Santander's Customer Service - Nightmare Continues

atush

We await with baited breath ;-)

bobwilson

I just went in to the branch with my passport and ID. I spoke to someone that looked like he was doing community service for a young offenders prison. His eyes lit up when he saw I had around £40k in my Santander accounts. He asked me "where did you get all this money from, sir?"

me: "my job."

him: "Oh. Really? What do you do?"

I told him I'm self employed and what I do (in audio/media), his eyes lit up again and he looked like he was going to ask me to lay down some beats for him.

Me: "I should have another £40k in my first home saver account. It's been 9 months and I keep asking for statements, but people keep telling me a different story. I really need my statement or some proof of account opening please, with the balance, and I can't accept no for an answer this time."

Hm: "Certainly, sir."

Me: "You mean you can do it? Thank you!"

Him: "err... did you say you had £40k in your first home saver?"

Me: "Yes."

Him: "Oh dear. Um... Hm... I'm not sure if I should tell you this. It's not good news."

Me: "What?"

Him: "There's only £17k in there. We never had any more deposits after that."

Me: "Right. That's not correct. I wish I had been told this sooner; I've been asking for my balance for months. I'm going to have to get my old Natwest bank statements to prove I put transferred in more."

[He didn't seem too bothered.]

Apparently, everything is done by hand at Santander, like in the 1980s (no electronic transfer for large amounts)


... moving on to a separate issue...



I asked him about my account block. Eventually, after 20 minutes of phone calls, he told me:

"I can't unblock yo' account. You 'ave to speak to fraud team on da phone in yo' own time."

I told him I've already done that several times, they told me to come into the branch.

He said: "Yea' sorry sir, but we do it to protect u innit. You gotta speak to 'em on da phone."

Me: "I have done already, several times. They said they would unblock it. But it's still blocked. I kept calling back, and eventually then they said I have to come in here with my passport"

Him: "I can't do it from 'ere... they will call you back dont worrie."

Me: "I've been waiting for days with no call back.. how much longer do I have to wait? Can I call them?"

Him: "dont worrie dude. They can get busy like they will call u, could be next monday maybe sooner maybe longer innit' "

Me: "That is unacceptable. The bond I'm transferring to won't wait forever."

Him: "Yea' I'm sorry sir, but its to protect ya innit."

I told him I was not leaving until the situation was resolved. He basically told me there is nothing more he can do, I have to wait for a call back from their fraud team. I told him to call them on the phone there and then. He did, but they just told him the same thing: I have to wait for the callback.

I just called up again, and the man asked the fraud team manager for me. He said the fraud team can't do it over the phone, I have to take my passport into the branch. I explained I've already done that. He said he can't call the branch for me now, as they're closed, but he'll try again tomorrow, and tell them to sort it out for me.

I called up again, and asked "why" the account had been blocked. The lady said:

Lady: "I don't know. OH wait a minute.. um... hmm... can YOU tell me why it's been blocked?"

Me: "I don't know."

Lady: "Let me see here... oh it says returned mail... back in... oh it doesn't say a date. OH WAIT. It says.. um.. no it doesn't .... ah yes it does, it has a flag for returned mail back in october last year."

Me: "Why wasn't I informed of this sooner?"

Lady: "I dunno."

Me: "But you have my telephone number there, why has no one called me or tried to contact me at all?"

Lady: "I wouldn't know, sir."


Anyway, the guy I spoke to earlier told me he'll have a rant at the branch manager for me, and call me back tomorrow. So I'll have to wait til tomorrow.

This is getting beyond ridiculous. They don't seem to have any set processes in place, it's like they're making things up as they go along, and in the meantime I'm stuck without account access. I'm like a messenger between their departments. If I didn't get on at them every day, it seems like nothing would ever happen.

Now I have to go and dig out my old Natwest statements to prove I transferred in more.

happygolucky64

I share your pain as regards Santanders appalling customer service. I had a bond mature on 31/12/11 and arranged to have it transferred into my flex account which I was told would happen on 4/1/12. I checked with my flex account last week and nothing had been paid in. On the 6th I telephoned Santander to see what had happened, let's just say to cut a very long story short and having been passed through to various departments it was discovered my instructions hadn't been carried out and they had moved my money into a low interest account. I spoke to a guy called Nish in the complaints department and he said he could arrange for the money to be transferred that day, he then passed me through to bonds who said it wouldn't be today but seemed to vaguely think it would be 48 hours but further questioning revealed actually it would be two working days. Nish phoned me later to check my complaint had been resolved and I said no because I still didn't have the money he said he would get back to me, he did but said he was very sorry but it was now going to be 5 working days! This morning a new bond certificate arrived saying the money was invested for a further 12 months! I telephoned again it took me 20 minutes to get through to complaints then I was put on hold for a further 25 minutes whilst she spoke to the bond team only to come back to me and say she was sorry she was passing this complaint back to Nish and he would phone me today, as you have probably guessed I have not received a phone call. I really need this money and I am going to incur interest charges from not paying my credit card. I have put my complaint in writing and I am contacting the Financial Ombudsman, although I have to give Santander 8 weeks to respond. It makes me wonder how many peoples money they are hanging onto at low interest rates, at financial gain to themselves. I will never use Santander again as another poster has said for any small extra you gain interest it is definitely not worth it in hassle.

ses6jwg

happygolucky64 wrote: »

I share your pain as regards Santanders appalling customer service. I had a bond mature on 31/12/11 and arranged to have it transferred into my flex account which I was told would happen on 4/1/12. I checked with my flex account last week and nothing had been paid in. On the 6th I telephoned Santander to see what had happened, let's just say to cut a very long story short and having been passed through to various departments it was discovered my instructions hadn't been carried out and they had moved my money into a low interest account. I spoke to a guy called Nish in the complaints department and he said he could arrange for the money to be transferred that day, he then passed me through to bonds who said it wouldn't be today but seemed to vaguely think it would be 48 hours but further questioning revealed actually it would be two working days. Nish phoned me later to check my complaint had been resolved and I said no because I still didn't have the money he said he would get back to me, he did but said he was very sorry but it was now going to be 5 working days! This morning a new bond certificate arrived saying the money was invested for a further 12 months! I telephoned again it took me 20 minutes to get through to complaints then I was put on hold for a further 25 minutes whilst she spoke to the bond team only to come back to me and say she was sorry she was passing this complaint back to Nish and he would phone me today, as you have probably guessed I have not received a phone call. I really need this money and I am going to incur interest charges from not paying my credit card. I have put my complaint in writing and I am contacting the Financial Ombudsman, although I have to give Santander 8 weeks to respond. It makes me wonder how many peoples money they are hanging onto at low interest rates, at financial gain to themselves. I will never use Santander again as another poster has said for any small extra you gain interest it is definitely not worth it in hassle.

These are the steps you should now follow to get access to your money ASAP.

1. Forget trying to get anything done via the telephone. They're almost always useless.

2. Take your new bond certificate (for the "Reward Bond") to any branch along with 2 forms of ID such as 1x bank card and 1x passport/ driving license.

3. Tell them you want the reward bond closed and you want a cheque for the total amount.

Should you then wish to log a complaint, that is up to you.

Gigglepig

I recently moved a bit of money from an Santander isa account, it was quite simple to do it in branch and I was told it was free of charge. The only hassle was that they needed to see "proof of the account" in addition to my passport and other ID/proof of address. They had not sent me statements but luckily I kept the piece of paper from when I opened the account...
It may be simpler for smaller sums such as mine - apparently if you transfer over 3k they require 3 forms to be filled in.

xylophone

Complain.
And try Jessica at the Daily Telegraph - I've lost count of the number of Santander complaints she's had. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/jessicainvestigates/

happygolucky64

Thanks for that, the bond is for 12k. Would the branch still do this if it is already being processed (in theory!).

bobwilson

Well at the moment I have around £50k in Santander that I cannot access, and £25k that they have lost.

I'm waiting for the millionth callback tomorrow - and that's just to unblock my account!

Regardless of the outcome, I have to agree, the interest is not worth the hassle. It's understandable that you have fraud checks, but really, 15 phone calls, over 30 hours of my time, I have done everything they've asked, and still they don't know how to unblock my account? Callbacks never happen, they always contradict each other, and never stick to their word. A goes to B and B goes to A and A goes to B and repeat. Nothing gets done.

When I tried to complain in branch about how everytime I come in, there is no one on duty and I'm left standing there for half an hour, the manager told me "I apologise but I'm sure that doesn't happen, sir." I will be closing my accounts as soon as I re-gain access.

ses6jwg

happygolucky64 wrote: »

Thanks for that, the bond is for 12k. Would the branch still do this if it is already being processed (in theory!).

Yes, the reward bond may be closed at any time. You will be paid 1% up to date of closure.

LilMissEmmylou

OH this reminds me of how much I HATE Santander! I had no visa card for 4 months because it wasn't making it to my house.... neither was the pin.... no no they were sending it to my address from 2 YEARS previous which was NOT where my statements etc went to. It took 6 cards to be ordered and not show up and about 10 visits to the branch specifically for this reason (Not to mention the amount of times i visited with ID to lift cash for shopping!) for somebody to notice they had changed my address on all but one section of my account... the one where the new cards and pins are sent to (!!!!!! do they have a seperate address for this?!). This was the time I decided to join NatWest (who I now love!) and use them as my main account for my pay and left only CB, WTC and TC going into Santander.

More recently they decided they wanted to take my £2k overdraft off me in under 30 days! I am now paying my overdraft off in full over the next 7 months and then the bank account will be gone!!! and I wont be one bit sorry! Good luck with your Santander saga, I feel for you!