Difficulty with Natwest customer service

bobwilson

I tried to order certificates of interest for my bank accounts for tax purposes. Getting the HSBC certificate involved a 56 second phone call (of which only about 30 seconds was speaking to someone, and he very quickly said 'no problem sir, your figure is x & it will also arrive in the post...). It was done so efficiently. However, getting the NATWESTcertificate involved a complex 26 minute phone call to someone with a very strong regional accent with almost no people skills that I could barely understand, answering a lot of questions & being kept on 'hold' for long periods of time.

After being made to wait on hold for ages, he told me the following:
- posting the figure would take 15 working days
- emailing the figure takes 10 working days
- he can't give me the figure over the phone
- he has to fill out a 'long form' on his end, doesn't know how long it'll take him & he has to keep me on hold- I'm not allowed to hang up.
- Didn't offer any faster method for getting the figures

Then, at the end of this 26 minute phone all, he finally told me I can download the figures instantly from the iphone app ! I asked why he didn't tell me this to begin with- it's fairly well hidden- he didn't seem to care.

I've been with my banks for many decades but I have noticed this is by no means a one-off occurrence. Natwest seems to have really dated systems when compared to some banks like HSBC. My average call time to HSBC is so much faster than Natwest (in this case 2500% faster!).

Yet when I check online reviews, people rate Natwest similarly to HSBC which doesn't match up with my decades of experiences l. Granted I'm quite a 'heavy' user since I need certain documents by law for my business, and many people wouldn't bother to look at their account other than bank balance, but this only means I'm more exposed to banking issues than your average Joe and serves to confirm my experiences.

I've kept quiet about this for decades & decided to finally speak up. HSBC is by far the 'least bad' out of the ones I've experienced (not the premier accounts, the normal accounts. The premier ones have customer service problems of their own).

If Natwest takes so long to get a simple figure can you imagine what it'd be like for something more complex?

Has anyone else noticed this too?

At the end of the call, I explained to the Natwest man that my HSBC call for the same thing lasted less than 1 minute, as opposed to Natwest's half an hour, and I suggested Natwest seems to have outdated systems. He seemed to really agree with that.

born_again

Could be that they are outsourcing some calls to a 3rd party co. And their training may not be the best, as well as it could be that persons 1st time at dealing with one.

jonesMUFCforever

15 working days?? OP you could go through all statements online in what ......15 minutes?

MovingForwards

I just get the info via the app, takes seconds to do. I've never called any of the banks I'm with to request it.

penners324

I thought banks made interest certificates available through their on line portals or even posted them out.

If you don't like Natwest why are you still with them?

born_again

penners324 wrote: »

I thought banks made interest certificates available through their on line portals or even posted them out.

If you don't like Natwest why are you still with them?

From OP.:rotfl:

he finally told me I can download the figures instantly from the iphone app