How much compensation to ask for

Murmansk

I live in a flat in a large house which is divided into 4 flats. The four flat owners have a small company to manage the flats and an associated business bank account that is used for maintenance money, insurance etc.

The bank account is with one of the main banks and since June they’ve been pestering us with requests for extra security stuff for their Safeguard department.

We’ve provided them with what they need but still they’ve been pestering us and sending emails, texts and ringing us. One of us has had to spend literally hours (mainly on hold) on the phone to them and been into the local branch on a number of occasions.

The most worrying thing about all this is that sometimes when they ring or email they ask for someone whose name is not and never has been associated with the account – we’ve told them about this but still it happens.

The flat owner who has been dealing with all this reckons they have spent 20 hours on it over the months and it’s been very stressful for them.

We’ve now initiated the bank’s complaints procedure and they are going to look into it. I’m wondering what level of compensation might be appropriate to ask for in this situation?

masonic

I'm finding this a little confusing. So this is a dispute between the small company and the bank? The flat owner is a director of the company? Presumably you are a tenant? So there is no direct relationship between you and the bank?

Terry_Towelling

You say one of you has spent time in the branch in connection with this, so that makes it sound like the contact is definitely coming from the bank - but are you quite sure it is? Do you trust your fellow flat owners?

Murmansk

masonic wrote: »

I'm finding this a little confusing. So this is a dispute between the small company and the bank? The flat owner is a director of the company? Presumably you are a tenant? So there is no direct relationship between you and the bank?

There is a direct relationship between me and the bank and the other flat owners and the bank, we are all shareholders in the company and we're all on the bank account.

Murmansk

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

You say one of you has spent time in the branch in connection with this, so that makes it sound like the contact is definitely coming from the bank - but are you quite sure it is? Do you trust your fellow flat owners?

Trust other flat owner 100%.

We're 99% sure the contact has come from the bank and have raised our slight doubt about that as part of our complaint so they can look into it.

I suspect they (the bank) have managed to create a record on their computer that contains another person's details but somehow contains our email address and phone number.

Terry_Towelling

Murmansk wrote: »

Trust other flat owner 100%.

We're 99% sure the contact has come from the bank and have raised our slight doubt about that as part of our complaint so they can look into it.

I suspect they (the bank) have managed to create a record on their computer that contains another person's details but somehow contains our email address and phone number.

Do you mean they've inadvertently added your contact details to another account held by someone else? That would surely show up in any correspondence, because the account number (if quoted) would be different, and you'd not be able to speak to the bank about it on the phone as you'd not be able to pass security.

Would've thought that a trip to the bank by all four account holders and a chat with a member of staff would've revealed the source of the issue.

As for compensation, how much has it cost you to get to this point - that might be your starting point.

Murmansk

Yes I think they've added our contact details to someone else's account.

That's why we get emails for "Fred Bloggs". When we ring up we get through security because we are accessing OUR account, we're not locked out. If we rang up and said we were Fred Bloggs then we'd not get through security.

A chat with the local bank staff doesn't help - all they can do is ring the same department we rang and they look on the computer and say it all looks OK.

masonic

Murmansk wrote: »

There is a direct relationship between me and the bank and the other flat owners and the bank, we are all shareholders in the company and we're all on the bank account.

Ok, so you are one of the four flat owners who set up the company, or someone else involved with the company.

You should add up the time you've all spent dealing with the matter. If it's taken up 20 hours in total, then even at minimum wage that would be a significant sum, before you add on any other costs such as costs of any phonecalls and costs incurred visiting the branch. Getting the matter resolved would be the priority though, and if there is some sort of mix-up where you are associated with some third party's account, you may be in for more pain yet.

Ben8282

OP states

since June they’ve been pestering us with requests for extra security stuff for their Safeguard department.

We’ve provided them with what they need but still they’ve been pestering us

as the problem.

My answer to them would be that you have already provided them with the information requested, whatever that may be as you don't say, and simply ignore any further correspondence on the matter.

The other stuff about their contact details having been added to somebody elses account has come later and would not appear to be the original problem stated in the OP. To be honest not sure why they are so concerned. Surely by now the account holder of the other account has realised something is wrong? But anyway this is really for the account holder of the other account to sort out. If anybody is due compensation it is the individual who has had your details added to their account not you.

Terry_Towelling

The bank must be able to locate the source of their contact attempts by looking at the emails they are sending you.

A slightly more radical way to tackle the problem might be to change the email address and contact number the bank holds for your account. If the problem persists using the old contact details, you might be right that another account has your contact details. If the problem switches to your new contact details, then something else must be at play here.

OK, that might not resolve the issue, but it might give you more insight into the cause.

Murmansk

We've now sent them copies of an email which we received containing the non-existent person's name so I hope that will allow them to determine whether or not it came from them and because Gmail seems to strip out the hidden header info in forwarded emails I've specifically been in and copied the header from the original email, pasted it into an email and sent that to the bank.

From what I can see from the headers it looks like the message came from the bank rather than some potential fraudster, which seemed to be what the bank were suggesting might have been going on.