MSE News: Santander still by far the worst bank for customer service

Former_MSE_Helen

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"A poll of MoneySavers shows Santander is still bottom for service, with First Direct the best ..."

Read the full story:

Santander still by far the worst bank for customer service

Middy

Read my signature.

In Feb, Santander sent me a new debit card of a bank account I closed with the Alliance and Leicester in May 2010. Then they cancelled my debit card of my current account. I did go to them and ask what was going on and they said they will issue me with a new card. I had to chase them up every day to see if it was ordered. I had no card for 6 weeks and no apologies. I don't have the time to change bank accounts so if they mess me up one more time, I am deffo going elsewhere. I will then make time.

tifosi

Well,

they may be lagging behind on current accounts but they are certainly showing the rest of the High Street the way foward on PPI complaints

Looking at the PPI success thread, Santander regularly (on Abbey/A+L loans at least) pay out within 1-2 weeks of first receipt of a complaint

Compare that to rest of the shower that consider 6 months to be acceptable and it makes them look pretty damn good

redglass_2

In the past they have regularly reduced me to a gibbering wreck. They do seem to have improved recently, though I was sent the wrong paying-in stationery (how hard can that be?) - the envelopes instead of the book of transfer slips. The call centre staff are invariably pleasant and I always feel sorry for them having to deal with so much customer resentment. The most annoying thing about their site is that every time I log on I'm urged to download their security software and can't proceed until I have closed that window. I HAVE ALREADY DOWNLOADED THE SOFTWARE. I asked the call centre staff about this and no, there isn't any way to turn the stupid thing off.

ses6jwg

As "someone on the inside" (and what I am about to say in no way is said on behalf of Santander it is just my own personal opinion), I feel that the company is fully aware of its image with the British public and is very conscious of it, and I can honestly say that they ARE working hard on the inside to improve systems and processes for customers. They are lagging behind the bigger banks in some areas, but I have to say they are catching up fast on what is a steep learning curve. 18 months ago it felt very much like a huge monster to work in, with little joined up thinking between branches>head office>telephone distribution, but this has improved ten fold of late.

they have tried to make up for this by having an extremely competitive product range.

I ordered a new card for myself via online banking 3 days ago, and fully expected it to take at least a week. it arrived today much to my surprise.

red_devil

so far ive found santander to be ok and when i had a problem with their cash machine they gave me some compensation, so so far so good.

Lulee36

I had an account with A & L but when it moved to Santander I closed the account sharpish - dont think i would touch anything from Santander with a S****Y stick

mrsmac247

When things were looking too pretty, i must admit Santander took me on with a basic account and within 8 months upgraded me to a full current account and even a good sized overdraft. Unfortunately after I married last year it took them 6 weeks to send a bank card with my correct name on it after having cancelled 2 of my cards until it arrived, meaning I had to go into the branch to withdraw from the counter but had to go through the story every time in order for the clerk to accept my newly wed ID!

Since being wed, me and OH have a joint account elsewhere and the Faster Payments system is a joke only being able to transfer £300 a day means carrying out 4 days worth of transfers to a joint account each month.

Thanks for your help when I needed it Santander, but some of your systems are in the dark ages, I'm off!

flexrider

I just got off the phone with them over a hour and half ago because of there security and know i am in the middle of writing a long complaint because of some of the call centres,If you are thinking of joing santander AVIOD is the best word i am looking for a new bank supplier now but dont know who to go too, already with LLoyds who are hard to deal with but better service so far ive seen then abbey A.K.A and already had accounts with HSBC and Halifax a while ago which i closed for santender.

I have 3 current accounts with good income but from last week when i was working in europe the problems started.

In 2010 i had a security block placed on my card that has been ongoing and had to take 4 weeks off from work to travel back from Ireland to prove who i was so i went in armed with passport id and driving licence,

I was also going to take in my measurements of clothes and were i shop on the weekend or pictures of the whole family like it feels with these clowns if it sorted out my bank account since there completey noisey on everything. But never did

Since 2010 when i was abroad in many countries this year working away in europe i have contacted so many call centres i am actully thinking now of owning one? anyway the point is since i have had that problem every customer service is obnoxious arragrant and rude! they start preaching 10 different replys i have to ring 10 times to get the the first problem sorted out from different call centres.

Last week i contacted santander to arrange from business account 10k to be moved to a new account which they could not complete. The security issues i am having is that i always speak to liverpool branch office call centre who caused the issues today on all accounts.The woman on the call centre placed me through security on the account then told me i passed security i prompted them to start the account transfer she told me to hold on for a second then placed me on hold, after 20 mins on the phone(Duration 40 mins in total) she came back and asked me how much would i like to transfer i replied the 10k please she started to kick off saying she was not happy with security which i replied well you failing me, She replied no so i smugly said well whats the ****en problem then she refused to help me so i have placed what they called a phase one complaint, She started to preach to me i have failed security,Need to take ID into Branch(comman problem they always do to people to go to branch only to be placed on the phone in branch when i could just get it sorted over the phone if they trained the staff) I replied well five minuites ago you said i passed the security issue, she placed me on hold again and i asked to be put back onto a manager,

She refused at first making me get fed up but i held my ground eventully i spoke to a manager who noticed i have so many security issues on my account(according to them) and put me to complaints who spoke to me briefly i complined about the service who said they would listen to the call and contact me in two hours(this was at 3.00 in afternoon) No call back

woke up this morning one of my new accounts with them i have a balance of one pound in account(new account was getting ready to transfer more) suddently went over by 25 quid, spoke to liverpool call centre of santander woman i spoke too refused to reverse it and a manager was unsympathic recalled glasgow spoke to someone else...job done cant understand why liverpool branch could not do the same and had to start a agurement over something so simple.

Fact is if you love stress join this bank? you want a better service go another bank like i will be doing after i write off to FSA still waiting for my 10k to be transfered btw, Total nightmere Last week was the worst with them i called the bank to sort some money out and was placed into a call centre were no one spoke myself and partner was screaming hello!!!hello anyone there and could hear the rest of the call centre talk to customers accounts and direct debits so if i was a dogey person i would be able to buy stuff from other peoples accounts online next the agent placed me on hold and place me on the call acting like nothing happened then failed me on security to protect there mistakes....useless bank received a 25 pound goodwill for it but dont impress me why im choosing now on were to take my business for a better banking but there all the same i guess?

Naf

Their problems are mostly in branch - lack of training and communication to staff.
An internal newsletter pointed out that fewer of their complaints (proportionally) that were taken on to the FOS were upheld than others (Lloyds was the specific one I remembered). It did give a reference to figures, but as I escaped I don't have access to the site any more.
Complaints get dragged out because branch staff are reluctant to set complaints up on the system, meaning there's no proper records for other staff to pick up from; it can be a nightmare to get central complaints to take a case off staff in branch so they end up trying to deal with it for too long before finally giving the customer the letter they need to take it further themselves. Plus branch staff aren't given the authority or tools to really deal with a lot of the complaints they receive. then there's the fact that if its not been caused by their branch, they would rather get the branch that did cause it to deal with it for the sake of figures (and the value of goodwill payments given to customers as these will affect bonus). Then there's the lack of overall experience from staff; most are very young and so don't really understand how this whole banking thing works (and don't get any real training in it).
One of my colleagues didn't even understand what an interest rate is, or how it works!!
They're improving, apparently; probably because customers are flocking away from them.

ses6jwg

Naf wrote: »

Their problems are mostly in branch - lack of training and communication to staff.
An internal newsletter pointed out that fewer of their complaints (proportionally) that were taken on to the FOS were upheld than others (Lloyds was the specific one I remembered). It did give a reference to figures, but as I escaped I don't have access to the site any more.
Complaints get dragged out because branch staff are reluctant to set complaints up on the system, meaning there's no proper records for other staff to pick up from; it can be a nightmare to get central complaints to take a case off staff in branch so they end up trying to deal with it for too long before finally giving the customer the letter they need to take it further themselves. Plus branch staff aren't given the authority or tools to really deal with a lot of the complaints they receive. then there's the fact that if its not been caused by their branch, they would rather get the branch that did cause it to deal with it for the sake of figures (and the value of goodwill payments given to customers as these will affect bonus). Then there's the lack of overall experience from staff; most are very young and so don't really understand how this whole banking thing works (and don't get any real training in it).
One of my colleagues didn't even understand what an interest rate is, or how it works!!
They're improving, apparently; probably because customers are flocking away from them.

In my experience, in the branch I work in which is very small, the older members of staff who are ex Abbey and A&L rely on myself and another twenty-something member of staff who started 18 months ago - as they cannot get to grips with the new computer system and we are only ones who know how to complete complex transactions on the "system"