Santander's Customer Service - Nightmare Continues

ses6jwg

LilMissEmmylou wrote: »

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!

Whilst I fully appreciate the issues you had... did you really expect to remove the majority of your credits from an account and expect them to continue to honour a £2000 overdraft on it? Few banks would do that.

oldvicar

ses6jwg wrote: »

Whilst I fully appreciate the issues you had... did you really expect to remove the majority of your credits from an account and expect them to continue to honour a £2000 overdraft on it? Few banks would do that.

Well yes I would expect to keep an agreed overdraft facility unless my credit record became impaired.

I guess I will have this sort of nonsense and other mahem to look forward to when Santander take over my (english branch based) RBS accounts. I must remember to close them, or at least remove the money, before the sale completes.

ses6jwg

oldvicar wrote: »

Well yes I would expect to keep an agreed overdraft facility unless my credit record became impaired.

I guess I will have this sort of nonsense and other mahem to look forward to when Santander take over my (english branch based) RBS accounts. I must remember to close them, or at least remove the money, before the sale completes.

An overdraft does not work like that. Perhaps in years gone by, but in the current climate where banks have strict unsecured lending guidelines and targets, it does not work that way.

Most banks review overdraft facilities annually, at the very least. Your overdraft limit will be decided by both your credit score, and credit turnover in the account. Accounts which do not have a high enough credit turnover do not qualify for an overdraft.

The bank has supplied 30 days notice that the facility will be withdrawn, in line with T&Cs and regulations.

It seems to me like the poster wanted to withdraw their credits from the account AND keep their (somewhat large, but todays standards on a personal account) overdraft facility. I.e. they wanted to have their cake and eat it.

oldvicar

Oh well, if that's the way things work should we keep an overdraft churning around just in case - use it or lose it? Quite easy now we have faster payments. . TBH I'd be happy not to have an agreed overdraft - apart from the risk of extortion through charges for approving/declining a payment when funds aren't present.

mgarl10024

My OH recently opened a new account and I transferred £1000 into it for her.

Santander blocked the account as they felt the £1000 was 'suspicious'. They then said they tried to contact her (which she doesn't remember), and then held back on a Standing Order.
She phoned up, and was told about the block which was promptly removed.
She then asked why the Standing Order didnt pay and was told that it was set up incorrectly and they would manually send the payment and reset it up.
However, after the block was removed, the original Standing Order (maybe held in a queue) paid several days late, leading to a double payment and a further phonecall.

My account however has been perfect. I was hoping that my OH was just unlucky.

crittertog

bobwilson wrote: »

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?

Log a formal complaint - they have 8 weeks to deal with it before it can be bumped to the FOS (ombudsman). Make sure to detail the amount of time spent on it (including the cost of phone calls) - the FOS can award compensation for time spent.

mgarl10024

crittertog wrote: »

the FOS can award compensation for time spent.

I'm sure that I read on here - perhaps in Martin's Blog - a figure of £10/hr is used. 30hrs = £300.

happygolucky64

Just wanted to say thanks to ses6jwg, I went into Santander branch today and they gave me a cheque which is now paid into my flex account. I guess you probably work for Santander in a branch, if so I think you could teach the staff at the call centers a thing or to. I will still never use Santander again as I just wouldn't be prepared to risk having this hassle again. Bobwilson I hope you manage to get your issues sorted out as well, I think you have a definite case for compensation through the ombudsman if necessary.

truffler

In November I sent Santander a banker's draft, from the Halifax, to open an E-Saver account. It was a very large sum of money, which still has not appeared in the account. When I first queried this they asked me to get a copy of the draft from the Halifax, which I did, and sent to them - twice, as they could not locate the first one. The draft has been processed and the money has been debited from the Halifax but Santander cannot find it. After many phone calls I have now been referred to the complaints department with the option to go to the Ombudsman etc. But this doesn't seem to me to be an Ombudsman complaint - it's an investigation that should be carried out and Santander seem to be in no hurry to find the money. Should I take the banker's draft back to Halifax and see if they can trace the cash, or keep hassling Santander to do more? Like many posters here I never speak to the same person twice.

happygolucky64

I think you would have a case to go to the ombudsman, the threat of it may spur Santander into action. I would write to the complaints department and tell them they have 8 weeks to provide a satisfactory response or you will be going to the ombudsman, you have to give them 8 weeks to respond before the ombudsman will take it on. In the meantime you could go back to the Halifax if it puts your mind at rest. When your money is found I think the very minimum you would be looking for in compensation is the lost interest plus an amount for your time, stress and inconvenience. There is some information on this site about the ombudsman which is very helpful. Good luck, it is very stressful and frustrating when large sums of money are involved.