Your opinion appreciated pls - just written this complaint letter to Barclays Bank

christopher_h

Hi Folks, would appreciate your opionion/feedback on this letter to Barclays tonight - cheers :mad:

Edit: I forgot to mention I went to the Barclays deal after receiving Martin's 'tips' email - I wonder if Martin would be interested in taking this further !!

Mr C Hamill,
London.
NW3

19th April 2007

Dear Barclays Complaints dept,

I am extremely angry about what happened to me today in your Hampstead Branch (London, NW3).

I decided to invest £3000. in a Barclays 'Taxbeater' Mini Cash ISA after reading about the latest offer on the internet. I carefully followed the instructions, filled out the internet form and printed it off, then armed with the correct ID, cycled up to my local branch (Hampstead-London).

I had my driving license (both sections) and a recent letter/bill from British GAS, plus my cheque for £3000. of course.

At the bank, the female branch assistant greeted me pleasantly enough and began typing into her computer keyboard while looking at the screen. Suddenly she looked at my documents slightly puzzled and said (in a foreign accent), "I'm sorry but we cannot process your claim". I thought to myself, "oh dear, what have I done wrong" ? She said "the British GAS letter is addressed to Chris Hamill but your Driving licence has the name Christopher Hamill"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing - it's not as if the surname was different. "Both documents have the same address" I said "and besides, everyone knows Chris is short for Christopher" I thought I must be on a TV reality show and they are filming it ?

I politely pointed out that my cheque contained the printed name "C Hamill". and then got out some of the credit/debit cards from my wallet showing the name Mr C Hamill. I said “MR C, Chris or Christopher is the same person”. But at this point she adamant and seemed rather pleased with herself.

It's not as if I was withdrawing money ? How absurd and ridiculous ? Efficient to the point of inefficient surely !!

I was exasperated to say the least and told her firmly that I would report the incident. She said her name was (name removed to protect identity- suggested by mse poster 'catseyez')

As I walked out I thought surely I can make someone else see sense here and asked to speak with the manager. “She’s not in today” I was told and a chap called (name removed again) came over looking slightly nonchalant, tired, and clearly looking forward to the banks closing time in 20 mins.

I then went through all the story again and towards the end of it, I noticed the first female assistant go round a corner behind a wall and start mouthing/whispering/signing things to him. Needless to say - he offered me no solution and agreed with her that my documents were inadequate. I told him too that it was "ridiculous" but he really didn't seem to care one way or the other.

I had taken the trouble to do my bit for the environment and cycle up the steep hill from Belsize Park and I was actually having a pleasant day when this incident completely spoiled it for me.

I could of course simply put the whole thing down to an unpleasant experience with Barclays and invest my money in many other places. In turn you can also get thousands of other customers - but isn't there a principle here ?

Lots of people have their names shortened; Stephen becomes Steve, Anthony is Tony, David is Dave and so on...

I was/am a potential, first time customer coming into your bank to invest my hard earned money, and these two members of staff need seriously reprimanding or better still moving to another post until they learn the skills to deal with customers properly.

I honestly feel I should be compensated for the stress and time wasting. This letter alone has taken my 45 mins to write.

I hope to get some satisfactory conclusion to this quickly and that your online complaints form is not a whitewash to merely satisfy the banking ombudsman rules.

If not, I intend to share this sorry affair whenever and wherever I possibly can including writing to the following local newspapers, 'London Evening Standard', 'Hampstead & Highgate Express', 'New Camden Journal' and national newspapers like 'The Times', etc. I will also share it on internet forums such as https://www.moneysavingexpert.com - which has hundreds of thousands of website traffic every week.

Yours in anticipation.


Mr Chris Hamill

johnmoney05

christopher_h wrote: »

Suddenly she looked at my documents slightly puzzled and said (in a foreign accent), "I'm sorry but we cannot process your claim". I thought to myself, "oh dear, what have I done wrong" ? She said "the British GAS letter is addressed to Chris Hamill but your Driving licence has the name Christopher Hamill"

Do you have any bank statement?

Sillychuckie

christopher_h wrote: »

Yours in anticipation.
Mr Chris Hamill

Could an admin look into this please?
This person is posting and signing off with his name 'Chris', but his forum username clearly suggests he is called 'Christopher'.
Probably a hacked account, so can't let this abuse continue.

Thx,
Mr Silly Chuckie

Stupid indeed... Perhaps if you had a mega-common sirname they could ask for further ID, but you don't... Well done for complaining.

SusiMac_2

Yes indeed I think you were ridiculously dealt with. Good luck with getting a positive response from the barclays bankers. Personally I'd go mutual where-ever posssible with ISAs, but that could just be me being old-fashioned

reehsetin

it happens a lot and does my head in, we have to turn customers away for this too (my manager 'you can call yourself what you want but legally your name is only one thing'
spent 2 hrs arguing with Customer Services once because they said the customer had the wrong name on his account even though he'd never had a problem before, only for them to tell me at the end the difference was exactly the problem you had, chris and christopher, so infuriating

christopher_h

johnmoney05 wrote: »

Do you have any bank statement?

yeah I have bank statements johnmoney but their website asked for a recent utility bill and either passport or driving licence which is what I took :wall:

johnmoney05

christopher_h wrote: »

yeah I have bank statements johnmoney but their website asked for a recent utility bill and either passport or driving licence which is what I took :wall:

Then you need to write another complaint letter then! I don't have ANY utility bill. But I have bank accounts, creidt cards, share dealing account. Anyway, Barclays is just not my Bank.

Just check from their website, maybe it will help.

To confirm who you are, we need one of the following:

* Full UK passport.
* Full foreign passport.
* Passport in old name (must have supporting document regarding change of name, eg marriage certificate, Decree Nisi with birth certificate or Deed Poll document).
* UK driving licence: Paper version - full licence only. Photocard version - full and provisional.
* Blue Disabled driver's pass (must be current).
* European Union member state identity card.
* Firearms licence (must be current).
* Police warrant card.
* UK Armed Forces ID card.

To confirm where you live, we need one of the following:

* UK driving licence with current address: Paper version - full licence only. Photocard version - full and provisional. (Cannot be used if it has already been used for ID).
* European Union member state identity card (if not used as ID).
* UK bank statement - no older than three months (Internet statements are not acceptable).
* UK credit card statement - no older than three months (Internet statements are not acceptable).
* UK mortgage statement - no older than 12 months (Internet statements are not acceptable).
* Foreign bank statement.
* Gas, water, electric, cable TV or landline phone bill (less than three months old). Mobile phone bills are not acceptable.
* Local authority council tax bill (current financial year).
* Council rent book (must be current).
* Household or motor insurance certificate (no older than 12 months).

Catseyez

Sorry if this response doesn't seem as constructive as others but two things spring to mind:

1) Remove "foreign accent". It has no relevance at all to your complaint.

2) It might be a good idea to edit your post and remove the names of the staff. This is a public intenet forum and they haven't given their permission to have their names posted here. You could be on dodgy ground.

A couple of very obvious spelling & grammar errors include:

"could of" should be "could have"
it's "driving licence" not "license" (Edit: Ignore as I see you have now corrected this)

christopher_h

Catseyez wrote: »

Sorry if this response doesn't seem as constructive as others but two things spring to mind:

1) Remove "foreign accent". It has no relevance at all to your complaint.

2) It might be a good idea to edit your post and remove the names of the staff. This is a public intenet forum and they haven't given their permission to have their names posted here. You could be on dodgy ground.

A couple of very obvious spelling & grammar errors include:

"could of" should be "could have"
it's "driving licence" not "license" (Edit: Ignore as I see you have now corrected this)

Fair comment catseyez - will remove their names and check grammar

I had wondered if my "foreign accent" comment would provoke a politically correct reaction ? I bet there are loads of us who feel the same though - I'm not racist/predjudice in any way but in a situation like this - it's difficult to ignore someone's foreign accent when they're also incompetent. There's a great song that deals with this subject brilliantly in the new West End musical 'Avenue Q' - which is called 'Everyone's a little bit racist' - I think the strong audience reaction of approval said it all really.

In my case "in a foreign accent" was used more to help paint the true picture of the scene - but I can see how it could be construed. Anyway I've sent the email now so lets see what happens.

christopher_h

Sillychuckie wrote: »

Could an admin look into this please?
This person is posting and signing off with his name 'Chris', but his forum username clearly suggests he is called 'Christopher'.
Probably a hacked account, so can't let this abuse continue.

lol :rotfl:

christopher_h

spoke to complaints dept in Leeds this morning who were very efficient, polite and actually sounded concerned - they assured me that they deal with all complaints seriously and a 'customer relations manager' will get back to me asap - hopefully within 5 days or less.

I've written to the branch manager today with a copy of my complaint letter and copies of my documents that I took in.

Next installment soon !!