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Barclays bank scandal exposed
mzqa395
Posts: 376 Forumite
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/special-report/article.html?in_article_id=418636&in_page_id=108&ct=5
Without a hint of remorse, Simon Pickergill told the call-centre trainees he was teaching that he 'loved' it when customers complained about the extortionate cost of bank charges. He said: 'They'd phone up, start crying and blaming you - telling you that their kids are going to starve. And I'd be like: 'I don't know you - I don't care.' I was just thinking: 'You're not getting it back!' I was a right git.'
Skip additional links
BBC reporter Amanda Egbujo SHOCKED: Undercover reporter Amanda Egbujo was told to lie to customers as part of the bank's sales culture
OTHER STORIES
As one of those trainees, I listened in horror as our instructor treated the customers of one of Britain's High Street banks with such contempt.
The pressure to sell encouraged us to persuade customers to buy expensive services (such as specialised bank accounts) which they didn't want. As part of a major undercover investigation for the BBC, I spent nearly four months working at Barclays' call centre in Sunderland and another month dealing with customers, face to face, at a branch in Guildford.
Like most people, I remember a time when society looked up to a bank manager. He was respected, trusted - and sometimes feared - but, above all, he was seen as an old-fashioned pillar of the community. He knew customers by name and, in turn, they assumed he was acting in their best interests. However, in today's age of telephone and internet banking, most people see their banks as faceless.
Certainly, what I discovered has changed my view of banks for ever. Although they are meant to be strictly governed by rules set by the Financial Services Authority to protect customers, breaking these guidelines was seen by some as an easy way to reach sales targets.
My investigation began when I applied for a job as a sales advisor at Doxford Park call centre in Sunderland - home to 1,800 sales advisors, handling up to 400,000 calls a week. I met very many decent people while I was there and the majority of staff were entirely honest and gave customers good service. But there were others.
An ex-employee had tipped off the BBC about a culture of lies and ruthlessness and said 'mis-selling' was part of the working culture. I applied using my real name, but created a fake job history and used bogus referees. Despite the fact that bank fraud is at unprecedented levels, Barclays made only a cursory call to one of my referees (in fact, my BBC boss pretending to work for a fake company) and did not bother to check if the bogus company I had listed actually existed, or whether I had a criminal record.
At the first job interview by phone, I was asked how I would engage someone in conversation and told to give an example of how I had persuaded someone to do something. At a follow-up face-to-face interview, I was asked how I had sold someone additional items. I obviously said the right thing and was offered a job. My six-week training course at Sunderland included listening in to other sales advisors selling over the phone, then having my own calls monitored and analysed.
I was told to lie about my job title. I was a sales adviser basically cold-calling, but the member of staff I was shadowing told me to tell them I was an 'accounts consultant' and not to mention 'sales'. With a wink he added: 'You have to lie a lot. Say it's purely a 'service call'.' To my astonishment, we were even told to 'challenge' people who had specifically told the bank that they did not want any sales calls.
Barclays Bank sign
UNDER FIRE: Barclays
The system works with the help of a computer which automatically telephones customers. Indeed, sometimes mistakes were made and customers who had ticked a 'no sales calls' box were called. We were trained to tell people that we were 'calling to review' their account, so they didn't suspect it was a sales call. And even if they did, the official attitude was very much: 'You have them on the phone, try to sell them something!'
After the training, during my first proper week on the job, I was criticised by my manager for being 'too nice'. She had been listening to my calls and was annoyed that I kept giving the customer too many chances to pull out. She told me: 'Don't give them too many chances to say 'No'.'
The emphasis was all on sales and commission. We were taught to trawl through customers' accounts looking for ways to sell them extra services. As soon as we contacted someone, we would look up their direct debits. If, for example, they paid a subscription to the AA, we tried to sell them accounts with breakdown insurance. Or, if they had a large overdraft, we would try to get them to sign up to a credit card.
Last year This is Money exposed the financial incentives for NatWest/RBS branch staff to sell certain products:
• Revealed: The bank bonus game
It was clear that customers trusted us. It felt so exploitative and it made me very uncomfortable. Later, a colleague told me she knew of someone who had accessed the accounts of celebrities and high-earners - the so-called Premier Accounts.
Because of the pressure to meet sales targets, staff are liable to be sucked into a culture of trying to maximise profits from customers. I saw colleagues petulantly raise two fingers after they had come off the phone to a customer who refused to buy a service they had offered and they referred to them as 'tw**s' and 'idiots'.
During my three months as a sales adviser, I witnessed colleagues routinely pushing extra services onto customers - desperate to earn bonuses to supplement their starting salary of £15,000. When I got the job at the branch in Guildford, the standards of service were no better - if anything, the pressure to perform was even higher because we were part of a small group and couldn't hide behind the anonymity of a call centre.
I had applied internally for a job as a Personal Banker (sitting at a desk rather than behind a screen like a teller or cashier). Again, at the interview, the emphasis was on sales and I was asked to take part in role-play to try to sell services to customers.
During my first week, I observed another Personal Banker trying to sell home insurance to a 70-year-old man who had simply visited the branch to secure a loan to buy a new bed. He had been a long-standing Barclays customer and wanted £500 but was refused the money because pensioners are not seen as 'a good risk'.
I then watched in disbelief as my colleague tried to sell home contents insurance. The truth is that everyone who walks through the door of the bank is viewed as a 'sales' opportunity - even if they only want a new cheque book.
TELL US YOUR STORY
Have you been a victim of unscrupulous banks? Tell us about it using the reader comments box at the end of this report.
The reason: sales targets. I was introduced to these on my first day in Guildford. Each morning, before the bank opened, there was a 15-minute session, which staff referred to as their 'buzz meeting'. Each employee was given a daily target - usually of a specific number of products to sell that day. A commission is won for each sale - on a sliding sale according to the importance of the product. A good salesperson could expect to boost their salary by several hundred pounds a week.
At the 'buzz meeting', everyone was asked to itemise their sales from the previous day and log them on a board. These were greeted by applause and whoops - failure by derision and humiliation. As well as individual targets, there were team targets which, if not met, meant we were said to be letting down our colleagues. My manager told one member of staff that he was 'sickened' by his lack of sales.
On another occasion, a low achiever was told to 'get into the mindset of an Arsenal player'. The manager said: 'Do you think Thierry Henry goes: 'I'll try to score a goal today if one comes up.' Do you think that's what he says?'
If such a comment had been uttered by David Brent from TV's The Office, it might have been funny, but it was the manager of a blue-chip bank - which returned its biggest ever profits of more than £6bn this year - dealing with millions of pounds of other people's money.
Without a hint of remorse, Simon Pickergill told the call-centre trainees he was teaching that he 'loved' it when customers complained about the extortionate cost of bank charges. He said: 'They'd phone up, start crying and blaming you - telling you that their kids are going to starve. And I'd be like: 'I don't know you - I don't care.' I was just thinking: 'You're not getting it back!' I was a right git.'
Skip additional links
BBC reporter Amanda Egbujo SHOCKED: Undercover reporter Amanda Egbujo was told to lie to customers as part of the bank's sales culture
OTHER STORIES
As one of those trainees, I listened in horror as our instructor treated the customers of one of Britain's High Street banks with such contempt.
The pressure to sell encouraged us to persuade customers to buy expensive services (such as specialised bank accounts) which they didn't want. As part of a major undercover investigation for the BBC, I spent nearly four months working at Barclays' call centre in Sunderland and another month dealing with customers, face to face, at a branch in Guildford.
Like most people, I remember a time when society looked up to a bank manager. He was respected, trusted - and sometimes feared - but, above all, he was seen as an old-fashioned pillar of the community. He knew customers by name and, in turn, they assumed he was acting in their best interests. However, in today's age of telephone and internet banking, most people see their banks as faceless.
Certainly, what I discovered has changed my view of banks for ever. Although they are meant to be strictly governed by rules set by the Financial Services Authority to protect customers, breaking these guidelines was seen by some as an easy way to reach sales targets.
My investigation began when I applied for a job as a sales advisor at Doxford Park call centre in Sunderland - home to 1,800 sales advisors, handling up to 400,000 calls a week. I met very many decent people while I was there and the majority of staff were entirely honest and gave customers good service. But there were others.
An ex-employee had tipped off the BBC about a culture of lies and ruthlessness and said 'mis-selling' was part of the working culture. I applied using my real name, but created a fake job history and used bogus referees. Despite the fact that bank fraud is at unprecedented levels, Barclays made only a cursory call to one of my referees (in fact, my BBC boss pretending to work for a fake company) and did not bother to check if the bogus company I had listed actually existed, or whether I had a criminal record.
At the first job interview by phone, I was asked how I would engage someone in conversation and told to give an example of how I had persuaded someone to do something. At a follow-up face-to-face interview, I was asked how I had sold someone additional items. I obviously said the right thing and was offered a job. My six-week training course at Sunderland included listening in to other sales advisors selling over the phone, then having my own calls monitored and analysed.
I was told to lie about my job title. I was a sales adviser basically cold-calling, but the member of staff I was shadowing told me to tell them I was an 'accounts consultant' and not to mention 'sales'. With a wink he added: 'You have to lie a lot. Say it's purely a 'service call'.' To my astonishment, we were even told to 'challenge' people who had specifically told the bank that they did not want any sales calls.
Barclays Bank sign
UNDER FIRE: Barclays
The system works with the help of a computer which automatically telephones customers. Indeed, sometimes mistakes were made and customers who had ticked a 'no sales calls' box were called. We were trained to tell people that we were 'calling to review' their account, so they didn't suspect it was a sales call. And even if they did, the official attitude was very much: 'You have them on the phone, try to sell them something!'
After the training, during my first proper week on the job, I was criticised by my manager for being 'too nice'. She had been listening to my calls and was annoyed that I kept giving the customer too many chances to pull out. She told me: 'Don't give them too many chances to say 'No'.'
The emphasis was all on sales and commission. We were taught to trawl through customers' accounts looking for ways to sell them extra services. As soon as we contacted someone, we would look up their direct debits. If, for example, they paid a subscription to the AA, we tried to sell them accounts with breakdown insurance. Or, if they had a large overdraft, we would try to get them to sign up to a credit card.
Last year This is Money exposed the financial incentives for NatWest/RBS branch staff to sell certain products:
• Revealed: The bank bonus game
It was clear that customers trusted us. It felt so exploitative and it made me very uncomfortable. Later, a colleague told me she knew of someone who had accessed the accounts of celebrities and high-earners - the so-called Premier Accounts.
Because of the pressure to meet sales targets, staff are liable to be sucked into a culture of trying to maximise profits from customers. I saw colleagues petulantly raise two fingers after they had come off the phone to a customer who refused to buy a service they had offered and they referred to them as 'tw**s' and 'idiots'.
During my three months as a sales adviser, I witnessed colleagues routinely pushing extra services onto customers - desperate to earn bonuses to supplement their starting salary of £15,000. When I got the job at the branch in Guildford, the standards of service were no better - if anything, the pressure to perform was even higher because we were part of a small group and couldn't hide behind the anonymity of a call centre.
I had applied internally for a job as a Personal Banker (sitting at a desk rather than behind a screen like a teller or cashier). Again, at the interview, the emphasis was on sales and I was asked to take part in role-play to try to sell services to customers.
During my first week, I observed another Personal Banker trying to sell home insurance to a 70-year-old man who had simply visited the branch to secure a loan to buy a new bed. He had been a long-standing Barclays customer and wanted £500 but was refused the money because pensioners are not seen as 'a good risk'.
I then watched in disbelief as my colleague tried to sell home contents insurance. The truth is that everyone who walks through the door of the bank is viewed as a 'sales' opportunity - even if they only want a new cheque book.
TELL US YOUR STORY
Have you been a victim of unscrupulous banks? Tell us about it using the reader comments box at the end of this report.
The reason: sales targets. I was introduced to these on my first day in Guildford. Each morning, before the bank opened, there was a 15-minute session, which staff referred to as their 'buzz meeting'. Each employee was given a daily target - usually of a specific number of products to sell that day. A commission is won for each sale - on a sliding sale according to the importance of the product. A good salesperson could expect to boost their salary by several hundred pounds a week.
At the 'buzz meeting', everyone was asked to itemise their sales from the previous day and log them on a board. These were greeted by applause and whoops - failure by derision and humiliation. As well as individual targets, there were team targets which, if not met, meant we were said to be letting down our colleagues. My manager told one member of staff that he was 'sickened' by his lack of sales.
On another occasion, a low achiever was told to 'get into the mindset of an Arsenal player'. The manager said: 'Do you think Thierry Henry goes: 'I'll try to score a goal today if one comes up.' Do you think that's what he says?'
If such a comment had been uttered by David Brent from TV's The Office, it might have been funny, but it was the manager of a blue-chip bank - which returned its biggest ever profits of more than £6bn this year - dealing with millions of pounds of other people's money.
0
Comments
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This isnt really 'news' to a lot of people but will no doubt make a lot of headlines for a few days.0
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Well I went into Barclays Bank today to apply for an ISA. The Manager and Personal Banker I saw were smashing. Also they were very upfront with me.
Because you get crap from one branch or call centre it should not be regarded as the norm. There are good and bad staff in all organizations.0 -
Because you get crap from one branch or call centre it should not be regarded as the norm. There are good and bad staff in all organizations.
true but i bet Mr Pickisgill is still working for them.
would someone like to tell me otherwise ????? i doubt itBetter in my pocket than theirs :rotfl:0 -
I have made no secret in my profile, that I worked for a bank, but took early retirement 20 years back. MABLE is right. As in all large organisations some branches are better than others, and there were some that I would not have wished to work in, neither because of the management in situ, nor the customer base it had. However, the changes since them have resulted in an industry that is not what I was in, and some have been from the customer pov bad. Will the prgramme be balanced, as there must have been some beneficial ones too?0
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I enjoy the cashiering part of my job, chatting to customers and giving good service.
I absolutely hate my sales targets, and don't enjoy asking my regular customers if they want an upgraded account, mortgage, loan etc. But people are sat behind me listening to my dialogue and if I dont ask the questions I will get the sack. No I am not joking, a member of our team, a lovely girl went off with stress because of the targets,and is facing having a disciplinary interview . As for getting commission, you only get that if you reach your targets, we never do.
As for customers and bank charges I can honestly say that on one occassion I was moved to tears by a young mother who had paid so much in charges she was worried how she would manage for the rest of the week with no money, it isn't pleasant working for an organisation that charges a fortune for returning a DD for maybe £5.00. Nothing will change until they get rid of branch targets.0 -
I've read this article a few times now, and I must be missing something because the only shocking bits I see are some of the accusations made against Barclays with no evidence to back them up. It seems that she went in to a job as a sales advisor, then was shocked at the fact that they have sales targets! Really the BBC didn't have to waste their time and money sending a journalist undercover for how ever many months, all the "secrets" she found out are clearly laid out on the recruitment websites of all the banks.0
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One thing that mystifies me is how they managed to 'confirm' the address of the bogus account that they opened. I know that they had a fake passport but if name and address did not match on electoral roll some other confirmation would have been required or do Barclays work differently to other banks?0
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Pretty much confirmed what I thought when in training they were told that anyone 'rich' and having £5k or more on deposit to refund any charges without hesitation as they may move their account if not.
So it's ok then so when you're well off you'll be better off but when you can't afford bank charges they'll charge you as you aren't important! :mad:0 -
There was nothing really new in this 'expose'. I think you could have gone into about a dozen large organisations and made almost an identical documentary.
* Large organisations have some unscrupulous staff
* Sales staff are given targets of products to sell
* Staff are on commission to sell products
* Some staff find it difficult to copeGwlad heb iaith, gwlad heb galon0 -
I've read this article a few times now, and I must be missing something because the only shocking bits I see are some of the accusations made against Barclays with no evidence to back them up. It seems that she went in to a job as a sales advisor, then was shocked at the fact that they have sales targets! Really the BBC didn't have to waste their time and money sending a journalist undercover for how ever many months, all the "secrets" she found out are clearly laid out on the recruitment websites of all the banks.
Theres plenty of evidence to back the accusations, (video footage) if you watched the program last night you would see this all for yourself. I dont think its the targets being made for staff, and all businesses have these, its more to do with the staff not giving a crap about their customers and selling them things that they do not need just to reach targets. Many employee's were upgrading peoples accounts without them even knowing just to reach targets. This then costs the customer up to £14 a month.
There are people within Barclays opening fraudelent (sp?) accounts, this most probably happens within every banking business though its just Barclays we now know about now.
Towards the end of the program there was a small part about Barclays bank charges and one mamager admitting that they were unfair but Barclays are here to make money like any other business. It was also shown briefly that to bounce a cheque it takes about 2mins and costs roughly 91p yet Barclays charge £25, this is not new news to many of us on this site though.Total Debts - £11,205.92
Barclays - £1,667.00
Natwest - [strike]£1,603.00[/strike] [strike]£755.00[/strike] £650.00
Pounds Till Payday - £588.92
Payday Loan - £580.00
Alliance & Leicester - £600.00
Welcome Finance - £4,500.00
LA Fitness - £1,100.00
N Power - £250.00
Capital One - £350.00
BT - £215.00
Council Tax - £455.00
The Money Shop - £250
Reclaimed Bank Charges
Alliance & Leiciester - £555 - Court Action
Barclays £980.00 - 1st Letter
Natwest - £848.00 - Paid in Full, Removed from Debt0
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