Abbey national...

gabyjane

Well this morning i check my online account and see that £111 has been taken out of my account, this has come up as account adjustment and i have no idea why.

I go in to my branch and get told they don't know what it means and i have to ring so i get home and ring..firstly the line is to someone asian who i can barely understand and vise versa then get told they don't know either and the line goes quiet..i say 'sorry am i supposed to just say ok and hang up? i want to know where the money has gone please' after a while i get told it's a cheque that hasn't cleared?, it doesn't tally with the only cheque i have had
put in but i say i'll check with the person who gave it me.

I check and all's well with the cheque in question, it's cleared and that's that so i ring back..'sorry i can't see what it is' again silence? i get cross at this point and get told to go back to the branch..i say no and demand to speak to someone who know's what they are doing..

I have been on hold for roughly 10 mins when the lady (english!) comes back and says that yes it is a cheque and it was sent back in spetember due to the postal strikes etc and that i have to get it re-issued..
I really hate my branch anyway absolutely useless and i think today has just made me finally decide to change to someone else!!

Norma_Desmond

Sympathies gabyjane - I phoned Abbey a month ago with the simplest of requests; a new cheque book and the call centre chap obviously didn't have a clue what I meant. He was like a robot, and yes he WAS Asian and I'm certainly NOT being racist in saying that when I'm dealing with something as precious as MY money then I expect whoever I'm dealing with to be at least fluent in English with an accent I can understand.

gabyjane

Thankyou Norma for your sensible reply, im sorry but if you lived abroad and got an english speaker and couldn't speak the language would you be impressed when it is regarding something so important..shall i tell you how the conversation went so you can appreciate how frustrating the call was..

ME: hi i appear to have £x missing from my account

HIM: ok urm hold on one second, urm ok what is problem..

ME: i appear to have some money missing from my account

HIM: ok how much was put in?

ME: (giving up already) no nothing has been put in, there is money MISSING from my account

HIM: ok hold on one moment.. (put on hold..have no idea why when nothings been asked..name etc)

HIM: hello ok i need security off you..(im guessing security measures are needed to verify it's me so i give out one transaction)

ME: so what is it?

HIM: urm i think cheque..

ME: ok which and when?

HIM: i'm sorry maam i don't know...and that's basically it?

After 2 conversations like this i asked to speak to someone else as was supposed to just accept it i guess.. and got put through to a call centre with somone english after a total of i dont know how long i seem to have the problem solved.
I will add i am not racial at all and it was not meant in a racial way, it is purely frustrating and time consuming repeating yourself over and over as if you were talking to a small child.

spinks

I completely understand your frustrations.

My dh went into our local branch 7 weeks ago with the relevant forms to get my name added to the current account as he has been in and out of hospital which has put us in a pickle when I can't access the account without him around.

We have been chasing it regularly as it hasn't been actioned and the excuse is usually something to do with changes in internal procedures meaning the forms have been sent to about 3 different departments in different parts of the country and now they are somewhere they can't be traced.

DH spoke to an Asian call centre yesterday, completely incompetent so dh insited on speaking to English advisor. They weren't much better so call ended with a promise of a call back from the complaints department that same day.

No call came then today a manager from the complaitns office called and we were told we would have to go back to the branch to complete the same forms again with our ID so that the branch can fax the forms to the correct department but it would still take the normal 10 days to action the change on the account.

After a call to our local radio station (they love consumer stories, sorted issue in the past for us with 3 mobile) and a follow up call to the Abbey media telephone number (which can be found on their website) to inform them that they will be hearing from them seems to have got them fired up enough to try to resolve this issue quicker.

Maybe could work for you too.

C_Ronaldo

I do find it easier to speak to an english person who i can understand and vice versa, it doesnt help when your talking to a non english person,

myrnahaz

It's got nothing to do with racism - it's to do with competence; the OP had a problem and was directed to a particular call centre, but the operatives were incompetent - both at their job AND at communicating.

Gabyjane - I'd write to the head office if I was you.

PBA

gabyjane wrote: »

I go in to my branch and get told they don't know what it means and i have to ring so i get home and ring..

This query should have been dealt with by the branch, they make a quick phone call to head office and find out what it is, job done, no need to call the call centre.

No need to complain to head office, fine you'll get some compo but nothing will change at the branch. Write to the Regional Manager, and cc it to the complaints dept. If you let me know what branch I can look up the RM's name & address.

mashauk

Something similar happened to me. I was trying to get information on how to tranfser money from my sister in Australia into my Abbey account. I spoke to 3 different people (all Asian, it's irrelevant but they obviously didn't understand what Iwanted to do) and each one gave me a different set of (incorrect) instructions. In the end, we gave up and used Paypal thus incurring charges at both ends.

I wrote to the bank complaining - and they gave me a £30 refund, so it's always worth writing to complain if you've had particularly bad service, even if it's just to get it off your chest!

gabyjane

Hi thanks again for the replies, nice to know im not alone!
Well the latest is that the lady whos cheque it was spoke to her bank and they have no idea what's happened though the money was not taken from her the cheques kind of just gone! She told me i had to ring Abbey again and try and find out where it was...she is really annoyed they haven't contacted her as am i..
I go into my branch today and explain again to the same girl and she is again blank, i say i'm really unimpressed and until somone explains where it is i'm going to lose my rag (like most of the people in my branch today!), there is one woman in there who is lovely and knows what she is doing, she happened to walk past and say hi is everything ok and i said no..within an hour i had a message on my machine saying the cheque had been found and had been posted to me..a week ago!! but i have to wait for it then go to Lloyds..grr ive never known anything like it but obviously this could have been sorted in the first place if someone with some common sense like her had looked into it!
PBA thankyou my branch is Brixham in Devon (not for long i hasten to add!) thanks.

knightstyle

I had trouble with them and when I went in to complain one of the staff told me to register as a premium customer. You need to put in £1000 a month. The service I now get is excellent and you get a special number to a UK call centre with no messing with multichoice selections.

Sssssss

gabyjane wrote: »

Hi thanks again for the replies, nice to know im not alone!
Well the latest is that the lady whos cheque it was spoke to her bank and they have no idea what's happened though the money was not taken from her the cheques kind of just gone! She told me i had to ring Abbey again and try and find out where it was...she is really annoyed they haven't contacted her as am i..
I go into my branch today and explain again to the same girl and she is again blank, i say i'm really unimpressed and until somone explains where it is i'm going to lose my rag (like most of the people in my branch today!), there is one woman in there who is lovely and knows what she is doing, she happened to walk past and say hi is everything ok and i said no..within an hour i had a message on my machine saying the cheque had been found and had been posted to me..a week ago!! but i have to wait for it then go to Lloyds..grr ive never known anything like it but obviously this could have been sorted in the first place if someone with some common sense like her had looked into it!
PBA thankyou my branch is Brixham in Devon (not for long i hasten to add!) thanks.

so the girl who was blank, was she asian or english? and the lovely women what was she?