Advice needed ASAP!

bluetopboy

Hi all,

A slightly long one so apologies. I will be succinct, where possible.

On Saturday, my brother went into our local branch (will leave bank's name out of it for now, but it's no mickey mouse) and handed his driver's licence over. He lost his bank card and needed to cancel it, order a new one and withdraw funds. He has the same first initial, surname and address as me. The cashier, without bothering to check the name or DOB, or confirm any other details with him, cancelled my card and withdrew the cash out of my account and gave it to him.

That's problem 1. Since rectified with a paltry apology, assurance of "feedback" and £100 compensation. I was "happy" and accepted it.

Now, problem number 2.

Yesterday, angry at their incompetence, I called to find out how I can close a joint savings account. I was told I have not been on the account since 2012. I requested to be removed in writing in 2012, heard nothing back, it appeared on my online banking and my mobile app without disruption, and I have discussed it every time I called, so assumed I was still on it. Eventually I was glad my request to be removed was not received/actioned as I changed my mind anyway. Now I'm told that request was received and actioned but the accounts were not "de-linked" from my customer number so I had unrestricted access to an account solely in the wife's name. In the last 3 years I have made £000's (literally) worth of deposits and withdrawals from that account, seen balances etc etc. A HUGE DPA BREACH, SYSTEMIC ERROR (THE FCA'S LEAST FAVOURITE KIND) AND HUGE NEGLIGENCE ON THE BANK'S PART.

Today I logged a formal complaint regarding the above - having been transferred 6 times and waited 2 hours (no exaggeration) to speak to the right person. He offered to reimburse call costs and resolve the complaint by apologising and having the accounts de-linked. He even had the cheek to say "It's lucky it's your wife so the money was safe." Now, I am not an ambulance-chaser but I am not accepting that.

Anyone have any ideas on how I can get a "reasonable" resolution out of this? Money? If so, an amount? Should I escalate it? Any help would be great.

Herbalus

The general responses on these forums aren't particularly kind towards people who haven't suffered any financial loss but are still trying to get money out of a bank. So sorry, but don't hold your breath too long!

I don't personally know what amount, but I do recall a bank employee mentioning that the serious levels of compensation are only given out when the customer had actually had financial loss, and as you haven't, a bank won't go above token compensation.

Plus, as you actually continued using the account, and benefitted from it. An error occurred and is now fixed, and you haven't lost out. As such I'm not sure that wanting £100s in compensation is the right thing to do.

Archi_Bald

bluetopboy, if/when you write to the bank, make sure your caps lock key isn't stuck.

bluetopboy

It's quite sad that you felt the need to write a comment, go away and think of something "smarter" and then come back and edit your comment.

bluetopboy

Although I appreciate what you are saying, Herbalus, don't you feel it is that lax attitude, and the desire to not appear like a swindler, on the customer's part, that has let the banks get away with doing whatever they want for so long with impunity?

I genuinely am very understanding and fully understand that humans make errors. When I was offered the £100 to "resolve" my complaint, I was genuinely disappointed. I didn't even expect/want an amount because it was human error and people make mistakes. I only reported it to them because I suspected fraud on the account, reported it to them and then had to close the case and explain why I was randomly closing it. Nobody at the bank made any attempt to explain how the error occurred and what their "normal" practice would be. The young lady just said, "We're sorry. We can offer £100 by way of compensation for the inconvenience. Are you happy with that resolution?" Their only concern is "resolving" the complaint so it doesn't become reportable. They don't care about what they are doing wrong as long as it gets squashed. This, however, is known as a systemic issue. It means their systems are not fit for purpose. How can I/we trust a bank with our funds when their systems/processes are not fit to protect our details/deposits? Imagine the wife and I had divorced, then what? If it's happened to me then it must have happened to others. Chances are their situation doesn't tidy up as well as mine has.

They get fined by the regulator, an amount they just brush off, but the consumer never benefits. I just think every now and again we should get a piece of the pie. If the people on this forum want to look down their nose at me for that, that is their prerogative.

mgdavid

getting back to the start of your story, with the same name and initial and address as your brother did you never foresee a problem occurrring at some point? If it were me I would have given myself middle names / initials or made some other slight change to deliberately differentiate myself, and thus head off any issues or cockups before they happen.

bluetopboy

Even though your suggestion is ridiculous, I will tell you we have different first names, different middle names and initials and different DOB's.

That is a very futile attempt at shifting blame on your part.

We shouldn't have to go out of our way to safeguard our details in order to compensate for a bank employee's inability to read from a licence in her hand and the details on her screen.

A genuinely ridiculous argument.

veryintrigued

Archi_Bald wrote: »

bluetopboy, if/when you write to the bank, make sure your caps lock key isn't stuck.

You really do come across as terribly unhelpful at times.

meer53

bluetopboy wrote: »

Although I appreciate what you are saying, Herbalus, don't you feel it is that lax attitude, and the desire to not appear like a swindler, on the customer's part, that has let the banks get away with doing whatever they want for so long with impunity?

I genuinely am very understanding and fully understand that humans make errors. When I was offered the £100 to "resolve" my complaint, I was genuinely disappointed. I didn't even expect/want an amount because it was human error and people make mistakes. I only reported it to them because I suspected fraud on the account, reported it to them and then had to close the case and explain why I was randomly closing it. Nobody at the bank made any attempt to explain how the error occurred and what their "normal" practice would be. The young lady just said, "We're sorry. We can offer £100 by way of compensation for the inconvenience. Are you happy with that resolution?" Their only concern is "resolving" the complaint so it doesn't become reportable. They don't care about what they are doing wrong as long as it gets squashed. This, however, is known as a systemic issue. It means their systems are not fit for purpose. How can I/we trust a bank with our funds when their systems/processes are not fit to protect our details/deposits? Imagine the wife and I had divorced, then what? If it's happened to me then it must have happened to others. Chances are their situation doesn't tidy up as well as mine has.

They get fined by the regulator, an amount they just brush off, but the consumer never benefits. I just think every now and again we should get a piece of the pie. If the people on this forum want to look down their nose at me for that, that is their prerogative.

Sounds more like human error to me than systems error.

I think £100 is more than adequate for what happened. People are looking down their noses at you because of they way you post. Mistakes are made, even by the big bad banks, they apologised, it's been rectified, you've been offered compensation, what else are you looking for ?

You just sound as though you're looking for more, thats why people are commenting the way they are.

bluetopboy

Evidently you didn't read the whole thread.

The 1st problem was human error. Rectified.

The 2nd problem is the bigger, systemic error. As yet unresolved.

meer53

bluetopboy wrote: »

Evidently you didn't read the whole thread.

The 1st problem was human error. Rectified.

The 2nd problem is the bigger, systemic error. As yet unresolved.

Problem 2 is not a system error, someone forgot to press the button. It was human error, systems don't do stuff on their own, it takes human input. I link accounts in my job, i have to action this on a system, the system doesn't work telepathically.

So what else are you wanting ?