmartin

As an A & L branch employee, I'd just like to clear up some of the things that have been incorrectly stated in this thread.

1. With regards to opening savings accounts, we conduct an electronic identity check before an account can be opened, which in the majority of cases can successfully verify people without the need for further identification, searching public records and details held by credit referencing agencies such as Experian etc., but is not in itself a credit check, as savings accounts do not offer credit facilities, so is therefore not necessary. In some cases where the electroni check fails, it is necessary to obtain up to 2 forms of identification, from a list defined mainly by what the FSA say is acceptable, but this usually only happens for people who are not on the electoral register, or for example have just moved home.

2. With regards to the Alliance & Leicester credit cards, these are owned and run by MBNA, although they retain the Alliance & Leicester branding. Any communication about the cards is with MBNA, whether it be by phone or letter, as any mail regarding credit cards received in branches is forwarded to MBNA. You may think that you are dealing with A&L when you ring up as they still use the name on their automated service, and advisers will answer the call by saying "thanks for calling Alliance & Leicester credit card", but it is stil MBNA. The same applies to Abbey credit cards, who are also MBNA owned and run.

3. With regards to using the premier plus account in branches, you can!!! Deposits of both cash and cheque are accepted over the counter, the only thing that is not 'readily' permitted is withdrawals for amounts LESS THAN £250, which is your daily ATM limit. If you have already reached this limit and need more, or our cash machine is out of service, we are permitted to carry out withdrawals over the counter.

At the moment, we are one of very few banks who allow you to use your account at the post office as well as our branches, for both deposits and withdrawals.

4. In terms of the switching service, I know that there has been some problems. When launched, the premier plus account was not marketed heavily, yet received a phenomenal number of applications, probably due to sites like this and reviews in newspapers. The switching department simply could not handle the high volume of requests, and subsequently problems occurred.

You must keep in mind that it is a free service, even though it is quite expensive to provide. Add this to the market leading interest rate and opening incentives offered, you have to admit, it is a good deal.

When things go wrong with it, and you incurr charges that are not your fault (as I actually did when I had to open my account when I started working for them), you also have to keep in mind that the charges are computer generated. It simply sees that your account is overdrawn, and applies the charges accordingly. When you speak to someone, who has the intelligence to realise that it is not your fault, I'm sure that there wouldn't be a single case when they are not refunded.

And lastly

5. With regards to the attitude of call centre representatives. I too find some (yes from A&L) to be unhelpful and occasionally abrupt which may appear rude. But what company does not have staff like this? Maybe people have just highlighted it on this thread because they have spoken to A&L a lot recently, and on another occasion you may be on here complaining about people from Barclays or NatWest etc. Perhaps when they release a market leading product like ours, the level of discussion about them will increase and their faults highlighted also.

From a personal perspective, when someone rings the branch with a query/complaint/whatever, I always remain polite and try to be as helpful as I can, and do my best to resolve it. These days people are so quick to complain, yet never as keen to show that they are grateful for what you do for them. But then I suppose it's less exciting to sit here reading about how good people are as opposed to how bad they are.

billinge

My wife tried transferring from Barclays to Alliance & Leicester.

I persuaded my wife to transfer from Barclays who are in my opinion quite possibly the worst bank out there.

In August 2004 she contacted A&L to open a current account and savings account, asking them to arrange to transfer everything currently on her Barclays accounts (standing orders, direct debits, wages etc) to A&L. They were quite happy to do this. My wife filled in all the forms and sent them back.

The accounts were eventually opened in late September.

She has phoned them several times, and they have promised to look into it and call her back. Never happened.

I've told her to drop them and go to, say Lloyds TSB, who I am with and who offer almost as good a set of accounts. But she wanted to persevere a little longer.

The bit that gets me, is that the switching form was sent with all the other forms. One week the guy my wife spoke to acknowledged receipt, a few weeks later, they denied they'd ever had it. !!!!!!../Elbow..??

So Last month (Jan05), she finally decided enough was enough, and made an appointment with Lloyds TSB, they opened the accounts then, accepted the recommendation form I gave her which would give her and I £35, and they said they would look into any other offers thay could sign her up for.

It is now Feb and the process is almost complete, she has had a letter from Barclays stating that they had received the request to close her accounts and that she should return her cut up cards and cheque books. Why do Barclays never ask why you are leaving, perhaps they would learn a thing or two about their customer if they did some feedback surveys once in a while.

So I won't touch A&L now, not with a barge pole.

Billinge

Plasticman

Thanks to Scottmartin for your post. It's good to hear from people who work for the companies that we are moaning about. As an A&L customer I agree with most of the points that you make but I think that many people will now have a very negative view of A&L (like Billinge above) because of the appalling response from the switching service. It may be 'free' but it's also been cr*p.

It's a shame because they have some of the best products at the moment - except for their cash ISA where they charge a fee to transfer away which (IMHO) is a bit naughty!

money_money_monica

I totally agree with the comments regarding the switching service.I have been waiting over 6 weeks for A&L to get in touch with the list of direct debits that I wish to shift over to them and they did nothing with the authority I gave them to have my salary paid in to the account

Being quite impatient I have just done the switching myself and now everything seems to be sorted!

Think this might be the easiest course of action

stormCat99

I've already posted on this thread a while back, but despite applying for an A&L Premier Account back in October, I am STILL waiting for everything to switch :mad:

I've had several missed payments and incurred charges which, although they have now been refunded, I had to call several times to get them to do so. I was promised they would be refunded but had to call and call until they were.

This will be the 3rd month running I am waiting for my salary to transfer. The 2nd month when it failed to transfer, I contacted them (this was on 15th Jan), and they said someone would call me back. When nobody did I contacted them again, several times. I have now lost count of how many times and STILL nobody has bothered to contact me. I have pointed out to them that my old current account has now closed, so this month if my salary still does not transfer I will not get paid, but they do not see to see it as a priority :mad: :mad:

In only transferred to them for the interest free overdraft but in my opinion it was NOT worth the hassle. As soon as the free period is up I'm off back to LloydsTSB with whom the switching process went really smoothly last time.

A&L are THE WORST bank I have ever come across, and I've switched around a few in my time. I would NOT recommend them to anyone and will NOT be using them again for any financial products or services.

MarkyMarkD

For goodness' sake, boots_babe. Are you a council house tenant or something (i.e. do you expect everything sorted for you)?

Just tell your employer the new bank details. Will take you all of 5 minutes. End of problem.

stormCat99

MarkyMarkD, I don't really think that comment was very helpful. When you agree to allow A&L to take over the transfer of your account payments, you assume that they will actually do what they say.

I have had problem after problem with them, far too many to go into on this forum as I don't wish to bore everyone. Suffice to say that it has cost my many hours - both at work and in personal time.

When my salary did not transfer for the second time I contacted the relevant dept. at my employer and gave them my new details. This is besides the point. A&L agreed to transfer all of my incomings and outgoings and I therefore trusted them to do so. However this was the biggest mistake I made and shall not do so again. Realistically, to transfer all DDs/SOs/salary woudl take probably no longer than 4 or 5 hours. I have spend many more multiples than this already and the issue is still not closed. I have received no contact from them let alone an apology, and surely it is not reasonable to feel aggrieved that they have not followed up on what they promised??

Next time I change accounts, I shall perform all transfers myself as I have learnt a hard lesson. The big names banks just do not care and they seem to think that they are beyond redress if they do not perform. However I am not willing to accept such poor service, and my complaint is with the FSA; not only for the stress, inconvenience and charges incurred, but also for the 30 + hours that I have wasted thus far in attempting to rectify the errors of A&L. A customer should not have to do this simply in order to achieve a transfer of account.

MarkyMarkD

I wasn't trying to be unhelpful. The only current problem you mentioned was with your salary credit - which can be easily fixed as I pointed out, and which you HAVE easily fixed as I've pointed out.

You say

I have pointed out to them that my old current account has now closed, so this month if my salary still does not transfer I will not get paid, but they do not see to see it as a priority

but admit you've already sorted it. So if something goes wrong this month, it'll be your employer's fault, not anything to do with any bank.

The fact that you say "I've only transferred to them for the interest free overdraft" is a pretty sad indictment. Switching current account is too major an affair to be done every year or so just for temporary incentives IMHO, precisely because so many other parties are involved in most people's current accounts. I switched to Premier Plus because it has free travel insurance, the best credit interest rate, one of the best overdraft rates (long-term), AND an interest free overdraft (short-term) - not just for a short-term bit of stoozing money.

Dan29

MarkyMarkD wrote:

For goodness' sake, boots_babe. Are you a council house tenant or something (i.e. do you expect everything sorted for you)?

Just tell your employer the new bank details. Will take you all of 5 minutes. End of problem.

Indeed, and I must admit that it seems a bit bizarre to tell your bank to switch your salary details anyway - it seemed much more natural for me to give my employer the new account details .. and luckily for me I can do that on the intranet where I work, so it took 30 seconds. Surely it must be a much more involved process for the bank to contact your employer; there much be extra security checks that have to be done, for example?

stormCat99

I appreciate some of your comments MarkyMarkD, however as I said before, as A&L offered a switching service it seemed sensible to take them up on it.

I have never before had issues when switching current account. If switching once a year saves me money I feel it is well worth it, and didn't have any reason to foresee problems switching this time around.

I'll definitely continue to switch as it saves me money and (usually!) is no hassle at all. I think next time though I'll turn down any offers of a switching service. After this experience I would much prefer to do it myself just in case - I know that I can trust myself!