Santander customer service is a joke

Robert_McGeddon

itwasntme001 said:

Highly unfair comments so far to the OP's post.  It seems to me (unless the OP can correct me) that all the OP did was call them and as soon as the OP was asked to go through security, he/she said it was not possible currently as did not have the information in front of him/her.  Not a reason to have your account blocked and having to go to a branch to get it unlocked, especially in a pandemic.  Seems absurd of Santander to do this.

+1 for this.

If the OP had taken the first call would Santander have blocked his account if he could remember only half his security questions?  Bear in mind they called him, not vice versa.  OK, so Santander have a perceived problem....

Step 1:  Call him back to prove mobile agrees to their records

Step 2:  Ask OP to call them later when home/wherever when he has relevant details to hand.

Exception might be if there was a suspicious transaction in process. Would be in order to temporarily block transaction and/or account - but step 2 above should clear that

Swipe

RobM99 said:

Maybe their staff are ill. There's a pandemic, you know.

This excuse is really wearing thin now

bubieyehyeh

Customer service has dropped.

I sent a secure message to santander through their internet banking website, get a email saying this service had been closed use chat on the website. If so why don't they remove the secure message part of the website.

wiseonesomeofthetime

@bubieyehyeh - I had the same experience two weeks ago.

Cannot be difficult to remove the website service from access, or even post on there the information about the app chat service that they emailed me yesterday as part of a general circulation!

About as competent as automatically renewing a regular saver, when no SO in place and not requested, so when I "open" one in October 2019, they will close it in two days time, as it's been "active" for a year in their eyes.

Couldn't be bothered to argue the toss with them over the few pounds I have been denied and will take my £2k + interest on Friday and lodge elsewhere.

bubieyehyeh

About as competent as automatically renewing a regular saver, when no SO in place and not requested,

That happened to me too. Chat told me that was the new procedure, but was contridicted by the letter they sent a few weeks before maturity.

mazzdd

I’ve just had to deal with Santander’s idea of customer service and complaints team and can confirm they are awful. I have been trying to pay my credit card bill since the beginning of July when I got my statement. I tried using their online services, the payment didn’t go through on the date set up, I had no warning that the payment information was not accepted and it now transpires that I can’t pay them using either the online or mobile app if I’m not a Santander customer. I was then given the generic sort code and Santander account number and told to use my credit card number as the reference. This payment was bounced back into my account 4 days later. Due to their system not taking the payment from an outside bank I then got a rather hefty interest fee. I contacted them us using their chat service and ended up asking 4 times for their complaints dept. information so then they ‘passed’ me to someone from complaints who dismissed them out of hand. I was told again to send the money using the generic Santander account information, which I did, using my bank’s telephone banking service this is automated and as I’m paying a credit card it only needs the card number. After this in had a call from my bank, who have been fantastic throughout this whole debacle, it was their fraud team as this payment has now been flagged as a concern. I had to explain to them the trouble I was having with Santander and they wasn’t in the least bit surprised. They put the payment through using the credit card information, I was told that it should go through straight away but could take up to a day as it was late Friday afternoon. Low and behold my payment has still not turned up in my account. So the next day I called their number on the back of the credit card after explaining everything to the operator she passed me to a complaints officer who don’t normally work on a Saturday, he told me that he would look into it. He came back to me the same day, said he’s done an investigation and found that, yes I’d tried to make a payment before the end of July using their system that had and error because it doesn’t work with HSBC but he still couldn’t find my latest attempt at paying and asked for me to get the Faster Payment ID from the issuing bank, the only thing he was able to fix was the incurred interest payment and he gave me a compensatory amount. I got the information from my bank like I was asked but when I got into Santander’s online chat all I got was argumentative operator’s who constantly quoted the same generic banking details for me to pay into with no help in finding out where my money was and even said that they were unable to look up the Faster Payment ID even though, like I said, this is a system that the whole of the banking sector use to track payments. I am just going round in circles, HSBC have tried to recall the payment and are starting an investigation but there’s no guarantee I’ll get my money back (which was well in excess of one thousand pounds) especially as the beneficiary has to agree to release the funds back (these are the funds they are claiming they never received). I am now left a lot of money out of pocket and still have to figure out how to pay my credit card bill, I’m considering getting over 1385 pound coins and dumping it in one of their branches but let’s face it even that wouldn’t be good enough. Infuriating, I definitely do not recommend anyone bank with this bank because you will regret it. 

ColdIron

One word: Paragraphs

kinger101

Thrugelmir said:

stuartpoole said:

I told them I was returning their call but they weren’t interested.

I'm Santa Claus but no one will take my word for it. As I've nothing to prove that I am. 

I'll believe you if you give a present.  Just get me a half decent bottle of red wine.  You can't go wrong.  I have enough socks already.

colsten

@mazzdd: what is it you are trying to do? Is it paying a Santander credit card bill? Something else?

Gsaver1

Had an account with them. Told them in the branch what I was doing with said account. Also said that would be the same for another close family member. Told that the person of the other account has to come into branch to say the same thing. Needless to say once these accounts were closed any other dealings with Santander were not happening.