It's not the staff's fault!!

bankworker01

I have been reading the rants about Abbey with great interest.

I used to work for Abbey until the Banco Santander takeover and was one of the many people who were either outsourced, forced to re-apply for the jobs we had been doing for many years or made redundant. I cannot remember the exact figures but it was in the thousands and many more than originally quoted by Santander.

All bank's computer systems rely on major experience from IT professionals and the front line staff in turn rely on these people and their abiility to provide the service.

Please remember it is Santander that are now delivering the service but they no longer use the same standards that were used by Abbey. The people on the front line are trying to do their jobs to the best of their abiility but without the back end support. This is as frustrating and tiresome for them as it is for you.

I suggest if you want to make a complaint that you do the following -

Send a letter addressed to the Chairman's Office, asking why the service has degraded so much since the takeover and what is being done about it to ensure that the integrity of all customer's information is not compromised.

johnmoney05

Well, if I made an appointment with Abbey at 3pm, then I arrived at 2:40pm. They didn't see me untill 3:15pm after I made a complaint. BUT in fact, there was only one customer (me) waiting there.

Okay, you told me this is not the staff's fault. I believe it!

jonesMUFCforever

The person who was due to see you could have been on the telephone either with a customer or with another department of the bank!

johnmoney05

ejones999 wrote: »

The person who was due to see you could have been on the telephone either with a customer or with another department of the bank!

Could have been?

I could have been a millionaire. Wake up.

jonesMUFCforever

With an attitude like that you and the Abbey are well suited!

KTF

ejones999 wrote: »

The person who was due to see you could have been on the telephone either with a customer or with another department of the bank!

Given the long wait to get through to the Abbey call centre that I have experienced recently I dont doubt this at all

Spark

The people on the front line are trying to do their jobs to the best of their ability but without the back end support. This is as frustrating and tiresome for them as it is for you.

If there were cuts in their salaries and benefits, as it is always when someone else take over, more the fact that their job would be made more difficult, some member of staff would do their job in a dishearted way and stop caring about doing it properly. Furthermore, it means as well that there are more work to be done by each member of staff as the numbers of employees would have been slashed. That is the reality of any takeover.
Then again, if the staff sees that they can't do the job properly, they could take it further up within the organisation and try to do something about it, but for that all member of staff should stick together, and most of the time they don't.
Bankworker01 is right by saying that we should write to the people at the top, but maybe he could give us the address if he knows it.

regularsaver1

If people come to see me for an appointment early I will not see them until the right time if I have some paperwork or something else that must be done. If not I am happy to see them, but the apt time was 3pm. Dp you expect to be seen at 2.40 then?

I don't work for Abbey, but still have had people expect to be seen when they arrive early, or alternatively, when they arrive late

johnmoney05

ejones999 wrote: »

With an attitude like that you and the Abbey are well suited!

What kind of good attitude are you?

I have to remind you that I am the customer, not Abbey.

Sagaris

I know it's not the staff's fault that the Abbey service has gone t!ts up since the takeover by Santander - the call centre service is as abysmal as it's always been, but now the attitude of the front line staff in the branches is also beginning to suffer if my experince is anything to go by - I can't blame them in a way, if they are being treated like crap, why should they be bothered about what happens to the customers?

Unfortunately Abbey will suffer in the long run, I'm sure many posters on the Abbey threads on this forum will vote with their feet as I and my family have, and find other bank accounts that suit us better, and give us a decent level of customer care too.

That is the only thing these institutions understand, losing customers and money, I don't think Santander give a toss about customer service (or lack of it!), just the pounds, shillings and pence on the balance sheets at the end of the financial year. I bet Abbey doesn't look such a good proposition now as it did when Santander took them over!

johnmoney05

regularsaver1 wrote: »

If people come to see me for an appointment early I will not see them until the right time if I have some paperwork or something else that must be done. If not I am happy to see them, but the apt time was 3pm. Dp you expect to be seen at 2.40 then?

I don't work for Abbey, but still have had people expect to be seen when they arrive early, or alternatively, when they arrive late

Look, I DIDN'T ask to see Abbey at 2.40pm. I arrived Abbey at 2.40pm. My appointment was at 3pm, I expected somebody to meet me at 3pm. If not, why we need to make an appointment. I waited untill 3:15pm to ask if anybody free to deal with my appointment. As I said, I told the reception I already arrived at 2.40pm.

Well, if you tell me, you are not going to see me if I come early. And you are not going to see me on time. I can tell you, forget it.