Coventry Building Society - BEWARE

richardmk

It is important to remember that you can only ever have the ONE Coventry First account. If you close it and intend to reopen to get another year of the premium rate the new opening will be prohibited because of the T&C.

The society is really too small to be able to invest customer service economies of scale. When you look at it's charging structure and the terms and conditions it is clearly apparent that it is micro managed.

The branch network and branding is as chaotic.. it is stuck with 3 different schema.

The local branches hands are very much tied by their HQ - so you will find it hard to speak to anyone with the authority to make a decision when things go wrong.

masonic

richardmk wrote: »

The branch network and branding is as chaotic.. it is stuck with 3 different schema.

The local branches hands are very much tied by their HQ - so you will find it hard to speak to anyone with the authority to make a decision when things go wrong.

I was under the impression this wasn't a branch-based account anyway.

flossy_splodge

I'm sorry to say that I too have had a really BAD experience with the Coventry. Live very close to their head office so have always tended to be quite pro them, indeed have some ISA money with them altho not market grabbing interest rates. Any way, tried to get them to open their current account for my elderly father (who, by the way, was with me at the time) and the service was worse than appalling. They were rude, patronising, inefficient and totally inept.
I left the branch and phoned from a nearby cafe and asked to speak to the manager. To cut a long story short, he invited us to go back up the road to the branch where he assured me all would be well.... yep, you guessed it, it was a total fiasco. Won't bore you with the details but it ended with the promise that they would call me back after checking some point of protocol and procedure and here we are about 6 weeks later and NO PHONE CALL. Can't be bothered to try again but it is a real irritation as my father could have walked to this branch so it would have been great. Shame on you Coventry Building Society.:mad:

olly300

richardmk wrote: »

It is important to remember that you can only ever have the ONE Coventry First account. If you close it and intend to reopen to get another year of the premium rate the new opening will be prohibited because of the T&C.

That's a fair T&C. Why would any business want a customer that kept opening and closing accounts?

The society is really too small to be able to invest customer service economies of scale. When you look at it's charging structure and the terms and conditions it is clearly apparent that it is micro managed.

The account is online only. Banks like online accounts because they don't have to do very much and generally the people who use them are more savvy.

The branch network and branding is as chaotic.. it is stuck with 3 different schema.

Most building societies seem to have a messy branch network. Mainly due to taking over other building societies and closing down branches due to use.

The local branches hands are very much tied by their HQ - so you will find it hard to speak to anyone with the authority to make a decision when things go wrong.

I found this the same at all banks and building societies I've been with. If you have a complaint you have to bypass the actual branch and complain to Head Office or a Customer Service Centre if you want anything done.

p1an0player

masonic wrote: »

I'm actually in the middle of opening one now. Your post and others like it are exactly why I'd never use a switching service. This problem isn't specific to Coventry.

Nationwide were bribing people with £100 to use their switching service earlier this year.. I was quite happy to take their money and transfer a few payments that weren't important

richardmk

The worst thing that happened for the Coventry was the retirement of Martin Ritchley. It has lost its way and good rates and service have been replaced with gimmicks, short term rates, and a myriad of products with complicated exclusion causes and terms and conditions..
Sadly you can no longer trust the Coventry to treat you fairly..

Milarky

Rafter wrote: »

I wasn't responding to the OP. I was responding to Biggles who was suggesting you avoid their current account because of the Bonus and because of his bad experience with a savings account.

R

1000 apo-logies I conflated the posts for some reason.

p1an0player wrote: »

Nationwide were bribing people with £100 to use their switching service earlier this year.. I was quite happy to take their money and transfer a few payments that weren't important

Snap! Already had a Nationwide Flexaccount for years. Was very satisfied with it and then got the tip off from this forum and nabbed £100 just for moving literally one SO and one DD from a Barclays account (which I still have also!) through their 'switching team'

steve_cov

There's more to report...

Here we are, 11 weeks on, and I still have eight DDs at my old account. Fortunately they are mostly quarterly or annual DDs.

However, the curse of the Coventry's customer service has struck again. On Wednesday, I dropped into the branch where I had opened my account, with the intention of complaining, but the manager was busy. I left my home number and a list of the offending DDs, and said I would be home and waiting for the call at 7:30 pm. No call came, so I called the customer service number. I did get an answerphone message yesterday, but it is now too late. I have decided to go elsewhere.

I will have to give up the interest on my balance over £2.5k in exchange for a guarantee that my bank knows what it is doing.

olly300

steve_cov I suggest like the others you do it yourself.

Even if you the bank does switch the direct debits some companies will simply not accept the bank doing it for their customer and will not take the money out of your new account.

When I moved 2 direct debits from RBS to Nationwide even though Nationwide had set up the direct debits, the 2 companies involved refused to take them out of my Nationwide account until I contacted them personally.

The 2 companies involved simply said I had to do it because it required my authorisation.

richardmk

Customer Service at the Coventry is really poor.
They will not let you close an current account and reopen with a new account number even if your details are compromised. They say you can only ever have the one account number in your lifetime... Small minded, petty, rude, and unwilling to go the extra mile sums up Coventry Building Society.