I Hate Santander

norbury10

Just had to email the CEO office with this. I hate Santander, I have lost count of the number of times they have messed up with anything that isn't a basic enquiry.

Dear Sir

I am emailing you on the back of yet more appalling customer service and banking knowledge from Santander.

My husband and I have banked with you for a number of years. Each time we contact Santander for anything which isnt straight forward, Santander messes up royally.

The latest debacle started a couple of weeks ago.

We moved house in November last year, and as is common with all house moves there is a period where you will not have internet access. To overcome this my husband went to Currys to buy a pay as you go wifi dongle, to give us internet access for approximately 3 weeks until Sky got us reconnected.

A couple of weeks ago my husband noticed that a number of direct debits had been taken from one of our accounts which my husband uses solely for buying petrol and personal expenses. The direct debit was from EE who was the supplier of the pay as you go wifi dongle my husband had bought. We cancelled the direct debit immediately and telephoned Santander to request a direct debit indemnity, under the direct debit indemnity guarantee scheme.

I worked for a High St bank for a number of years, so I am fully aware of our rights regarding this scheme. We did not authorise EE to take a monthly payment from our account by direct debit, as far as we were concerned we just wanted some temporary internet access which is why my husband asked for a pay as you go. The monthly payment suggests we had entered into a contract, which isnt what we bought or asked for.

The wording of the direct debit indemnity are as follows;-

The Direct Debit Guarantee protects customers from payments taken in error. In the case of any incorrect or fraudulent payments, the payer is entitled to a full and immediate refund from their bank. The Direct Debit Guarantee (or the “Direct Debit Indemnity”) is the Direct Debit scheme's customer protection.

EE have quite plainly taken these payments in error from our account, therefore we should be refunded immediately as per the guarantee with all the payments they took.

However Santander seem to think that their customers should not be covered by this scheme. We contacted Santander last week to find out why we hadnt yet been refunded,only to be told that the request had been refused. The reason we were given is that we must have known the direct debit was being set up as EE claimed a £2 payment from our account on the day to verify the validity of the direct debit. The logic of this reasoning totally escapes me.

If we were knowingly setting up a direct debit, we would have set it up on the account we have with yourselves which is expressly for the purposes of paying direct debits, not from the account where my husband buys petrol and other personal expenses. In addition why would we purchases a monthly contract wifi dongle when we only needed it for 3 weeks until SKY connected us?

On the back of this lack of customer service I took to Twitter, which prompted a young man called Patrick to contact me. All he could do was repeat verbatim what we had previously been told, that the indemnity was declined because we must have known we were setting up a direct debit, in effect calling us liars. The only evidence of which your bank has, is the fact that EE took a £2 payment from our account to verify our account for direct debit, which to me and any other sane and reasonable person isnt evidence at all.

On reflection I think either one of two things have happened, my husband was missold at Currys (ie lead to believe he was buying what he asked for) or that EE have made an error.

All we want is for Santander to do the right thing and refund us as per the Direct Debit Guarantee, instead you seem to be more interested in insinuating that we have knowingly entered into a direct debit with EE, which is simply not the case.

This quote is taken directly from the direct debit website:

Responsibility for re-paying any money taken in error* however, rests with your bank under the terms of the Direct Debit Guarantee.

If you cant resolve this correctly, then I will be escalating this to the FOS.

I look forward to your response.

Regards

Has anyone else had similar bad experiences with Santander?

firefox1956

Far too long winded.............
Hope the CEO of Santander could be bothered to read it.
I could not................

k3lvc

This shows everything wrong with todays consumers

1) Have you contacted EE - how do you know what your Husband agreed/bought ?
2) You used to work in a bank so know everything :rotfl:
3) You expect CEO to jump on your issue and resolve it

Get a sense of perspective, check what your Husband actually bought and then vote with your feet

wizzywig27

lol, I emailed him too, to be fair he forwarded it on the same day and I got a holding email. Needless to say they were as much use as the previous people I'd spoken too. Think my query was beyond her capabilities and she failed to acknowledge 90% of my complaint.

I've now gone to FOS

Dobbibill

Whilst this must be frustrating they may well have done you a favour.

Contact EE and find out what the contract payments are for - if you/husband have entered into a contract you need to resolve that with EE ASAP.

If Santander had done the indemnity and EE not been paid, they would report to the CRAs non payment, possibly escalating to a default. Data is then held for 6 yrs on your credit report.

I think your complaint may be better directed to either EE/Currys/husband, wherever the error was made.

phillw

Dobbibill wrote: »

I think your complaint may be better directed to either EE/Currys/husband, wherever the error was made.

I'm not sure the husband would dare admit he made a mistake. One can only imagine what nefarious scheme EE used to get the secret fuel account details.

A simple check would be to look on the Currys receipt. If you paid £29.99 or less then it's a contract dongle (it's currently on special offer at £9.99), if it's £49.99 or more then it's pay as you go.

Vortigern

Quoting norbury10's post in another thread...

norbury10 wrote: »

Santander suck.... They can't cope with any enquiries that aren't basic. I have lost count of the hours I have wasted on the phone trying to resolve more complicated issues. I hate them, unfortunately we are stuck with them because my husband works for them

You'd better hope the CEO doesn't make the connection between your complaint and your husband.

Ballard

I couldn't be bothered to read the whole thing but the fact that a direct debit was paid means that EE set one up and claimed it. If no contract was signed then the dispute is with EE rather than the bank.

A direct debit is not your bank making a payment it's the originator (e.g. EE) taking the funds on the back of a direct debit.

Edit: I'm not entirely correct. If no contract was signed then Santander are able to cancel the direct debit but if they do and it turns out that a contract was signed (whether knowingly or not) then further charges are possible. You need to ascertain with EE whether a contract was indeed signed (it almost certainly was).

EssexExile

norbury10 wrote: »

Has anyone else had similar bad experiences with Santander?

No, they've been fine. Better than most in fact.

alewin

I was going to open a Santander account soon but seeing as your husband works there I've changed my mind.

Let us know when he leaves so it's safe to bank there again.

Motormad

The OP's husband works in a bank,bought a wifi dongle in November and has just noticed the disputed DD's coming from his account 10 months later as I understand it.