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Printer fault

breaking_free
breaking_free Posts: 780 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
edited 27 November 2021 at 11:56PM in House buying, renting & selling
Hi all.

TLDR: It took 21 days for Nationwide to send me statements for a closed account. In-branch staff didn't know how to print off statements. I emailed Nationwide afterwards and they say the delay was due to a problem with their printers...   I feel my intelligence has been insulted!


Background: I applied for a mortgage so I needed bank statements showing the source of my deposit. As I'd recently closed a current account I couldn't access old statements, so I went to my local Nationwide branch and requested statements from them. No can do - they couldn't print statements with my address on them, as required by the mortgaging bank, but no problem, they would order them for me.

I followed up with a phone call 12 days later to ask if they been sent. Followed up again after a further 8 days using their online chat and was informed that branch staff definitely could print out addressed statements for a closed account. I went back, spoke to the same staffer, and this time she was able to "use a different system" and printed them off for me. The posted statements arrived the next day, 21 days after requesting them.

I emailed Nationwide and outlined the problem, finishing my statement with a plea for all in-branch staff to learn how to print off closed account statements so nobody else would have to wait so long. I received a lengthy reply containing aplogies (good) and then an excuse that I find difficult to believe.

We are currently experiencing a delay with printing and sending statements as there is a fault with our printers, which will be why you had a long wait at receiving them.

Frankly this is an insult to my intelligence! Do they really expect me to believe that every printer at head office has been out of action for several weeks? I am going to reply but want your collective wisdom on what to say.
"The problem with Internet quotes is that you can't always depend on their accuracy" - Abraham Lincoln, 1864
«1

Comments

  • Theartfullodger, as the statements took 3 weeks to arrive this must be how long all their printers were out of action for (minus a few days for posting). I'm not buying this explanation.

    If they simply said "Sorry, delays caused by covid, blah, blah, blah" I would have accepted that.
    "The problem with Internet quotes is that you can't always depend on their accuracy" - Abraham Lincoln, 1864
  • Section62
    Section62 Posts: 10,194 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper

    Theartfullodger, as the statements took 3 weeks to arrive this must be how long all their printers were out of action for (minus a few days for posting). I'm not buying this explanation.
    Or the "printers" had a backlog of work they had to work through, possibly prioritising jobs in ways which make sense to them, but not to customers urgently waiting for something ('old' statements for a closed account wouldn't necessarily be high on the list of priorities)

    Oddly, the "covid" excuse has also often been deployed in situations where there are backlogs with work having to be progressed in some kind of priority order.
  • Section62 said:
    Or the "printers" had a backlog of work they had to work through, possibly prioritising jobs in ways which make sense to them, but not to customers urgently waiting for something ('old' statements for a closed account wouldn't necessarily be high on the list of priorities)
    Now this would make perfect sense and I would have been okay with it. It's being told that the printers had a fault (lasting 3 weeks) that has made me feel fobbed off. 
    "The problem with Internet quotes is that you can't always depend on their accuracy" - Abraham Lincoln, 1864
  • Brie
    Brie Posts: 15,440 Ambassador
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    Maybe they didn't want to admit that they have been forbidden to print anything.  My employer decided that since so many of us were working from home and therefore didn't have access to printers for the last 18 months that we would never need to print anything ever again even when we returned to the office.  Fools!
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  • Section62
    Section62 Posts: 10,194 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper
    Section62 said:
    Or the "printers" had a backlog of work they had to work through, possibly prioritising jobs in ways which make sense to them, but not to customers urgently waiting for something ('old' statements for a closed account wouldn't necessarily be high on the list of priorities)
    Now this would make perfect sense and I would have been okay with it. It's being told that the printers had a fault (lasting 3 weeks) that has made me feel fobbed off. 
    Is that what they said then? The text you quoted above says

    "We are currently experiencing a delay with printing and sending statements as there is a fault with our printers, which will be why you had a long wait at receiving them."

    Which doesn't appear to make that claim.


    In any case, if you don't want to take other's advice and use your energy for something else, if Nationwide continue to reject your complaint you ultimately would need to consider a complaint to the FOS.

    The FOS investigator will look at your complaint to see what loss you've suffered as a result of the FI's failure (if any).

    Could you identify and quantify a financial loss you've incurred as a result of this delay?  If not, a gesture of goodwill payment (say £20 to £30) is the most likely a bank or building society are likely to offer, and the FOS are unlikely to require more than that.
  • No intention of taking it to FOS. SameOldRoundabout's response sounds legit to me so I only wish that the bank's reply had been more like that - can't have everything I wish for though eh?

    Thanks for everyone's replies. I'm going to make dinner now and enjoy my evening.

    "The problem with Internet quotes is that you can't always depend on their accuracy" - Abraham Lincoln, 1864
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