Barclays Bank, Bletchley - Appalling treatment

sagalout1954

...................seems fair to delete my scathing, epic sized post, sent a link to it to Barclays Customer Relations (along with yet another telephone call advising of its existence) & had the desired effect.

CLOSURE:

Fantastic Customer Relations guy (Derek) called, promptly took 'ownership' of my complaint/s - which had escalated considerably. Dealt with each issue:

1) Agreed to stop writing to my deceased relative.
2) Arranged permission from elderly Executor for everything to be dealt with via me.
3) Arranged refund of missing un-cashed banker's draft (which had been raised against my relative's bank a/c while she was still alive) back to her estate.
4) Upheld my complaint against vile treatment dished out by local branch manager when I went there to ask for help with this matter.
5) Offered 'gesture of goodwill' of £40 and acknowledged poor service from Barclays. (Happy with that, this wasn't about "how much can I squeeze out in 'compansation'.)

All done..........NOT!!!

Poor guy had worked so hard, tripped at the final hurdle by the Bletchley branch manager. She raised a cheque to repay the estate - but chose to knock £20 off in charges for the privilege. In addition, the figures and words on it didn't match, so it couldn't be cashed anyway.

OMG could they get anything else wrong - in the end I gave them 10 days to get it right or I just dump it in lap of Ombudsman.

Received refund of full amount back to the estate. Goodwill gesture increased over 7 times to £300. My poor Customer Relations guy was so apologetic, but it wasn't his fault, all-in-all he did a great job.

What a shame it couldn't all have been dealt with amicably 6 months ago. Ended up with me being forced to make it about 'compensation' or Ombudsman.

The END (I hope)

Thanks for advice all.

Azari

I think you should write the above as a letter, removing anything emotional, and send it to the MD of Barclay's bank.

I suspect that the manager responded as she did because she realises that her branch has cocked up monumentally and is very worried about the consequences and has then adopted entirely the wrong approach to dealing with the matter.

pmduk

Barclays retail service is either really good or abysmal. There is very little inbetween. As you weren't opening an account my experience would be that the staff wouldn't be interested.

Pollycat

Azari wrote: »

I think you should write the above as a letter, removing anything emotional, and send it to the MD of Barclay's bank.

I agree with this.

Make it as concise, to-the-point and unemotional as you can.

I find it hard to believe that it is Barclays policy to

write to the original account holder, even when they’re dead

sagalout1954

Good suggestion Azari, at the moment I can't stomach any contact with Barclays. This particular fiasco and indeed the whole attitude and things said by this manager may well turn out to be the attitude of the whole organisation. Don't think I can deal with more of the same.

I appreciate that there are 2 sides to every story & you've only heard mine.

Pollycat - That is precisely what she said, I'm still totally astounded by that remark. I said "but you won't get a response from a dead person, why on earth would you write to one". She said Barclays were obliged to write to the account holder. She was sorry it was upsetting and could understand why, but that's just what they do, even when the account holder is dead!

zaksmum

Definitely complain at the highest level. I had to do this once with Barclays and received a grovelling apology and a massive bunch of flowers, with the promise that the staff member concerned would be retrained.

LannieDuck

I don't complain very often, but I would complain about that staff member. But take all the emotive language out - i think you have enough to substantiate a complaint without having to justify each of your actions.

ukjoel

Had a similar issue with Barclays.

A letter to the Financial ombudsman got me a very quick response from Barclays.

You need to physically write to them which puts a lot of people off but the response time was shockingly quick.

Pollycat

sagalout1954 wrote: »

I think perhaps I’ll just do as the deceased did and let the matter drop. Barclays Bank win, their Bletchley bank manager has knocked the stuffing out of me and I dare not relate the experience and her comments to the elderly ‘H’. Thank God ‘H’ was not with me.

I haven't the heart to deal with anything this bank manager has to say in the future, the safest bet is to return unopened any correspondence from her 'investigations' and refuse any phone calls she may make. In all likelihood either would just contain more callous disregard for my feelings anyway, can't deal with it.

SORRY FOR WAFFLING EVERYONE, thought I’d feel better when I’d ‘vented’, I haven’t. :sad:

I know you say you can't stomach any more contact with Barclays but you really don't have to have any contact with them.

Leave it for another couple of days and then just sit down and write to them.

This really does need taking further and maybe after you've written the letter you will feel better.

maninthestreet

OP - do you actually have an account with Barclays?
As for Barclays writing to a deceased person - maybe this is done as a fraud prevention measure - if the 'deceased' contacts the bank after receving the letter, there is something fishy going on....

Azari

maninthestreet wrote: »

As for Barclays writing to a deceased person - maybe this is done as a fraud prevention measure - if the 'deceased' contacts the bank after receving the letter, there is something fishy going on....

No, it isn't that.

Banks require specific documentation to show that a person is deceased.

They don't base it on anything so flaky as whether or not they respond to a letter. :rotfl: