NS&I customer service is so BAD.

apb123

I have been trying to get my 16 year old daughter registered for premium bonds for 4 months now. NS&I have a strategy of ignoring all your letters, and making it practically impossible to get through on the phone. I was waiting 90 minutes (yes 90 minutes !) last week and managed to register a complaint with them..but since then silence...We are in this Kafkaesque situation where they ask for a witnessed signature, and we send a witnessed signature, then they ask for another one....repeat..repeat..

I have a new strategy now. We are going to write to them every day until they acknowledge the problem. I have printed of the same letter 30 times with dates over the next month...

Obviously if they can register my daughter for internet banking great. I cant understand what is so difficult.

JGB1955

Perhaps someone sending the same letter 30 times might make YOU part of their problem with dealing with things? 

Thrugelmir

Then people wonder why service levels deteriorate. Creating unnecessary work for others.  Only so many hours in a working day. 

eskbanker

Not unlike the similarly irate poster relaying tales of phoning 15 times in a thread earlier today, although I can understand why exasperated customers feel the need to take drastic steps to sort out intractable problems....

EdGasketTheSecond

NS&I are to stop sending premium bond prizes in the post and you have to supply bank details by registering online. My sister does not have a computer and wouldn't understand one, can't get out of the house due to poor health, and cant get through on the phone to NS&I. It is an intolerable situation and shameful for a government institution to have such poor service.

xylophone

I'm not surprised that the posters are on the verge of tearing their hair out - the service (?) they have received is so egregiously awful.

Neil49

A 16 year old can buy their own premium bonds. What is the issue you are encountering when trying to purchase them? Is it because she doesn't have her own bank account? 

eskbanker

Neil49 said:

A 16 year old can buy their own premium bonds. What is the issue you are encountering when trying to purchase them? Is it because she doesn't have her own bank account? 

AIUI OP's issue isn't with purchasing but with registration for ongoing administration in the daughter's name rather than the parent's, covered in a previous thread at https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6178730/premium-bonds/p1

veryintrigued

On the positive it's keeping the Royal Mail busy.

On the negative if they're using a Freepost address NS&I money is going to a private company.

Thrugelmir

EdGasketTheSecond said:

NS&I are to stop sending premium bond prizes in the post and you have to supply bank details by registering online. My sister does not have a computer and wouldn't understand one, can't get out of the house due to poor health, and cant get through on the phone to NS&I. It is an intolerable situation and shameful for a government institution to have such poor service.

Must be a pain having to bank the cheques she receives then. 

xylophone

Must be a pain having to bank the cheques she receives then. 

Perhaps a friend or neighbour does it for her?