And the pointless phonecall of the day award goes to...

Wyndham

Ah.... First Direct. Answer the phone quickly, have friendly staff, sort out your problems and ... oh yes, don't have branches!

jambosans

Wyndham wrote: »

Ah.... First Direct. Answer the phone quickly, have friendly staff, sort out your problems

Slightly off topic but I'll ask all the same. Do First Direct ever tout products over the phone?

pinkdalek

Old_Wrinkly wrote: »

Not any more, they don't ...
(unless you are already in it)

http://www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/rewards/

opinions4u

pinkdalek wrote: »

http://www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/rewards/

Ah, the special account that pays 0.3% less than the Online Saver!

JimmyTheWig

jambosans wrote: »

Slightly off topic but I'll ask all the same. Do First Direct every tout products over the phone?

We've been with them for a couple of years now and I don't believe they've ever phoned us trying to sell stuff.
I often get messages from them within internet banking (which mildly annoys me as they make them look important until you click through to them) but no phone calls to my memory.

Plus they have what I consider to be a fair overdraft charging policy.

Old_Wrinkly

opinions4u wrote: »

Ah, the special account that pays 0.3% less than the Online Saver!

And that's only if you make no more than 4 withdrawals (including closure) in a year ...
(Otherwise it's only 2.25%)

pqrdef

ses6jwg wrote: »

Yes, bank staff have sales targets. Does this make them evil? Certainly not. Do these targets automatically preclude them from trying to act in your best interests? No.

People on here mock and scoff at "the dastardly sales tactics" of bank staff, but what they often to fail to realise is that 95% of the population are financially illiterate.

I've got every sympathy with bank staff trying to do a grotty job on a poor pay structure. I tend to go along with their suggestions, so long as they aren't irreversible, and let them sell me stuff I don't want.

Trouble is, what they're supposed to sell very often isn't the best thing for the customer. PPI was an orchestrated campaign of fraud against customers - there ought to have been prosecutions - but the only thing the banks have learnt from it is not to get caught.

As for financially illiterate customers, one thing they don't know, but really ought to be told, is that the branch staff are sales staff on commission and not just "advisors" as they call themselves.

The staff can't avoid being caught up in all this. If they don't sell, not only do they miss out on bonus money, but people will wonder if their job could be done "better" by somebody else.

But if you sell your soul because you haven't any choice, does it mean you haven't really sold your soul?

MoneySaverLog

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I don't believe they've ever phoned us trying to sell stuff.

I bet they say, would you consider a loan, credit card, mortgage, insurance, account upgrade etc, etc, etc when you call them up to query something though :rotfl:

whitewater_2

the problem is the banks can never win. If we offer the products we are selling and are evil

if we dont we are disadvantaging customers by not making them aware

samwsmith1

MoneySaverLog wrote: »

I bet they say, would you consider a loan, credit card, mortgage, insurance, account upgrade etc, etc, etc when you call them up to query something though :rotfl:

I've never had calls from First Direct selling me things, and when I ring up they've never tried to sell me something, at the end of the call they simply say "Is there anything else I can help you with today?".
As has already been said, they mainly send e-messages offering products, and I assume you can stop these by sending them a message under marketing preferences.