Nationwide have carelessly sent my new card and pin to an old address

MissTasmanian

I signed up for the Flex Plus account with my partner and after several weeks of waiting for my card to arrive (my partner’s card arrived within a week) I called Nationwide to find out what the delay was.

They told they’d sent the card to an address I haven’t lived at for two years (an address I lived in as a student) the person on the phone couldn’t tell me why they’d sent it to that address as I’d updated my address twice since then and my online settings clearly show my current address.

After an hour and a half of reconfirming security details and being passed to and from I’ve no answers as to why it happened and was told to simply call up claim my card is lost so they’ll send out a new one.

This isn’t very satisfactory to me as it feels like they’re passing on the buck to me but I did so.
Now several weeks later I called again as my card has still not turned up. They were just as clueless this time and told me that sometimes accounts can be registered to different address but didn’t explain much beyond that.

It’s odd as I’ve only two accounts and this is a new one which is registered solely to this address. They then insisted my partner talk to them and update his address as it was wrong I tried to explain that it couldn’t be as he never lived in my old address that they sent the cards to and his address is the same as my current one.

They wasted half of an hour of his time going through security and then admitted there was nothing wrong with his address.

This time they promised I’d get the card but I am still very angry about this whole incident. They’ve yet to explain exactly why they’ve been sending my card, pin etc. to an old, unsafe address and why this has been such a difficult issue to resolve. I am wondering if I need to cancel the card again..? Someone might have the 2nd card and pin they sent out.

Do you think it’s worth my time putting in a complaint?

jennyjj

MissTasmanian wrote: »

This time they promised I’d get the card but I am still very angry about this whole incident. They’ve yet to explain exactly why they’ve been sending my card, pin etc. to an old, unsafe address and why this has been such a difficult issue to resolve. I am wondering if I need to cancel the card again..? Someone might have the 2nd card and pin they sent out.

Do you think it’s worth my time putting in a complaint?

You are right to be angry and concerned. I absolutely think you should complain, most clearly and most solidly. In writing and with copies kept and registered post.

xylophone

Complain in writing and immediately. Then, if you are still dissatisfied

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

You might argue that you already have the right to approach the FOS if this has been going on for more than eight weeks....

Norscbu

I'd also ask if they have sent any other correspondence to your old address since it has been changed.

stclair

Is it because it's a joint account you have to both change the details separately?

Just a thought.

MissTasmanian

They keep changing there answer but from what I can gather:

1. They've twice sent my new card and pin and potentially other documents to an old address I changed two years ago and nobody at Nationwide can explain why.

2. I haves since lived in three other properties since then, and oddly they claim that I never updated my address to the second property despite having received statements and correspondence to that address.

3. On creating the joint Flex Plus we both already had our current property on Nationwide and made the application with this address.

4. Every answer they give me is different and contradictory and it's concerning they still don't know what's wrong and want to attempt sending the cards for the third time!

Norscbu

Could you not have them sent to your nearest branch to ensure they reach you? Although probably not convenient.

MissTasmanian

Norscbu wrote: »

Could you not have them sent to your nearest branch to ensure they reach you? Although probably not convenient.

Excellent idea! I am kicking myself for not thinking of that. Although I'l put in a complaint so they finally fix the address issues (hopefully) it makes me very anxious to think that my card and pin and god knows what else documents have been laying around a student property.

johnac

If the reason is a random bug/glitch in the software they use the first line call centre folk will not know the reason and will ultimately try their best to answer but won't really know, hence the different explanations.

I work for a business where this sort of stuff happens and it takes a software engineer to work it out, which is assuming the issue is prevalent enough to get prioritised enough to get to the developers, and an issue affecting one customer, callous as it sounds, will be at the bottom of the list if there is something else effecting hundreds of customers, especially if there is limited resources to fix stuff and/or there is avenue for the call centre staff to raise issues easily.

It's rubbish but first line staff just trying to help might not be able to help assuming your issue is not the normal sort of solvable issue.

It's a pain but as others say, start formal route of complaint, you'll likely get issue dealt with by people with more internal sway to fix issue and potentially by staff who've seen issue before, know how to fix and might be looking for more examples of effected customers to aid investigations in fixing it for others.

Shakin_Steve

This happened to me with Barclays. I moved in May and changed my address online. All appeared to be fine. When I ordered a new chequebook in august, they sent it to my old address.

GET THIS.....when I rang up to ask why, telling them I'd changed my address in May, they said "Oh...so you want to change your correspondence address too?"

What!? Oh yeah, your correspondence address can be different to the address where you live.
But surely I would tell you that?
Not necessarily.

Sigh.......can you send me a chequebook to my new address and make that my correspondence address too...please.
Certainly sir....you only had to ask.:rotfl:

Shakin_Steve

But, to confirm what Johnac said, they had to put me through to another dept to do it. Call centre bod couldn't.