Santander (UK) Plc - AGAIN!

GraceCourt

I've just been charged overdraft fees by Santander for being nearly £27 overdrawn over two days at the beginning of June.

Not worthy of a rant on here, you might say? Well, the reason why I slipped into the red on my current account was because a few days previously, Santander had frozen my access to nearly twenty thousand pounds in a savings account - the one from which I would have moved some money to prevent the current account being overdrawn.

They froze it without even telling me that they had done it, and it was only a week later - after making a query about why I kept getting the error message "Service unavailable - please try later" that they even confirmed they'd frozen the account - but still wouldn't say why.

Another week later, after waiting for phone calls that were promised but never made, and after a phone call from me lasting nearly an hour (I recorded it), I was told that it was frozen because I'd failed to call into a branch with ID since opening the account three months earlier!

I pointed out that no-one had ever asked me to do so, but when I also mentioned that I was recording the call, the member of staff freaked out and said it was illegal (no, it isn't - it's only illegal if both the calling party and the called party are unaware that it's being recorded), then hung up on me.

So I then write to them asking if they would pay me for the cost of doing so... because, from where I live on the Isle of Skye to the nearest branch in Inverness, it's a 256-mile round trip, taking about six hours and costing just over £70, but so far they haven't responded...

Strangely enough, though, my access to my money was restored on the day that they received the letter... funny that!

But they are still very vindictive people... they've still charged me* for the 2-day £27 overdraft. Bunch of... bankers!

* Don't worry, one way or another they will be refunding me... or it will cost them £400 for the Financial Ombudsman Service to make a determination following my complaint.

MothballsWallet

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you couldn't use your recording as evidence in a court case should you have to take Santander to court, but you could use a transcript of it instead?

Toe-Jam

MothballsWallet wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you couldn't use your recording as evidence in a court case should you have to take Santander to court, but you could use a transcript of it instead?

If they are aware it is being recorded you can use it in court. If you don't tell them you are recording them then you can't give it to a 3rd party, but its not illegal.

But you could put forward that the information that you hold is in the interest of fact and you could be granted retrospective permission, and then it is valid.

If you tell "them" they usually refuse to speak to you.

drussellh

Hopefully the service should improve. Their call centres are being moved back to the UK now. At least, you will be able to talk to someone in English.

Toe-Jam

drussellh wrote: »

Hopefully the service should improve. Their call centres are being moved back to the UK now. At least, you will be able to talk to someone in English.

You'd think that would help, but unless the staff are trained properly then it makes no difference at all.

A lot of the jobs are going to ex A&L call centre staff, and they are poorly trained on the mechanics of Santander accounts and products.

Really nice people when you get through to the call centre in Liverpool, but unless its a simple query then its a dead end.

drussellh

Toe-Jam wrote: »

You'd think that would help, but unless the staff are trained properly then it makes no difference at all.

A lot of the jobs are going to ex A&L call centre staff, and they are poorly trained on the mechanics of Santander accounts and products.

Really nice people when you get through to the call centre in Liverpool, but unless its a simple query then its a dead end.

I know. But I would rather have a poorly trained BRITISH person.

GraceCourt

MothballsWallet wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you couldn't use your recording as evidence in a court case should you have to take Santander to court, but you could use a transcript of it instead?

I'm not aware of any Practice Direction under CPR 1998 or of any statute that prevents such a recording being adduced in a Court for evidential purposes by the maker of it... can you come up with any such provisions?


"Expectation of privacy" as decided in Halford v United Kingdom EHRLR 551 does not apply for (at least) two reasons: firstly, the Halford case arose out of Human Rights legislation, which - contrary to popular belief - mainly only places responsibilities on "public authorities", and I'm not a public authority! Secondly, in that case neither party to the calls was aware of the interception, hence why it was ruled unlawful, even though it was installed by the authority that controlled the private telephone extension involved - Merseyside Police.


In any event, in an arbitration hearing in England and Wales by a District Judge under Part 27 CPR 1998 ("Small Claims" track), strict rules of evidence do not apply, and the Judge has discretion to admit anything that he/she believes is relevant and not otherwise strictly inadmissable.

Caz2000_2

We've moved banks since A&L became Santander - they made so many mistakes and caused us so much agro we took our business elsewhere - they lost our joint account, savings account and ISA and will shortly loose our business bank account too!

They managed to reverse a direct debit (indemnity claim) nearly three months after they had already done it (a direct debit went out twice by mistake so we had one payment reversed making us square with the company involved). Meaning a previously paid off car loan suddenly had an outstanding payment and the loans company were on us like a shot.

It took ages to sort the mess out as the money Santander had taken from the loan company didn't appear in our account so we weren't going to just pay the loan company another payment but Santander insisted they didn't take the money and neither party would speak to the other not even when we offered to conference call.

In the end after being harrassed continually by the loans company (literally two phone calls a day sometimes) and Santander sticking their head in the sand and saying they hadn't done it we reported both to the FOS. The FOS acted as arbitrator and made them talk to each other at which point Santander admitted they did take the money - they don't know why as they hadn't got a second request from us and they gave it back - it was floating around in cyber space.

Caused us a load of grief and undue stress but no appology from them!

Caz

MothballsWallet

GraceCourt wrote: »

I'm not aware of any Practice Direction under CPR 1998 or of any statute that prevents such a recording being adduced in a Court for evidential purposes by the maker of it... can you come up with any such provisions?

It's quoted on here several times.

Sorry, but the only law I read is UN Omega Law because it's so simple even George Bush can understand it: break that law, and you die.

dcems

GraceCourt wrote: »

But they are still very vindictive people... they've still charged me* for the 2-day £27 overdraft. Bunch of... bankers!

.

I hate Santander:mad:

Had an issue with an overdraft a few years ago-went on sick leave for 6 months which affected my wages and they wanted me to pay £166pcm to clear the o/d

Even though I had given them all my personal medical evidence they didnt care I could only clear it at a fraction of their demands.

Nothing but hassle. Rude and ignorant.

CKhalvashi

GraceCourt wrote: »

I've just been charged overdraft fees by Santander for being nearly £27 overdrawn over two days at the beginning of June.

£27 for 2 days seems a bit steep, however try Natwest for charges.
Place a claim with them for £26.50, as they should not charge any more than it costs them, which will be 0.00137% of the amount you were overdrawn!

GraceCourt wrote: »

Santander had frozen my access to nearly twenty thousand pounds in a savings account - the one from which I would have moved some money to prevent the current account being overdrawn.

As a customer who has been told they're a corpse by Santander, they seem to freeze a bank account with no proof of anything, so don't worry yourself too much over this

GraceCourt wrote: »

Another week later, after waiting for phone calls that were promised but never made

Another Santander trait, please don't worry yourself too much over this, and if you need to call them, contact them on 01908 237963, which is on the Santander website 'access from abroad.' As with any phone number on an open forum, check this for yourself before dialling for your own safety. It should also be on the back of your card

GraceCourt wrote: »

Strangely enough, though, my access to my money was restored on the day that they received the letter.

Nice one! Still ask them for the excess funds back, plus the cost of the phonecall. I'm recording all mileage on my car, phonecalls and time wasted sorting a fraud out that they have taken 4 months to investigate. They'll have an invoice of about £30,000 from me later this month over a £1500 payment!

Caz2000 wrote: »

We've moved banks since A&L became Santander - they made so many mistakes and caused us so much agro we took our business elsewhere

:beer: Congratulations, I'm having to open an account to get some payments recalled! Wish me luck!

Caz2000 wrote: »

Santander admitted they did take the money

Santander won't admit they are wrong even when told to, that's the problem with a company that in the opinion of many here shouldn't be licensed in the first place!

Caz2000 wrote: »

...no appology from them!

Tell me why that doesn't surprise me in the slightest! :mad: