Banks' wording after ignoring instructions

northerner77

I'm sure fellow MSErs have on occasions had the experience of their bank(s) fail to act on a simple written or telephonic instruction like carrying out a funds transfer, application for new product or even the setting up of a SO etc.

I was just curious as to the way they acknowledge the failure to act upon your instructions. I'm not talking here about when big boobies are made like the wrong card being sent out or a TD set up for the incorrect amount etc.

Mine have varied from 'your request for bla bla bla was overlooked' to 'unfortunately your forms seem to have been shredded as confidential waste' - it just has always struck me as unacceptable that they can work in a bank yet be so nonchalant/sloppy in attitude, even when they know something as important as a customer's instruction has been ignored. Maybe it's just me.

So what excuses have you heard for a bank's failure to act?

Thick Northerner

InsideInsurance

The last one I got simply acknowledged that they hadnt followed my instructions nor had they informed me that they hadn't for which they apoligise but that internal rules means they couldnt have followed my request anyway so complaint rejected

coldhandoff

northerner77 wrote: »

I'm sure fellow MSErs have on occasions had the experience of their bank(s) fail to act on a simple written or telephonic instruction like carrying out a funds transfer, application for new product or even the setting up of a SO etc.

I was just curious as to the way they acknowledge the failure to act upon your instructions. I'm not talking here about when big boobies are made like the wrong card being sent out or a TD set up for the incorrect amount etc.

Mine have varied from 'your request for bla bla bla was overlooked' to 'unfortunately your forms seem to have been shredded as confidential waste' - it just has always struck me as unacceptable that they can work in a bank yet be so nonchalant/sloppy in attitude, even when they know something as important as a customer's instruction has been ignored. Maybe it's just me.

So what excuses have you heard for a bank's failure to act? Cheers.

Thick Northerner

What do you expect them to say though? "They fell down the back of the cashier desk" or "They were lost in the post sending them to India" etc.

innovate

northerner77 wrote: »

I'm sure fellow MSErs have on occasions had the experience of their bank(s) fail to act on a simple written or telephonic instruction like carrying out a funds transfer, application for new product or even the setting up of a SO etc.

I do 99% of my funds transfers myself only - - way faster & cheaper than calling someone to ask for a transfer. Only times I might ask the bank is when it is a very large amount - - but with many FP limits now being £100K, help from a bank employee is needed less and less.

Application for new products - - never had anything go wrong. Either they accept the application or they don't.

Setting up SO - can't remember I ever asked a bank in the last 15 years to set up an SO for me. See above on funds transfers, v similar.

In other words, I am sorry, I fail to see what the problem is?

molerat

Wrote to Tesco to close 3 of the 4 accounts we held giving clear sort code and account numbers of the 3 and no mention of the 4th. They closed 2 + the unmentioned one. Wrote complaining, clearly pointing out what they had done wrong, and got a letter saying sorry for not closing the requested account and they have now closed it. No mention or apology for closing the wrong account !!

northerner77

coldhandoff wrote: »

What do you expect them to say though? "They fell down the back of the cashier desk" or "They were lost in the post sending them to India" etc.

Fair enough but I guess I haven't come to terms with the fact that these kind of routine sloppy co ck-ups CAN actually happen with a bank.

Must be just me.

northerner77

innovate wrote: »

In other words, I am sorry, I fail to see what the problem is?

The problem is THEIR attitude when it's clear they have failed to act upon instructions through carelessness. I won't bore you with the countless examples. Sounds like you've never been on the wrong end of this. Good for you.

northerner77

molerat wrote: »

Wrote to Tesco to close 3 of the 4 accounts we held giving clear sort code and account numbers of the 3 and no mention of the 4th. They closed 2 + the unmentioned one. Wrote complaining, clearly pointing out what they had done wrong, and got a letter saying sorry for not closing the requested account and they have now closed it. No mention or apology for closing the wrong account !!

That's unacceptable.

Let me give you another one. Last month there was a serious delay in one of my banks setting up a TD, (for some unknown reason they had started processing me as a brand new customer!) meaning I just missed out on a goodish rate. After several phone calls & emails they offered to give me some compensation - and then completely forgot to carry out their promise to deposit the amount in my curr acc.

After emailing them about this two weeks later they wrote to 'apologise that the payment has not been made into your account your account as yet. I have chased this today and they have confirmed that this was unfortunately overlooked however they will arrange for this to be paid to your account in the next day or two. Please let me know if have still not received this within the next week.'

They don't even bother checking sentence structure.

Okay, maybe it's just me.

pmduk

This thread would be better on the vent forum.

Agricolae

northerner77 wrote: »

Fair enough but I guess I haven't come to terms with the fact that these kind of routine sloppy co ck-ups CAN actually happen with a bank.

Must be just me.

I worked in the complaints department of a bank and I saw things which made me quite angry on a weekly (if not daily) basis.

The main causes of problems like the ones which seem to make you so mad are:
1. Genuine oversight on the part of competent staff.
2. Staff who are not competent or poorly trained, and make frequent mistakes.
3. Staff who simply do not care enough to do things properly the first time.
4. A culture which favours passing responsibility for spotting, correcting and admitting errors on to someone else. The result is that nothing is done until the customer complains, and even then sometimes they'll need to call several times before they can get through to a department willing to help.
5. Things getting lost in the internal business post (this was a favourite excuse of other departments when I contacted them to investigate mistakes - as there was no way for me to verify this).
6. Overseas staff having working conditions which favour swift processing of requests rather than accuracy.


You'll probably like this one which I heard about:

1. A customer holds two accounts with the bank: a business account in the name of his business and a personal account in his own name. He does not use the business account and is looking to close it.

2. He contacts the bank to close the business account, and they point out that he will need to pay off 60 odd pounds of overdraft before the account can be closed.

3. Customer writes out a cheque for the exact amount to be paid off and sends it in with written confirmation of the instruction to close the account. The instruction contains the business account number and sort code and the cheque is made out in the name of the business account.

4. The instruction arrives at the bank's local sorting centre where someone in the mailroom scans the documents into a commercial scanner which automatically uploads them to a queue of thousands of unrelated requests.

5. A person whose job it is to assign documents in the queue to the correct work area for the particular type of request, correctly sees that it is a request to close an account. Unfortunately he "tags" the request with the sort code and account number of the customer's personal account. The request is sent to the account closures department for processing.

6. Over the next week eight people handle the request in some way. They notice things like "the amount on the cheque does not correspond with the amount outstanding on the account", however not a single one of them realises that the wrong account is being closed (this is the part I found inconceivable).

7. At the weekend the customer walks into his branch to withdraw cash from his personal account. His debit card is swallowed by the ATM so he asks the staff what's going on. He is told his card has been destroyed and the account is being closed. He finds out that all his direct debits and standing orders have been cancelled.

Luckily this one got sorted out but it's probably the worst case of incompetence/complete lack of initiative I ever saw.

northerner77

Agricolae wrote: »

I worked in the complaints department of a bank and I saw things which made me quite angry on a weekly (if not daily) basis.

The main causes of problems like the ones which seem to make you so mad are:
1. Genuine oversight on the part of competent staff.
2. Staff who are not competent or poorly trained, and make frequent mistakes.
3. Staff who simply do not care enough to do things properly the first time.
4. A culture which favours passing responsibility for spotting, correcting and admitting errors on to someone else. The result is that nothing is done until the customer complains, and even then sometimes they'll need to call several times before they can get through to a department willing to help.
5. Things getting lost in the internal business post (this was a favourite excuse of other departments when I contacted them to investigate mistakes - as there was no way for me to verify this).
6. Overseas staff having working conditions which favour swift processing of requests rather than accuracy.

Thanks a lot, that was enlightening if painful to read through.

Are banks more likely to offer some financial compensation after slip-ups have occurred if the customer asks for it or is it irrelevant? Recently I surprisingly got 25 quid compensation after my emails to a bank got ignored and I wasn't even making a specific complaint. On other occasions I've expressed my dissatisfaction only for merely some excuses or indifference to come my way from bank staff.