First ditect poor service

Rhinorm

Mine took 2 weeks from acceptance to receive T & C's and specimen signature(s) docs, probably another 2 weeks before debit card

GingerFurball_2

Chaykin wrote: »

Does anyone know how long does it take for the account opening letters to arrive? I successfully applied on-line for 1st Account on 13th of Jan. I was given a ref. number and it said details will arrive in the post but still haven't received anything.

If my experience is anything to go by, never.

Applied for account in November, was told my application had been successful, was asked to phone to provide more information (I hadn't provided 3 years address history because there isn't space on the online form), sent back signature mandate and have heard nothing since.

badger09

Chaykin wrote: »

But when? Anyway - I phoned them and they said they will post the documents again as I should've received the original ones by now.

Lucky you , you'll probably receive 2 lots now;)

That means approximately 200 trees will die unnecessarily, instead of only 100:(

Chaykin

badger09 wrote: »

Lucky you , you'll probably receive 2 lots now;)

That means approximately 200 trees will die unnecessarily, instead of only 100:(

Nothing received as of today.

Haljordan2814

I moved to them last year and they were great, admittedly I only moved for the switch bonus and will move again but I can't fault the level of service. Any time I've rang it has been dealt with quickly and I've found their customer service to be faultless. The Co-Operative Bank however ..... don't even get me started, AVOID!

takethemon

Been with First Direct for over 20 years and I cant fault their services, although when my wife tried to open a regular saver account the process took over half an hour on the phone, when we gave up.
I have read elsewhere that their processes are extremely lengthy.
Prompt friendly and efficient staff answering the phones, but savings interest rates, as in line with their competitors, are atrocious.

notafan

Another vote for terrible.

I don't know how they top the poll on anything, the only thing different about them and HSBC were the UK call centre where you get straight through without having to press a ton of numbers. But who rings a bank now anyway? The only time i needed to speak to them was when something went wrong. Everything took forever to get done. One of the worst online banking systems and the app is rubbish. It might have been innovative when it launched but it isn't at all now.

JuicyJesus

They're competent but I'm not overall a fan. I never really saw much of the "amazing service" in evidence, they screwed things up multiple times, and they seemed to overall think they were too good for their customer base.

If pushed I guess I'd bank with them again, but I have no reason to do so - I've had better service over my first month with Nationwide than I did over a year with FD. I also had as many problems with TSB as I did with FD.

Jlawson118

It's a shame really, I joined them three years ago and thought they were fantastic, but then last Summer I started seeing reviews on their Facebook page about how they were becoming poor at dealing with mortgages, but I'm not at that stage of my life just yet so it wasn't something that concerned me as such.

A few months later I contacted them to change a few account details and it was handled so fast and efficiently I still thought they were brilliant at what they do.

Although I applied to work there, passed the initial application and interview stages until they started training us to pass the phone simulation, where they were teaching us so early on to mis-sell things to customers that they didn't necessarily need. One of the practice scenarios was a lady phoning up to transfer some money from her savings to her current account to pay for her wedding cake. The agent on the phone had to then sweet talk her into talking about how he understands how expensive weddings get, to convince her to take out a loan.

When phoning up, I haven't noticed these myself. And August last year when I phoned up asking for a short term loan, the lady did tell me I'd be better off with an overdraft, and I'm glad she did. But it is a little bit unnerving to find out they're training people up to sell products to customers that they didn't initially ask for. And that they're so openly doing so for people who haven't 100% passed the interview stages yet. I was glad I failed the phone simulation.

I phoned up last week to close down my Cash ISA and was placed on hold so many times when there was no need for it. I've closed accounts down before now in a lot less time with no being on hold or anything.

System

They have a veneer of UK call centres but everything complicated is overseas based - probably the same people from their high street sibling.

Their internet banking was very basic (as in poor functionality not good simple) and the staff seemed to be bordering on condescending (they seemed to believe their own hype).