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Printer fault

breaking_free
Posts: 780 Forumite


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.
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
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I appreciate you are clearly hugely intelligent and insightful, not at all stupid, but have you considered the possibility that nationwide may have a centralised printing system using an outsourced printers? "Printers" may mean the organisation doing the work or individual paper jamming devices.
I've known of such operations that run at "trees per minute" print capacity.
Further, all financial organisations I deal with have been pleading with me to go paperless. We know why.
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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, 18640 -
breaking_free said:I am going to reply but want your collective wisdom on what to say.
What outcome are you looking for as a result of your reply?
Is it just to vent your anger? If so, maybe bear in mind that your letter will probably only be read by an admin person who might read dozens of complaint letters like yours each day.
Buying a house can get very frustrating and stressful. It's probably better to let this drop, and save your efforts for more important stuff.
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breaking_free said:
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.
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.
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Do you get this stressed about everything?Don't waste anymore negative energy on it. Every minute you spent writing this, you spent thinking about it and being angry.If you wrote a letter, you're wasting even more energy on nothing.If you don't think about something, it can't bother you.Drop it. Go and put positive energy into something else.Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
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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)"The problem with Internet quotes is that you can't always depend on their accuracy" - Abraham Lincoln, 18640
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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!I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on Debt Free Wannabe, Old Style Money Saving and Pensions boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
Click on this link for a Statement of Accounts that can be posted on the DebtFree Wannabe board: https://lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/soa.php
Check your state pension on: Check your State Pension forecast - GOV.UK
"Never retract, never explain, never apologise; get things done and let them howl.” Nellie McClung
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Perfectly believable excuse. I work for a gov organisation that is mostly centrally printed now due to home working and the printing system we all use to request prints went down causing weeks and weeks of backlogs. Not sure what you expect the outcome of this to be really.5
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breaking_free said: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)
"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.
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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, 18640
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