Slooow Britannia

JayTee99_2

Scattered some of my NR cash into other online accounts. Opened B&B, Sainsburys and others, all up and running within a few days.
But there is one which is still giving me grief. I already had a postal account with Britannia so thought i would open a 'Direct Saver', even though it may not be the tops for interest rates.

Each time i've phoned them concerning the postal, nothing seemed easy, and always took at least a couple of attempts. Oh well, i thought, maybe a one-off, perhaps they'll show more interest if i open a 'Direct Saver' with opening cheque of 20k.

Not a chance! over 2 weeks and the cheque is still uncashed and despite repeated phone calls and promises, nothing has yet happened.
Not even an email.

Phoned again today and given more excuses and promises for next week.
Just thought people might be interested.
They're not top of my list for customer services atm

melbury

Perhaps the hold up has been caused by the postal strikes!! Just a thought.

JayTee99_2

Thanks for the suggestion, but no, it's nothing to do with the strike. They had the application before any strikes.
Customer Services are quite open about it and admit they've received the application and cheque but imply there will be a 'delay'

i asked why they hadn't sent an email to acknowledge receipt, but again got no real answer.

Reading between the lines from the phone calls i've made chasing this up, i'm guessing that the recent flurry of ISA activity as mentioned on here, has taken up all their available resources.
They appear to have put everything else on the back burner.

TBH i gave them a second chance after the poor service on the postal account, but as far as i'm concerned, they've failed again.
As soon as the account is opened i shall most likely run it down to the min level and move elsewhere.

I've read on here about other people's experiences with Abbey, it appears to me that Britannia is in a similar category.

JayTee99_2

Just a final update to give this some sort of conclusion.

I finally received my welcome pack this morning, almost a month on from when i applied.
After my phone call moans i am being credited with the lost interest, although no apology or further explanation.

No acknowledgement of application, cheque not cashed for weeks, what was i supposed to think?
Perhaps this is normal practice for them.
Anyway, all's well that ends well.

Never received any email from them.
Perhaps they only use that for marketing their products

What a difference between Britannia and, for instance, YBS who emailed me an invite to join their member panel.

bristolleedsfan

JayTee99 wrote: »

Just a final update to give this some sort of conclusion.

I finally received my welcome pack this morning, almost a month on from when i applied.
After my phone call moans i am being credited with the lost interest, although no apology or further explanation.

No acknowledgement of application, cheque not cashed for weeks, what was i supposed to think?
Perhaps this is normal practice for them.
Anyway, all's well that ends well.

Never received any email from them.
Perhaps they only use that for marketing their products

What a difference between Britannia and, for instance, YBS who emailed me an invite to join their member panel.

in my experience brittanias customer service has been exceptional including during the opening of my direct saver account, just a shame brittanias savings rates are generally very poor.

JayTee99_2

That's very interesting, because it begs the question, 'Have i been singled out for poor service?',
or, of course, are you the exception?

i certainly stand by everything i've said.
Never, ever, received any email from them.

Setting up new accounts with YBS, Sainsbury and B&B was quick and easy, with full communication.
Since, as you say, Britannia's Direct Saver rates are generally lower than the above, then i would have expected their service to be at least as good.
But not so in my case.

bristolleedsfan

JayTee99 wrote: »

That's very interesting, because it begs the question, 'Have i been singled out for poor service?',
or, of course, are you the exception?

Since, as you say, Britannia's Direct Saver rates are generally lower than the above, then i would have expected their service to be at least as good.
But not so in my case.

perhaps the postal disruption played a part in your stated poor service, not just delaying your posting, producing a general backlog which resulted in mega email/through the site chase ups.

all i can say is ive had two experiences of brittanias excellent online customer service.

firstly after enquiring at a branch re no statements or communications for some time i discovered that i had been blocked from mailing outs due to a communication from brittannia having being returned not at this address.

i still received nothing at all by post so i communicated through website, i also moaned about its poor regular savings account rates both isa and non isa. ( non isa reg saver was launched as a flagship account in the past)

communications from brittannia were received within an hour, they started their complaints procedure going which i halted as all i really wanted was statements to recommence with copies sent of statements that hadnt previously been sent to me. copies of these statements were sent by post to me instantly.

when i opened my direct saver i had a feeling that the cheque i posted was only made payable to "brit BS" and hadnt had my name added, i emailed brittannia who replied instantly suggested i sent another, they would put note on file to say that a second cheque was being sent. on receipt of second cheque brittannia contacted me immediately ( morning of receipt) to confirm second cheque was tied up with my application and that first cheque would be returned with confirmation of account opening details.

personally id rather brittania paid better savings rates as only reason i got involved in its direct account was so i could close my longstanding reg saver account and leave 100.00 as a stake in Brittania BS. :cool:

JayTee99_2

Hi there, Thanks again for the response.

No, i can most definitely confirm that the postal strike played no part. They had the application before the strike.
Yes, that long ago!

and my phone calls to them confirmed they had received the cheque and application, but said there would be a delay, but didn't say why, and didn't cash the cheque for over 3 (three) weeks!

Obviously, i wasn't too happy with the proceedings so made a couple of phone calls and informed them i had, at the same time as their application, just set up accounts with YBS, Sainsbury et al, and these were all up and running, so why couldn't they even acknowledge my application?
Clearly the person i was speaking to had no real answer to this, except to say, hopefully it will get looked at next week.

Interesting, your comment about no statements. I had something similar happen to my postal account. I had no statements, rang them up for one, 2 weeks later, still nothing, rang them up again, promised to send one, still nothing, further phone call and then finally it arrives, followed over the coming weeks by another two!!
So they do seem to get themselves in a bit of a mess.

In this age of instant communications it costs almost nothing to send an email. Time taken is minimal.
They held my uncashed cheque and application for over 3 weeks with no acknowledgement or email.
All they had to was to send a quick email saying 'Thanks for the application received, we will be dealing with it shortly etc....'
But no, nothing! When i asked them why not, they don't have any answer.

It is interesting to read your story, it hardly seems possible we're talking about the same company, doesn't it?
i suppose all companies have good and bad employees, maybe i was just unlucky...
My experience with Britannia wasn't great, but i thought it would improve when i opened this new account, but that didn't happen.

In all honesty, i can say for sure that Northern Rock just leave these people in the shade, apart from recent events, of course.

bristolleedsfan wrote:

so i could close my longstanding reg saver account and leave 100.00 as a stake in Brittania BS.

Yeah, one of the reasons why i opened an account with Britannia way back in the early nineties

Primrose

I'm surprised to hear about your poor service from Britannia. Have saved with them for many years, even through the major part of our savings have now been moved to higher interest paying accounts. However, we've always had excellent service from them and without exception, any withdrawals have been made by return of post and correspondence dealt with very quickly. It may be that like other institutions they've been deluged with an influx of Northern Rock money that has temporarily stretched their resources.

baby_boomer

Primrose wrote: »

Have saved with [Britannia] for many years

Please accept our commiserations.

I'm glad you finally saw the light and moved most of your money. I also agree you that it's worth maintaining the membership, though, to take advantage of double bonus points should they reproduce a "once in a blue moon" offer like that 7.5% Regular Saver, which is due to mature shortly.

IMHO they have focussed for about a decade on new mortgage customers at the expense of the majority of their members.