First Direct - anyone else had bad customer service?

InsideInsurance

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Sounds like a branch based account would be best.

She hates going in branch too, she predominately uses ATMs and occasionally internet banking. The reality is her requirements are light, take cash out every few days, check current balance easily. I deal with all other aspects, bill payments etc

giblet10

I've been with FD for three months - here's a highlight of my experiences:

- they are polite on the phone, seem to know what they are talking about as well

- not much is automated - I applied for a credit card online after a prompting email from them - it doesn't give you an instant decision and even when they confirmed the agreement by email, I had to sign and send back the forms before getting the card

- there's a form for everything - I applied to transfer my ISA into them on 6 April online - it took them two weeks to get the forms to me and although I've since had an acknowledgement from M&S that my ISA is moving out, I haven't heard anything from FD - and the money still isn't in my account

- online banking isn't as easy as with my previous bank, IF. Everything is displayed on a small pop up box

- you can use the deposit machines in HSBC which has so far proved to be quick to credit to my account

Overall then, my experience has been ok. But not as fantastic as their aura would make out.

deeboy1

I joined and left them again within a couple of months as I didn't like them either.

First, I didn't qualify for the joining incentive because I apparently had had an account with them several years before. Perfectly understandable. But I didn't remember this because I had never actually used it, which they confirmed was quite clear to them too when I probed and then asked them to reconsider. It certainly seemed, to me, a little inflexible.

More significantly, I was unable to use internet banking for most of the two month period I was with them. I can't recall the exact sequence of events, but it turned out that I was already registered from that old account (and that's how I discovered its existence after about a month, and I'm not sure why it wasn't identified before). Somehow it then all turned out to be ridiculously impossible to resolve. Over several more weeks, a number of different people gave me conflicting advice, none of which worked, and I got nowhere until I had decided to leave anyway. (Of course I hadn't been daft enough to close the account I was switching from so it wasn't a matter of life and death, but it really made me question their internet banking capabilities).

Finally, I tended to find their admirably northern-UK-based call centre staff just a little too overfamiliar and smug for my liking. Just a personal preference, but horses for courses and all that.

I'm sure someone will now kindly explain how stupid I am for not remembering I had an account in the past that I'd never used, but there you go.

And I know FD seem to provoke a religious frenzy of support among the bulk of their customers.

But they weren't for me. It would be nice to have had the regular saver at 8% as it was then, but I'm enjoying the benefits of my Santander 123 now anyways and, weirdly enough, I've found the service there excellent!

deeboy :cool: