MSE News: Santander worst for bank service and First Direct best — again

virgo17

warwicktiger wrote: »

I have been with First direct for 20 years, absolutely fantastic, would recommend to anyone.

+1

I joined when they launched in 1989, moving over from HSBC/Midland.

I have never had a single wish to move and they have never let me down with any transaction or arrangement.

I agree that the online pages are a bit dated and lack a few features but they cater for my personal needs. I believe the online banking facilities will be redesigned later this year. :T

TINT_2

Has Santander got any better...no i don't think it has,it's just that the people who had bad service have switched banks and gone elsewhere,i moved from Santander to Nationwide and found their service to be top class,they seem to really want to help you,Santander you're just a number with Nationwide they treat you like a person.

PennyMoney

I've never had any problem with my own Santander current account but have dealt with a local branch recently re' a deceased relative's account and have found their approach to customers to be terrible.

A lot of the problems could be fairly easily dealt with; for example if I have been queuing at their reception desk for a while - when a member of staff eventually wanders out of their cubicle to serve me I would like them to approach me and ask how they can help. What I don't want is for them to stand towards the back of the branch and shout out "are you alright there?"

nat_t

Santander are probably the worst bank on the planet and appear to be taking over it fast. I have just switched to first direct who are awesome! I spent nearly £20 last month on phone calls to santander to try and resolve a complaint over them opening accounts I had no agreed to and moving my money into them so that I can't get it out. It is nice to see the call centres are in the UK but it takes so long to speak to someone I have nearly fell asleep twice whilst on hold! Its not hard to see why their customer service rates are so poor :mad:.

newriverm

Has there been a general decline in customer service by brands or is this an isolated case? After coming bottom of the moneysavingexpert.com customer service poll in 2010, Santander has once again been voted the worst bank account provider for customer service. Yesterday I experienced yet more appalling customer service from Santander, where I have had a high interest savings account for years. In case you didn’t know, it is standard practice with most banks offering high interest accounts to revert to their very low, standard interest after you’ve had your account for one year. Trouble is, they don’t tell you – so it is up to you to actively transfer your funds to a new account to get the high interest rate.
I did this last week, but when one payment from the account didn’t go through I tried to log in – and found myself barred. So I called Customer Service and was taken through a security check and was told I’d made a security error and I would have to be called back by the ‘Security department’ within the next 4 hours. No call materialised so I called them again. Actually they said they’d said it was 4-6hrs. No they hadn’t, but I let that pass.

Anyway, later I got the call from the ‘Security department’ who told me – after going a basic identity check – that in order to unfreeze my account I would have to visit a branch. This got me rather annoyed – why should I have to go into a branch to do this? After all, they could just take me through a security check over the phone again, couldn’t they? And my other bank doesn’t have branches and they manage – so why can’t Santander? Very sorry, they said, but you have to visit a branch.
Santander has got a bit of ‘previous’ with me. Last year I did my usual account shuffling. But that time they offered me an additional current account with a high interest rate and promised me I could still have my other current account with my other bank – so long as I kept £2000 in my Santander current account.
But against my express wishes, they transferred all my direct debits and standing orders from my other bank to my new Santander current account. This totally messed up my financial arrangements. To cut a long story short, I eventually closed the current account and reset my direct debits with my old bank. But I also reported Santander to the Banking Ombudsman for misleading me. After many months, Santander acknowledged that they had erred and offered to pay me £100 in compensation, which I accepted.
So following this latest event, I think it’s time to call it a day with Santander. Note that I had to call them when I noticed my payment didn’t go through. A decent bank would have identified a problem and contacted me.They clearly don’t understand the meaning of customer service. Put simply, they are a !!!! bank. As late as November 2011 Santander admitted they still ‘have a long way to go’. Yes you do but it won’t be with me. Goodbye Santander – it all went wrong when you took over the Abbey, didn’t it?

Pugwash69

I still have my mortgage with Santander. I've been with them for about 16 years but only spoken to them on the phone once before. I wanted to change my repayments last month and got through to a well spoken British-sounding chap quickly. He did what I wanted and I got the confirmation in the post a few days later.

As I had upped my payments, they also gave me a better interest rate, which was nice!

No complaints from me.

andy_allblack

Thank god I transferred my ISA last year. What I find amazing, despite their reputation, they are being allowed to get bigger in the UK, by the purchase of Natwest Scotland and RBS in England and Wales. You couldn't make it up.

Tight_as_a_Drum

newriverm wrote: »

Has there been a general decline in customer service by brands or is this an isolated case? After coming bottom of the moneysavingexpert.com customer service poll in 2010, Santander has once again been voted the worst bank account provider for customer service. Yesterday I experienced yet more appalling customer service from Santander, where I have had a high interest savings account for years. In case you didn’t know, it is standard practice with most banks offering high interest accounts to revert to their very low, standard interest after you’ve had your account for one year. Trouble is, they don’t tell you – so it is up to you to actively transfer your funds to a new account to get the high interest rate.
I did this last week, but when one payment from the account didn’t go through I tried to log in – and found myself barred. So I called Customer Service and was taken through a security check and was told I’d made a security error and I would have to be called back by the ‘Security department’ within the next 4 hours. No call materialised so I called them again. Actually they said they’d said it was 4-6hrs. No they hadn’t, but I let that pass.

Anyway, later I got the call from the ‘Security department’ who told me – after going a basic identity check – that in order to unfreeze my account I would have to visit a branch. This got me rather annoyed – why should I have to go into a branch to do this? After all, they could just take me through a security check over the phone again, couldn’t they? And my other bank doesn’t have branches and they manage – so why can’t Santander? Very sorry, they said, but you have to visit a branch.
Santander has got a bit of ‘previous’ with me. Last year I did my usual account shuffling. But that time they offered me an additional current account with a high interest rate and promised me I could still have my other current account with my other bank – so long as I kept £2000 in my Santander current account.
But against my express wishes, they transferred all my direct debits and standing orders from my other bank to my new Santander current account. This totally messed up my financial arrangements. To cut a long story short, I eventually closed the current account and reset my direct debits with my old bank. But I also reported Santander to the Banking Ombudsman for misleading me. After many months, Santander acknowledged that they had erred and offered to pay me £100 in compensation, which I accepted.
So following this latest event, I think it’s time to call it a day with Santander. Note that I had to call them when I noticed my payment didn’t go through. A decent bank would have identified a problem and contacted me.They clearly don’t understand the meaning of customer service. Put simply, they are a !!!! bank. As late as November 2011 Santander admitted they still ‘have a long way to go’. Yes you do but it won’t be with me. Goodbye Santander – it all went wrong when you took over the Abbey, didn’t it?

Why did they have your bank details for the other bank?

meusli88

I was an Alliance and Leicester account holder from opening my very first bank account aged about 10, and had no problems with them for a good 12 years. Last October I received a spam 'phishing' e-mail claiming to be from Santander (and had received a few before), I did NOT open it or click on any links but merely forwarded it to Santanders phishing e-mail service. Coincidently, or not, my account was frozen a few days later. My first gripe...I had to discover this myself by checking my account online to find I couldn't access it - how long had it been closed down? I hadn't used my card for maybe 2 days, was I expected to find this out when I went to pay for some shopping or petrol?
So, I went to the Santander website to find a number to call. Gripe 2...where the fudge is their security/fraud dept telephone number? Good luck finding it when you're in a major panic like I was...
Finally after unearthing some kind of number I got through to someone I though was going to prove helpful who said my account had been comprimised over the phone and would be reopened now I had spoken to them, once I had recieved new internet log in details. Fine, fairly straight forward, sigh of relief, thank you very much.
But NO! To cut a VERY long story a little shorter, I must have phoned Santander about 27 times over the next 4ish weeks, trying to unlock my account after being told 'after this date', 'go into branch with ID' etc etc. I followed all instructions to the letter, wanting my account open ASAP (At this point I was only able to access my money by visiting a branch with 2 forms of ID and limited to £250 per day...great when you work full time.)
It seems the fate of my account was in the hands of some mystery fraud dept, who had taken it upon themselves to close my account (rightly so) but gave me NO power to open it back up again. My absolute biggest annoyance was the every single time I phoned Santander, I was told a different piece of information or another action to take.
I made two complaints for which I was compensated £60 each time (ironic when I couldn't access my money). During one of which I got so frustrated and heated with the operator (he said 'now I do understand' more than I care to remember) I was actually transfered to the mystery fraud dept...huzzah! Only to be told by the poor blokey that was feeling my wrath to visit a cash machine in 48hrs and my account should be unlocked...blah blah blah. Of course, I did this, and of course I couldn't access my account.
I phoned again to be told by yet another representative that I would actually have to open an entire new account and that the fraud dept had decided that mine was too comprimised to continue using. I asked when the fraud dept had made this decision...2 days after the inital hack of my account!! Needless to say I was wholly unimpressed that it had taken nearly a month of multiple members of staff, multiple phone calls and multiple visits to branches for someone to tell me this.
With that I marched into my nearest Lloyds, opened an account and had all my money and savings moved from Santander (luckily not £250 at a time...I don't think anyone was going to argue with me at that point!)
I strongly suggest that anyone considering it does not bank with Santander - their customer service is beyond poor, it appears you are unable to make desicions about your own money and they move at a glacial pace whilst keeping all your funds at arms length.

kitface

How many customers of each bank were polled?