Santander are changing their terms

innovate

JuicyJesus wrote: »

They do. They are also consistently bottom of virtually every customer satisfaction survey going, and have treated countless people (myself included) exceptionally poorly.

None of these surveys ever 'normalises' the responses to the number of customers. They are therefore pretty meaningless in their current form.

pmduk wrote: »

As usual the satander fanclub come out to defend the indefensible.

If you knew me, you'd know that I don't shower praise on people who haven't deserved it, and I also don't suffer fools gladly. I also do have an acute sense of fairness. The vast majority of the folks on here that complain about Santander do so either by hear-say, or are self-declared victims of "rip-offs" that aren't any.

I have current and savings accounts with literally all the highstreet names, and more savings accounts with some lesser known building societies. In my experience, they all have their good and their bad points - absolutely none of them, not even the much-loved First Direct, are flawless. After all, it's people who work there, and people do make mistakes.

pmduk

My problems with Santander relate to their inability to train customer service staff to undertake basic customer service. I don't expect any branch staff in a UK bank to understand the back office process. They're only sales staff nowadays. But, I do expect the management to have efficient processes in place to correct errors and provide the necessary support and knowledge when necessary. Too many people have reported similar problems for it to be coincidence with them.


Like you I try to be fair and I have defended santander on many occasions when the accusations are unfair. But I believe that Santander's management processes are fundamentally skewed towards sales than delivery.

Of all my friends with Santander accounts only one still has an account, all of the others have moved following problems. That isn't scientific evidence, it may just point to a local problem.

Even these latest changes to t&cs appear to be a way of circumventing the UK regulations.

innovate

pmduk wrote: »

Even these latest changes to t&cs appear to be a way of circumventing the UK regulations.

There is no way they'd keep their FSA licence if they circumvented UK regulations. I doubt very much that the FSA would need MSE Forum users to monitor the compliance of a bank with UK regulations, but if anyone feels strongly, they should be informing the Santander UK Head Office that they will be reporting them to the FSA for breach of licence.

As to whether Santander staff is trained or not: there is no doubt they have their good and their not so good people in the Branches. Just as is the case in Lloyds, Halifax, Nationwide, RBS, Natwest. In my local area, I try to avoid Lloyds Branches like the plague because they generally try to leap into a nauseating and unwanted sales spiel at every conceivable and not so conceivable opportunity. That doesn't stop me from having accounts there, and I wouldn't rate Lloyds the worst because of that. At present, NatWest folks like to send you from pillar to post when you have a query about e-savings interest rates. None of the ones I spoke to seem to even understand the question. I still have accounts with them, and I don't rate NatWest badly because of the e-savings rate shambles. The Santander folks have in the main always been helpful and knowledgable, but I wouldn't rate Santander the best because of that.

In fact, I wouldn't rate any of them 'best' or 'worst', - to me, they are all much of a muchness. To get the best out of the banks, I believe you need to be firmly on top of your own finances to start with, and then exploit whatever the best offers are at a given time, at whatever bank offers them.

le_loup

innovate wrote: »

To get the best out of the banks, I believe you need to be firmly on top of your own finances to start with, and then exploit whatever the best offers are at a given time, at whatever bank offers them.

Excellent advice.



Except for Santander!

pmduk

innovate wrote: »

To get the best out of the banks, I believe you need to be firmly on top of your own finances to start with, and then exploit whatever the best offers are at a given time,

That we can agree on.

innovate wrote: »

at whatever bank offers them.

Having had bad experiences, perhaps we can agree that sometimes it is best to avoid a bank you don't trust? It's certainly a position I intend to maintain, I accept you have a different opinion, certainly as to which banks to trust..

dalesrider

I think what makes a major diffrence is when a mistake is made. It is how its handled.
I will openly admit to a customer when we have made a mistake and take personal responsibilty to get it resolved if its within my remit. If not it will be passed to someone who can.

Mystyfied

As an A/L customer when taken over by Santander, they have deplorable customer service in my local branch, let alone as a company, the first problem was trying to set up a new DD for it be returned saying " no such account " on contacting Santander was told my account number and sort code had been changed, I think they should have told me first? I have numerous other complaints but will put my money where my mouth is and have opened a new account elsewhere and will close the Santander ASAP.

JuicyJesus

pmduk wrote: »

Of all my friends with Santander accounts only one still has an account, all of the others have moved following problems. That isn't scientific evidence, it may just point to a local problem.

I know people who only bank with Santander because their constant c*ck-ups provide an excellent second income stream in the form of compensation. My own experience with them ended with them paying me compensation without even running a single transaction through the account, largely because of the rude attitudes of their staff members. I also have spoken to ex-Santander employees who do not have a single kind word to say about the company's attitudes to its customers.

I also, in the interests of fairness, know people who have never had any issues with them. But then they admit themselves that they have little to no communication with Santander. Any company gives good service if you never have to talk to them. I like my main bank because whenever I do have cause to contact them, they deal with my enquiry quickly and professionally.

I will defend Santander when I think they're in the right (that lunatic who was posting up their staff members' names because he'd gone overdrawn and he blamed them springs to mind) but largely they seem to adopt policies which are customer unfriendly in the extreme. And the attitudes of some of their staff are appalling.

I think what makes a major diffrence is when a mistake is made. It is how its handled.
I will openly admit to a customer when we have made a mistake and take personal responsibilty to get it resolved if its within my remit. If not it will be passed to someone who can.

This is the correct attitude for any customer service rep to take in my view, and is the one I try to take in my work. If we or I have messed up, admit it and fix it. Don't waste time defending the indefensible - as Santander did to me.

pmduk

dalesrider wrote: »

I think what makes a major diffrence is when a mistake is made. It is how its handled.
I will openly admit to a customer when we have made a mistake and take personal responsibilty to get it resolved if its within my remit. If not it will be passed to someone who can.

That's exactly how it should be, but in my, and other's, experience with Santander it's always up to someone else to sort the problem. eg branch staff will refer you to the call centre who will refer you back to the branch. Each will solemnly assure you that the other are the only ones to solve the issue. This is only after you have persuaded them it's their fault and not your own.

cfw1994

I'm always surprised how poorly rated Santander are. We've had them (Abbey) as our main account for decades - no major issues and any minor ones have been sorted pronto (don't recall being pushed from pillar to post - perhaps our issues were minor!)

They let us open accounts (interest paying) for the kids (from 14 years old) with a cash card - makes sense (to me) to educate our children into money management (since they learn zip about that at school!).....

But equally, having had an abysmal experience with A&L once over a credit card issue, I can understand one bad experience would ruin your perspective.