Halifax Reward

Tight_as_a_Drum

Thanks jen

opinions4u

Mikeyorks wrote: »

But twice in 4 years we've had to go into Branches to close accounts that could not be achieved online. On both occasions the performance of a basic bread and butter activity has been dismal. I signed the papers to close a Probate account - saw the funds transferred to my current account. Came home and transferred that to beneficiaries. A week later they closed my current account - complete with 14 active Direct Debits!

Jesus! I would usually have said it's down to the sales culture and dealing with death doesn't score brownie points. But that is some outcome.

Fast forward 2 years - and my wife went in to close a Guaranteed Reserve account. Obtained a receipt with the correct capital + interest credited to a newish Websaver. A few days later, puzzled the original Reserve account was still open, I had a better look and found the closure figure had been transferred from her current account. Totally inept.

Closure of Guaranteed Reserve accounts had a poor process, not as intuitive as most other closure processes. No excuse as the procedures to follow were well documented.

My mother went into a Branch to 'register' the death of my Father on his ISAs. And was given a letter - addressed to her husband and inviting him to an appointment - two weeks later. And inviting him to 'phone if he couldn't make it! When challenged the 'expert' in the Branch defended this as Halifax policy 'to make sure they discussed the correct accounts'! That one did go to a formal complaint - which took 6 months to respond to. But I did notice Halifax centralised bereavement cases in the intervening period. I wonder why.

A very good example of where the corporate sales culture completely went wrong.

Asked a question about the 'new Reward current account' whilst paying in a cheque. The cashier called over an 'adviser', before I could stop her, as it was relatively innocuous ..... neither knew of the product. This was on the Friday before the live launch on the Monday! Simply left me shaking my head in bemusement. Don't these people read their own website / Press Releases?

Sometimes not. As a manager I was Hitleresque in making sure the team got a morning changes briefing and weren't left to their own devices to find things out. There is a danger any morning briefing focuses on "what have you sold?" and "what will you sell?". There's so much more to the world though.