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Halifax: Everything that can go wrong will go wrong
reehsetin
Posts: 4,916 Forumite
Am I the only one who's found dealing with Halifax incredibly painful?
I travel abroad every few months so I got a Halifax Clarity Card July.
In September both my Husband and I were going on holiday so I rang at the start of the month and requested an additional card.
F up 1 - Additional card did not arrive, called and reported it (day before my holiday), told it was re-ordered and his card would arrive by the time we get back
F up 2 - Arrive at my holiday destination and my card won't work, call Halifax who tell me they cancelled my card instead of my husbands, they promise to send me a replacement to home
F up 3 - Halifax promise to get me emergency cash via Mastercard within 1 hour, 6 hours later and after hours on the phone I get the reference no for my emergency cash
F up 4 - get home and I have a replacement card but still nothing for my husband, Halifax admit no order was put in for my husbands card but call tomorrow to speak to the right team. Call the next day and order my husbands card again.
F up 5 - Another card for me, not my husband, arrives, this is my 3rd card now and still nothing for my husband
I submit an official complaint and finally I get a card for my husband an some compensation for the hassle.
F up 6 - I try and set up online banking, finish registering and it tells me I have no accounts which may be managed online (even though it says with the Clarity card that you can) Call Halifax and they say that MY card has been recorded as the additional card which is why it won't work, they put a request through to resolve this
F up 7 - Finally manage the see my card online, I see a bill for September and October but the November statement says account inactive, I can't see any recent transactions either even though there's a balance (previous bills paid in full), call Halifax and it looks like the November statement is referring to one of the many replacement cards I received not my actual card...another fix 3-5 day fix has been submitted, let's see what happens
At this point I am fed up!
I have stuck with First direct for the last 5 years, purely because the CS was so good, this is my first non FD product and I'm regretting every single minute of it. I have barely used the card for transactions yet I've spent more time on the phone to Halifax in the last few months than with FD in the last 5 years.
I cannot fault the CS in terms of trying to be helpful on the phone but someone somewhere has messed up at each and every interaction.
Do I persevere? Are Halifax really this rubbish or have I just been unlucky?
I travel abroad every few months so I got a Halifax Clarity Card July.
In September both my Husband and I were going on holiday so I rang at the start of the month and requested an additional card.
F up 1 - Additional card did not arrive, called and reported it (day before my holiday), told it was re-ordered and his card would arrive by the time we get back
F up 2 - Arrive at my holiday destination and my card won't work, call Halifax who tell me they cancelled my card instead of my husbands, they promise to send me a replacement to home
F up 3 - Halifax promise to get me emergency cash via Mastercard within 1 hour, 6 hours later and after hours on the phone I get the reference no for my emergency cash
F up 4 - get home and I have a replacement card but still nothing for my husband, Halifax admit no order was put in for my husbands card but call tomorrow to speak to the right team. Call the next day and order my husbands card again.
F up 5 - Another card for me, not my husband, arrives, this is my 3rd card now and still nothing for my husband
I submit an official complaint and finally I get a card for my husband an some compensation for the hassle.
F up 6 - I try and set up online banking, finish registering and it tells me I have no accounts which may be managed online (even though it says with the Clarity card that you can) Call Halifax and they say that MY card has been recorded as the additional card which is why it won't work, they put a request through to resolve this
F up 7 - Finally manage the see my card online, I see a bill for September and October but the November statement says account inactive, I can't see any recent transactions either even though there's a balance (previous bills paid in full), call Halifax and it looks like the November statement is referring to one of the many replacement cards I received not my actual card...another fix 3-5 day fix has been submitted, let's see what happens
At this point I am fed up!
I have stuck with First direct for the last 5 years, purely because the CS was so good, this is my first non FD product and I'm regretting every single minute of it. I have barely used the card for transactions yet I've spent more time on the phone to Halifax in the last few months than with FD in the last 5 years.
I cannot fault the CS in terms of trying to be helpful on the phone but someone somewhere has messed up at each and every interaction.
Do I persevere? Are Halifax really this rubbish or have I just been unlucky?
Yes Your Dukeiness 
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Comments
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Never had any problems with Halifax touch wood. In a month's time they will have given me £160 just for banking with them.
They only minor pain was when we wanted to make my acc into a joint one with my wife which entailed going into branch with ID.0 -
reehsetin seems to have got caught in a particularly bad spell of incompetence. I reckon she should complain to the Executive complaints team at Halifax because they will be able to put an end to it, and also compensate her for the unnecessary troubles. This doesn't mean the Executive team will immediately cooperate - you have to be quite firm with them, but you can be, in the knowledge that they have a lot more powers than the normal complaints team.
As bad as this experience does sound, I don't think it is specific to Halifax. You can meet gross incompetence in any organisation.0 -
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Never had a problem with Halifax. They've been really good to me. I just think you've had some bad luck. As innovate above says, it probably happens in all organizations. A few people are just unlucky enough to get caught with it.
I think you should definitely complain and see what happens. You can always decide what to do based on the outcome.0 -
Thank you all for the suggestions and thoughts, I'm glad to hear that Halifax has at least SOME happy customers
I don't know if I want to make another complaint, they're already 'fixing' this issue and my last official complaint didn't stop any further screw ups. I just want a card that I can use abroad with a provider who doesn't require me to spend hours on the phone to resolve simple issues
Yes Your Dukeiness0 -
By escalating things you ensure that high level pressure is put on those resolving things to do it properly.Thank you all for the suggestions and thoughts, I'm glad to hear that Halifax has at least SOME happy customers
I don't know if I want to make another complaint, they're already 'fixing' this issue and my last official complaint didn't stop any further screw ups. I just want a card that I can use abroad with a provider who doesn't require me to spend hours on the phone to resolve simple issues
The two "executive complaints" I got dragged in to during my tenure with the firm scared the bazookers out of me and I made absolutely sure my backside was well and truly covered by ensuring nothing else would go wrong with my branch affecting the particular customers involved.
Ensuring somebody senior has an overview of all strands of your complaint significantly enhances to prospects of them fixing the problem completely. And increasing any ex-gratia payment.0 -
Halifax? Bank of Scotland? HBOS?
Whatever they call themselves - the staff don't even seem to know who my accounts are with...
Awful service but not quite as bad as Santander.
Either way I personally would never use them again. Never ever do what they say they will. Simple issues go on for years...0 -
Just an update in case anyone comes across this.
F up 7 mentioned in my first post, which apparently required a 3-5 day fix... is still not fixed - just 7 stock emails, including one to tell me the issue was fixed (it wasn't). I give up and I'll be cancelling my card :doh:Yes Your Dukeiness0
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