shocking customer service from Santander - advice required on best action

Poppylicious

Hi,

I hope that this brilliant forum will be able to help me as I'm currently so cross I could scream!:mad:
Apologies for the essay, I have tried to keep it succinct!

I applied for a Santander credit card in the summer to take advantage of their great balance transfer rate. All went through fine.

However, 2 months later, I receive another card with a different number. It seems that they've managed to process my application twice and set up 2 cards, with 2 balance transfers.

I called them to tell them of their error and was advised that it could take up to 6 weeks to resolve!

I called back 4 weeks later to check on progress and because I'd received a statement requesting payment to cover the balance. I was advised that things were progressing and that it wasn't necessary for me to make a payment.

Today I've received a Notice of default sums due to non-payment. Called to find out what's happening and have been told that there's no record on the system of my calls.

I'm so very frustrated and don't know what to do.

Could anyone please advise on:
1 - it feels like this would consititute a breach of the DPA as my details have not been used as I requested (ie a second account has been opened without my authorisation). if this is the case, what's my next steps?

2 - The complaints team are now going to take a look into this and try to trace the calls that I made (luckily I made a note of the date / time / name of the person I spoke to). It feels like I should be entitled to some form of compensation, firstly for the dreadful manner in which I've been treated and secondly for my time and cost of having to call them to try and get this resolved. How do I go about broaching this without it sounding like I'm money grabbing?

Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Poppy