Infuriated by Lloyds AGAIN!

Milge

Hi all

I have been a lurker on here a long time and having experienced the latest saga in my relationship with Lloyds bank feel like I need a bit of a rant.

Having received a letter from Lloyds addressed to the wrong number in my road the other day (kindly forwarded on after the house owner established where I lived) I read the contents and in a nutshell it said I had not responded to my previous letter and if I did not speak to them in the next 30 days my home insurance would be cancelled. Smelling a rat I phoned them and they informed me that the local branch had sent them a 'replication notice' back in January for a change of address to the different house number. They corrected the mistake and said I should speak to my local branch.

Not happy I phoned their general bank helpline and they informed me that all my bank account addresses had been changed also! They connected me to the local branch where the chap confirmed what they said, corrected the addresses, and said he could find no record or note of the change and put it down to a computer glitch! Anyway would I except £10 in compensation. I got a bit cross to say the least at this point and told him that the level of compensation was an insult as not only was it a severe breach of data protection but also if my home insurance was cancelled and, heaven forbid, my house burnt down in a couple of months I would be left with nothing!! I said I would be submitting a formal complaint and he offered for the manager to phone me back the next day. I said no she can phone me back today.

The manager phoned me back in an hour and proceeded to tell me that she had no record of the wrong address ever being on the system!! Despite the fact that I had the letter in front of me and that 3 other people of Lloyds had confirmed that it was there, she insisted it wasn't. The only thing she could find was that my husband had been in the branch in January on the date that the home insurance recieved the notice and made changes to the account (contradicting yourself no?).

I told her 100% this was not true and that I could prove it with CCTV from his work if need be, but she insisted she needed to hear this from him.

Next day she phoned my husband and he confirmed what I said and that fact it could be proved, told her in firm terms we would be moving our business elsewhere as we feel grossly threatened by fraud due to their severe breach of data protection.

The latest is that she is going to take the matter up with IT and in the meantime I should give some thought to what would be acceptable compensation for my time and phone calls. As I said to my husband, the least of my worries is my time and phonecalls but the fact that my bank details and house insurance can so easily be transfered to an address we have never lived at leaving us wide open to fraud and again the home insurance cancellation had we never been forwarded the letter.

Sorry rant over but just total disbelief at their constant mistakes and contradictory information - I don't think there is a single product they have sold or tried to sell me that hasn't had a problem in the 3 years I have been with them

jonesMUFCforever

Calm down!
Whilst they have confirmed the error with the address can you prove there has been a 'serious breach of data protection'?
Had your house burnt down they would have a block policy with their own underwriters as part of their public liability insurance.

I agree they are at fault but you do seem to have exaggerated the problem just to have a rant.
Hope you feel better now - they will deal with your complaint and I would expect you to receive approx £250 in compensation for your time and inconvenience.

Milge

I would have thought them changing my address on all my bank accounts and insurances to another address to be a serious breach in data protection as it does leave me wide open to fraud had the occupant not been a honest person - I don't feel exactly comfortable with all my bank account details going elsewhere and I have one letter and the word of 3 Lloyds employees to confirm this is what has happened.

I am not sure how you mean that I have 'exarggerated the problem to have a rant' though as this is exactly what has happened. My Lloyds account is my main bank account with both mine and my other halves salary going through it and all my DDs and standing orders. Yes a problem has been avoided by them rectifying the issue but I am concerned that what would have happened had I not have noticed. I do my banking online with all my statements electronic so I would not have noticed had this letter not been forwarded onto me.

thatsean

So top and bottom of it, a data keying error has lead to the wrong door number going on file, and then lead to a letter going to the wrong address. Compounded by a rather poor complaint handling process

Understand you're cross, but perspective is needed.

Whats the severe nature of the data protection breach that's occurred? You can't complain about losses that might have happened, because they didn't.

Ask Lloyds for an amount that presents a fair compensation for your time and worry. The figure quoted above seems more than fair.

Milge

Thanks for your replies

Note your comment on the data keying error but Lloyds are insisting this wasn't the case and that the computer had done it. Apparently any changes are noted on the system with the employee who applied them but there is no note to support the change. Apparently they are installing system updates at the moment and this is what might have triggered it but they are not 100% sure.

If I had just moved or the address had reverted to a previous address I could understand, however neither are the case. I have lived here for well over two and a half years and the address they used I have never lived at.

I would consider it a breach of data protection as I am trusting them to handle and manage my data in a secure and suitable manner, and for the system to just be able to change this for no reason with no record as to why doesn't exactly give me confidence that that this is the case.

Thanks again for your responses and I will see what the manager comes back with, but ue to this and a couple of previous experiences of late I do think I would be best to change my bank account for my own peace of mind

jonesMUFCforever

Be careful with what you wish for!
Read posts on here about just about any banks - you will find mistakes happen at times - what you need to consider is how they deal with them from now on.
To be honest if you were ranting at bank staff either on the telephone or in person like your first post on here then I probably would have panicked and told you things that were not correct - I think we all would.