I'm so UNIMPRESSED with Barclays! Their service has been terrible!

Goldilox

Okay…please read if you can bare the long waffle! Hehe!

At the beginning of December I noticed there were a number of fraudulent transactions on my account, so I rang up and cancelled my card etc. and then followed the fraud department procedures.

Because their online banking is so lame, I can only view one months statement…so I asked the guy on the phone to send me the past half years statements to check as well (it is an account I rarely used since leaving university) and he said he would.

A week later I still have no previous statements to check, so I rang up the telephone banking…to be greeted by a man who could hardly speak English and wouldn’t let me get a word in edgeways! “But you haven’t been sent any statements” he said! “Yes I know…that is the problem…I haven’t been sent the statements!”

I then asked him to ensure I was sent the statements and three days later I had a lovely statement showing me transactions from the 3rd December to the 4th December! Very helpful indeed!!!!

With difficulty, I managed to get some time out of work to go down to the bank and speak with someone competent. He was unable to print me out the statements there and then…but finally I had actually got them sorted. Statements arrived over 3 weeks after I originally asked the fraud guy to send them.

Then this morning I have a phone call from another lady (who could barely speak English…yet again!) telling me she was investigating my fraud claims and “was I disputing this transaction?”…”was I disputing that transaction?”.

I explained to her I was disputing the transactions I had highlighted!!!! Even though she was mentioning a lot of transactions I was not disputing. No doubt a complete b***ls up will be made and I’ll have to get in contact again…after she tells me the highlighter hasn’t scanned very well onto her system! (what is wrong with the damn originals????).

My service has been so terrible I just want to close my account….only problem is I am about £1900 overdrawn on it (roughly £600 is fraudulent)…so I still have to clear about £1300 before I can close it.

I was thinking of reclaiming bank charges to get this down even further….does anyone else know a way I can close the account extra quick?

regularsaver1

I think it is good service of them to ring you to ask you about certain transactions - they don't have to

and did you not already have the original statements at home to check from the first time?

I'd also not take any action with closing the account whilst they are still investigating the fraud for you

magyar

In answer to your final question, I'm going to state the bleedin' obvious.

You can't close the account whilst there are disputed transactions on it, and other than 'a principle', what difference will it make?

Goldilox

I wasn't planning on closing the account whilst the transactions were still being processed...that should be fairly obvious!!!

It's not good service from them because it would not be necessary to ring me if they had actually looked at the documents I had sent them in the first place! (i.e all the highlighted fraudulent transactions). What was the point in sending the paperwork in if that's the case?

Finally I wouldn't be so annoyed if:

a) They did what I asked first time...rather than me having to chase them 3 or 4 times!
b) Their staff could actually speak English and didnt ramble over you when you try and explain things to them.
c) The got a move on!!!

magyar

Well the answer to your question is extremely simple, then! All you need to do is give them £1300 and ask them to close your account.

regularsaver1

And look at the statement you have already been provided with before?

they may have been calling you about transactions that were done since the ones you had high-lighted to double check

slates

My fella banks with Barclays and he's been unable to access his account online since before xmas..

The reason for this was that he sent a large payment to me and since this was an unusual payment for him, they had suspended his internet banking..The funny thing is the payment arrived in my account as arranged.

He called them and they advised it was due to this transaction and they tried to contact him the once - the rep advised we only call the once.

I agree with the actions some banks take with the poss of fraud in the a/c's but Barclays could have dealt with this better.

Personally i wouldnt touch Barclays with a barge pole.

magyar

slates wrote:

My fella banks with Barclays and he's been unable to access his account online since before xmas..

The reason for this was that he sent a large payment to me and since this was an unusual payment for him, they had suspended his internet banking..The funny thing is the payment arrived in my account as arranged.

He called them and they advised it was due to this transaction and they tried to contact him the once - the rep advised we only call the once.

I agree with the actions some banks take with the poss of fraud in the a/c's but Barclays could have dealt with this better.

Personally i wouldnt touch Barclays with a barge pole.

Agree this is unfortunate, but surely it's better that they err on the side of caution.

Imagine if you had been on the other end of this and were saying "someone accessed my account, transferred a huge amount of money and the bank didn't do anything! I asked why not and they said 'well, we rang you but you were out, so we thought we'd wait and ask you first'."

Now THAT's a bank I wouldn't touch with a barge pole.