Complaint about NS&I complaint

Raceys

Is any body else having serious issues with NS&I? I lodged an official complaint with them on 30th November and they still haven’t responded to it, except 3 letters saying they’re too busy/not enough staff to deal with all the complaints.
(Their website put a ‘false headroom’ on my PB account and would not let me move Income Bonds (or cash) into Premium Bonds. The phone staff cannot move it either. I will have now missed 3 monthly Premium Bond Draws because of it. And still no response to resolve the problem. 

HansOndabush

What is a 'false headroom'?

With bonds the only options are to roll over to a new term or withdraw to your bank account; I have had no trouble with that.

boxedin

Received a message to go and look at rolled over online certificates. Tried to get access online won't let me in , online chat doesn't work, phone on hold with the message we are busy try and get hold of us via website.

colsten

Raceys said:

Is any body else having serious issues with NS&I? I lodged an official complaint with them on 30th November and they still haven’t responded to it, except 3 letters saying they’re too busy/not enough staff to deal with all the complaints.
(Their website put a ‘false headroom’ on my PB account and would not let me move Income Bonds (or cash) into Premium Bonds. The phone staff cannot move it either. I will have now missed 3 monthly Premium Bond Draws because of it. And still no response to resolve the problem. 

What is a 'false headroom'?

Having closed my Income Bonds (by transferring the balance to my NS&I Direct Saver), I can't be 100% certain but I believe you cannot transfer directly from IB to PB. You have to go via the Direct Saver, and the PB account has to exist already, but it's all doable in minutes. Obvs within the £50K limit.

Can you describe what precisely you were trying to do, and what error messages you got? Perhaps with that additional info, someone here can help you further.

Raceys said:

 I lodged an official complaint with them on 30th November and they still haven’t responded to it, except 3 letters saying they’re too busy/not enough staff to deal with all the complaints.

It sounds as if you are approaching the 8-week mark, so you can take your complaint to the FOS. Mind you, there appears to be a substantial backlog at the FOS, too.

colsten

boxedin said:

Tried to get access online won't let me in , online chat doesn't work, phone on hold with the message we are busy try and get hold of us via website.

Why won't they let you in? Have you forgotten your NS&I number and/or password? If so, what happens if you use the online reset functions?

https://www.nsandi.com/help/manage-your-details/accessing-your-online-account

eskbanker

Raceys said:

Is any body else having serious issues with NS&I? I lodged an official complaint with them on 30th November and they still haven’t responded to it, except 3 letters saying they’re too busy/not enough staff to deal with all the complaints.

Yes, many have experienced similar, with NS&I struggling alongside many other institutions but exacerbating this with severe interest rate reductions and so on.

The Treasury committee asked them to explain themselves and they responded along the lines that things were bad but are improving, but if you haven't had an adequate response to your formal complaint within eight weeks then you have the right to escalate it to the ombudsman....

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/158/treasury-committee/news/138100/treasury-committee-seeks-answers-from-nsi-following-string-of-complaints/
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/158/treasury-committee/news/138627/nsi-responds-to-treasury-committee/

boxedin

Got in by switching browser, seems to be a problem with mozilla and their website

Eco_Miser

colsten said:

Having closed my Income Bonds (by transferring the balance to my NS&I Direct Saver), I can't be 100% certain but I believe you cannot transfer directly from IB to PB. You have to go via the Direct Saver, and the PB account has to exist already, but it's all doable in minutes. Obvs within the £50K limit.

I managed to transfer directly from IB to PB, instantaneously, once I had dealt with the 'gotchas'. These are that you cannot pay odd pence into the PB account, and you must leave at least £500 in the IB, if not closing it, and you can't close it if there's still a few pence from interest in it. So I transferred all but £500 and pence to PBs and withdrew the rest, closing the account. If I'd had a Direct Saver I would have gone that way, but I couldn't see any point in opening one for just this single use.

Raceys

HansOndabush said:

What is a 'false headroom'?

With bonds the only options are to roll over to a new term or withdraw to your bank account; I have had no trouble with that.

A ‘false headroom’ is an error/glitch I encountered when attempting to buy more Prem Bonds. The max you can have is 50K – but I only have 5K and the site wouldn’t let me buy any more, saying I had already reached the max. It said ‘the maximum you can invest is £0’, when it should have said £45,000. 

Raceys

NS&I have now sent me the Ombudsman forms, along with an apology for still not attending to my problem. I will now have missed 3 monthly Prem Bond draws while waiting for them to fix this ‘False headroom’ glitch on my account on their website. I’m not sure whether to go to the Ombusman or wait it out with NS&I. Anyone else waiting this long to get sorted? Or tried the Ombudsman? Any tips? Many thanks!