MSE News: Santander: Service has improved, but there's a long way to go

Smallspender

There has been a lot of bad press about Santander's service, they have obviously recognised this, and are making improvements. But I think that the user experience must vary considerably according to the branch used. I would give my local small branch in Sussex top marks. The staff are friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. I have had good advice on savings and current accounts, in fact I was in a monthly fee account that was not benefitting me, and when requesting a transfer to a free account, I also got a decent refund of several months account fees! I won't mention which branch simply because it is small, and I don't want to make the queues longer! I am a satisfied customer, hope there are others out there.

GraceCourt

It hasn't turned the corner, service is still deteriorating, and I've decided (just in time, before the offer ended!) to take the £200 offered by the Co-operative Bank to move my current account away from Santander.

Amongst the issues that I experienced (all of which ended up with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), as Santander either wouldn't or couldn't resolve them):

- On three occasions over two years, access to all of my acounts except my business account was frozen - on the last such occasion, without telling me, and it was two weeks before we finally could access over £19,000 in a savings account, only after a faxed letter to their solicitors advising that we were going to the County Court the next day to obtain an Order forcing them to do so;

- They were sending BACS and Fastpay payments to my payees with a different name on the payments and, as usual, refused to do anything about it unless I went into a branch with ID;

- Given that my nearest branch is a 248-mile round trip away (Skye to Inverness) they refuse to refund any travel costs even if I demonstrate that problems are their fault;

- Their second-tier complaints handling staff will hang up on you if they are informed that you are (perfectly legally) recording the call - which is essential if you are subsequently taking a matter to Court or to the FOS;

- Scheduled payments were not made on the due date, nor on the next working day either - no explanation offered even though I had taken screen-shots showing the original transactions and the payments sitting in the payment queue after the due date for them to be sent;

- Amendments to my e-mail address were accepted and showed correctly on screen... but a few days later would mysteriously revert back to the old one without notice or explanation (again, I supplied screen shots showing this but no explanation given despite repeated complaints).

Etc., etc., etc. This company is not fit to operate a bank.

Mozzersgirl

Ms Hogg has got a LONG way to go- and I won't be waiting for her to arrive... I opened an online savings account but after a year tried to get my money out as the bonus had expired. Would they let me? NO. After 2 hours of relentless security checks I was told that a. I couldn't get my money without going into a branch (hello! It's an online account!) and b. if I wanted to transfer it to a new Santander savings bond, I couldn't do that either because of some money transfer issue. I have never heard such cobblewobbs. I have experience with lots of online accounts and never have I encountered such incompetence. The agent was more interested in playing me recorded messages of terms and conditions and all through the hour long phone call kept reading statements of satisfaction etc which were irrelevant and vexing. I phoned their complaints dept and they were terribly sorry, but apparently the customer service agent I spoke to had bu...ered my request up, so now nothing could be done. I WANT MY MONEY, I insisted, as they had been perfectly happy to accept it the previous year, with no fuss at all. So Why can't I get it back the way I had put it in??? I opened an online account to NOT be bothered with their branches (after bad experiences and long queues there). Well, I HAD to go into a branch and yes, waited 30 minutes to finally get a cheque. Whilst waiting I was sadly amused by the complaints being fired off by other:mad: disgruntled customers in the line next to me (and behind- can you imagine, having to wait for 30 minutes behind someone at the counter of a bank -which had only two counters open???). A disgrace. I took mine and my husbands monies and put them elsewhere. What fools they are....

tagq2

GraceCourt wrote: »

- Their second-tier complaints handling staff will hang up on you if they are informed that you are (perfectly legally) recording the call - which is essential if you are subsequently taking a matter to Court or to the FOS;

Is the law clear on this? I.e. if a telephone conversation was recorded legally, could a Court still not demand the recording?

(I've also heard an argument that a transcript's redistribution is not so obviously restricted but I'm not convinced about that!)

BJV

I had always been with Abbey and do not change unless I have a reason too. I had always been happy with Abbey so when needed to open a business account I naturally went to Santander.

Oh My God! In my business I deal with FSA regulations and have to sit and re-sit training constantly. They miss advised me as to what type of accounts I needed, millions of phone calls letters you name it. No-one knew what they where talking about, so much so they they sent me some cheap plonk and an apology.

Ok it is all sorted now thank god but can anyone please tell me why when I transfer money from my Santander business account to pay staff it can take up to 10 days to reach their account. The money goes out of the business account that second.

I have called the staff members banks Barclays, Halifax etc to ask what the problem is and they all say Santander!

Is this the same for everyone?:(

Boru

Their Quick Transfer in the online banking service is not reliable. I believe they are just waiting for the new legal requirements to kick in Jan 2012.

ses6jwg

Faster Payments went live the other day.

Sirens_Cry

Improvement? I think not, unless they retrain their staff - we had a horrendous encounter with a member of staff last week - my daughter had been having problems with her student account; and without knowing any details (even name let alone account number) and in the middle of the branch, the employee proclaimed that the reason that there was no overdraft on the account was because of poor credit history. When I advised her that a) this was no conversation to be having outside of a consulting room, and b) my daughter has no credit history, let alone problems, she told me that i was only compiaining because she wasn't giving us what we wanted.... then when I suggested that maybe (despite our many accounts there, and my daughter having had an account for many years) a different bank may be more helpful, she agreed and said that 'other banks weren't as particular as Santander'.... we're in the process of closing all our accounts, but so far the strongly worded letter we've sent to their complaints department has only had a generic response.

So sad that the Abbey was bought out by a company that seems to have no concept of customer relations - it's like going back to the bad old days of nationalised services (BT, British Gas), where as they was no competition, they could treat customers with utter comtempt and disdain... only the banks HAVE competition!

Sirens_Cry

Addition to above story - my daughter has kept one account open whilst she opens other accounts elsewhere..... guess for which account Santander have cancelled the card.... yup, the account that is still open. Words fail me.

[Deleted User]

wow.. improved lol more like the same :S