Post Office Savings & Office Copy PoA

Hargel112

I just want to warn anyone thinking of opening a Post Office Savings account when they no longer have access to the original document to think twice, based on my recent experience.  I applied to open a savings account for my Mum on the 22/1.  It took my 15 minutes on the phone to customer care to get the address, but duly sent off all my documents.  Most were returned two days later but the PoA wasn't.   I'd had to purchase an Office Copy from the OPG, as another financial institution had at some point kept two pages of my original, invalidating it, but I enclosed the OPG's covering letter as further support.  By the 3/2 I'd established that the Post Office were refusing to accept my application because my PoA was a photocopy.  The fact that it had the OPG's punch hole validation stamp at the bottom of each page had been ignored and I was told that the documents were being returned standard mail.   I registered a complaint with the Post Office and also contacted the OPG, who advised they could not issue me with a replacement until the first was shown to be lost, stolen or damaged.  My document finally arrived back today (18/2) with a covering letter dated 5/2.  It has been completely invalidated by the Post Office stamping Photocopy over every page and initialling it, forcing me to have to order yet another office copy at a further cost and another week's delay.  To say the least, I will be pursuing my complaint and will never open an account with them again.

xylophone

To say the least, I will be pursuing my complaint 

With vigour, one hopes.

Might it be better to obtain a couple of copies while you are at it?

Relative's donor's  solicitor did several certified copies of the original.

mr_accountant

i would never give any institiution the original PoA with the exception of taking to branch for photocopying, i would travel a few hundred miles to head office for them to photocopy, in the long run its less hassle. some institiutions are making it easy, for eg santander, it can now be done online, with online banking details and debit card for the donors bank arriving a few days later.

Keep_pedalling

mr_accountant said:

i would never give any institiution the original PoA with the exception of taking to branch for photocopying, i would travel a few hundred miles to head office for them to photocopy, in the long run its less hassle. some institiutions are making it easy, for eg santander, it can now be done online, with online banking details and debit card for the donors bank arriving a few days later.

Apart from the original copy we made 3 certified copies of ours, just in case they are ever needed in a hurry. We hold one and our children each have a copy. Had several CCs of my mother’s LPA, would never post the original.

Hargel112

xylophone said:

To say the least, I will be pursuing my complaint 

Might it be better to obtain a couple of copies while you are at it?

Unfortunately this is not an option as the OPG will only issue one valid document at a time.  What's really frustrating is that the only page of the original that is now a copy is page 2 which tells you how to fill the document in but it is stamped so the document is deemed invalid without it.

xylophone

Have a solicitor make certified copies of the original?