Halifax Bank - Telephone Manner Appalling

Yorkshire_Pud

Nationwide Flexclusive Regular Saver has a passbook and can be branch based but pays a measly 5% so of no interest to OPs mum.

No I have only had very friendly service and treatment from Halifax over many years both in branch and since telephone banking was invented. Reap what you sow?

Paragraphs?

xylophone

Your mother may wish to consider EPA.

https://www.gov.uk/enduring-power-attorney-duties/overview

Is your mother able to use an ATM card?

Do your parents have the best bank account(s) for their needs?

If not, it might be time to discuss the matter with them.

dollydiva

Their awful telephone manner only got worse when I complained - a 'manager' called me back and it was evident that she just wanted to give me £75 and get me off the phone.
£75 is not to be sniffed at - but if she had apologised (and she NEVER did!) I would have stayed. In the end, given the rotten service I'd had and then the even worse Service from the person who called to deal with my complaint, I knew the time was to leave.

PeacefulWaters

I think we can all identify occasions where the manner and efficiency of an individual employee lets their employer down.

I find Halifax's service to be average, adequate, does the job. It's certainly aimed at the masses and rarely personalised. If the product on offer is good enough I'll accept service that is much of a muchness.

Their complaint statistics from the FOS suggest that they're actually pretty good to deal with. At least their customers aren't particularly likely to complain when compared against other banks and building societies.

For me it's pretty simple.
- If an individual employee lets you down then escalate the matter to a manager. Most firms can and will resolve things quickly.
- If the price of a product isn't good enough there's little point whining about it - ask if there are better priced alternatives and if there aren't just go elsewhere as Goldiegirl rightly suggests.

While somebody forgetting to return a call to a busy branch or contact centre isn't good form, it is human. A work day can have lots of distractions.

giblet10

I've always found Halifax ok - they do get things wrong every now and again but rather pleasingly they are always happy to buy my silence with ex-gratia payments..drop 'FOS' into the debate and you will hear them writing the cheque to you..

Dobbibill

I've always found Halifax pleasant enough and helpful whenever I have called them.

Why are you waiting for them to ring you back to make an appointment? Is there any reason you didn't just book the appointment there and then? CS can book appointments for you.

GingerFurball_2

EssexExile wrote: »

I just generally find Halifax annoying. They used to email me when a credit card statement was ready. Once they didn't & I missed a payment, when I phoned they said the email had been bounced back, so they knew I hadn't received it but didn't bother to get in touch. I suggested perhaps they should put that into their procedures but the reply was that they couldn't as it involved two departments!
Also I get fed up with the incessant snail mail suggesting I transfer my balances on my other cards to the Halifax card.

If you were getting emails about credit card statements this suggests you had online banking.

HUMBUG

Hi All
My query is still outstanding with Halifax and my mother (who cannot walk well due to heart problems and is deaf) has had no access to her money for 2 weeks (I won't bore you with the details but it concerns 'Third Party Access ' rules ). Needless to say , the problem was resolved for 24 hours and has now been repeated resulting in my mother not having access to her savings again. Basically , Halifax branch and 'Executive Complaints' people all have varying ideas on the rules and access rights for 'Third Party Access' that are also at odds with their Fraud Dept . The result is utter chaos meaning that online access accounts are barred and payments blocked when the 'Third Party Nominee ' tries to manage the account on behalf of the owner. Apparently it is okay for me to withdraw cash and raise cheques , etc but it is not okay for me to make payments on my mother's behalf via the online access facility. All this is contrary to what was said in the branch meeting with one of their reps (I brought my sickly mother and provided all the passport and id info ) when we signed the 'Third Party Access' forms . It was agreed that I could make a specific payment from the online account at a specfic time the next day which would then be authorised by their fraud team .
So I did as advised and guess what ? Payment blocked and Online access barred again . This is even after I raised an official complaint to Lloyds CEO by email about the incorrect advice I have been given by their customer service people (who I contacted before I opened the online account to ask if it was okay to do so - and they said Yes).
So in my humble experience an absolutely disgraceful shoddy customer experience from a tainted brand.
PS. Trying to convince my parents to dump Halifax is proving difficult but I will keep pushing.

GingerFurball_2

3rd party access is branch only.

HUMBUG

GingerFurball wrote: »

3rd party access is branch only.

The third party access mandate form says that signing the form allows:
1.Withdraw Cash
2.Sign/Give/Accept or endorse cheques and payment instructions or orders including standing orders and direct debits.
3.Transfer money between accounts
4.Request Account Information

The form is vague because it doesn't state anything about not allowing online payment requests and doesn't specify that payments must be made via branch . Basically , you cannot conduct any payment transactions for an online account via any branch . So if the online account is barred , I cannot even transfer money back to my mother's passbook account (therefore cannot access cash either ). Its complete and utter madness. The other option is paying a solicitor hundreds of pounds to draw up some power of attorney just so that I can make payments online to pay bills etc on behalf of my mother . There is always the option of closing this account and banking elsewhere if I can convince my parents.

From their website for registering Third Party Access (see last sentence below).

Where possible, we’ll process your case while you’re in branch with the support of our specialist team. If we’re unable to do this, our specialist team will contact you to confirm when the registration is complete.

The representative of the customer can register to use Telephone Banking at the branch interview, provided there are no restrictions. Once registered, the account can be managed through Telephone Banking on [URL="tel:03453%2000%2000%2041"]03453 00 00 41[/URL]. Registration for Online Banking can also be arranged once this is complete.