Santander appalling service

mikejp

Yes, you qualify.

Thrugelmir

mikejp said:

My basic complaint is that they don't handle complaints properly

Change banks then. Why waste your valuable time and get over stressed in the process.  

parchedpeas

mikejp said:

Am I alone here or is anyone else feeling more than slightly peeved?

Fair to say that, after your performance on this thread, you're very much alone here.

inspectorperez

Must admit, I've been a Santander customer for many years also, going back to good old Girobank days ( with the unforgettable address Bootle, GIR 0AA) when they would issue customers with a batch of pre addressed envellopes to enable you to deposit cheques etc or request replacement chequebooks.

I don't have any complaints myself with the level of service, but I do actually have a degree of empathy with the poster who has also been with the bank for "many years". There is still a place for loyalty in society and I think it is perfectly in order for a loyal customer to persevere with an expectation of good service no matter what logistical changes are made in the way that service is provided. Switching to another provider is just a lazy cop out in many respects as there is no guarantee you will receive a better service and you will have sacrificed the accolade of having been with your existing bank for x number of years which is still worth something in my book.

Call me old fashioned if you like and I would have to agree

Daliah

inspectorperez said:

Must admit, I've been a Santander customer for many years also, going back to good old Girobank days ( with the unforgettable address Bootle, GIR 0AA) when they would issue customers with a batch of pre addressed envellopes to enable you to deposit cheques etc or request replacement chequebooks.

I don't have any complaints myself with the level of service, but I do actually have a degree of empathy with the poster who has also been with the bank for "many years". There is still a place for loyalty in society and I think it is perfectly in order for a loyal customer to persevere with an expectation of good service no matter what logistical changes are made in the way that service is provided. Switching to another provider is just a lazy cop out in many respects as there is no guarantee you will receive a better service and you will have sacrificed the accolade of having been with your existing bank for x number of years which is still worth something in my book.

Call me old fashioned if you like and I would have to agree

 If you could show banks how they could achieve higher profits by rewarding loyalty, you'd be their hero, and we could get showered with loyalty offers. As it is, we now have to make do with free 24x7 banking, incl. mobile, contactless payments, instant money transfers, FSCS protection, online applications, paperless statements and communication etc etc - all this without any need for loyalty, so even 18 year olds get the same as us oldies. S'notfair, innit 🤣

RG2015

I hope that I am not being too much of a time waster, but I do feel it worth contributing to the general discussion.

I have had good and poor service from many banks, sometimes both from the same bank. I have no evidence that any single bank consistently gives poor service and would be surprised if this was true.

I feel embarrassed to admit that I did once email to the CEO of a bank, receiving a charming reply from an underling which nevertheless was fobbing me off.

My solution now is to take responsibility. If I have an issue I will complain, seeking out all possibilities, and not stop till I have an answer. Then, if it was serious, I would consider switching, or at least minimising my use of the bank.

I once had a dispute with EE and the call handler admitted they were wrong but could do nothing about it. It was minor and I decided to forget about it and continue with EE.

I did have a dispute with Santander and they never admitted they were wrong, blaming Equifax who in turn blamed Santander. Both kept promising to fix the issue and neither did. I decided to switch my Santander account and this fixed the data error with Equifax.

Does this help the OP? I don't know, although it does suggest that he is not the only one to have an issue with Santander. I do though believe that it was Santander's systems that were at fault rather than their customer services.

eskbanker

RG2015 said:

Does this help the OP? I don't know, although it does suggest that he is not the only one to have an issue with Santander.

Trouble is, both your and OP's experiences relate to very specific circumstances that may not be representative of those experienced by others, so it's hard to draw any meaningful conclusions from them, especially when, by his own admission, OP considers it a 'major issue' that Santander tweaked the navigation through their online portal.

That's why I was encouraged when the CMA-initiated biannual service quality surveys were introduced, which, while not perfect, at least introduced a degree of objectivity by using standard surveying techniques and a sample size of many thousands - interestingly these do suggest that Santander service quality is declining, with the most recent overall scores being 63% (4th= in league table), 61% (8th), 57% (12th=), then 54% (13th) last August.

https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/personal-banking-service-quality

I haven't dug through the published quarterly switching stats though, which would be an indicator of the strength of feelings on the subject, i.e. a measure of how many were prepared to vote with their feet....

RG2015

eskbanker said:

RG2015 said:

Does this help the OP? I don't know, although it does suggest that he is not the only one to have an issue with Santander.

Trouble is, both your and OP's experiences relate to very specific circumstances that may not be representative of those experienced by others, so it's hard to draw any meaningful conclusions from them, especially when, by his own admission, OP considers it a 'major issue' that Santander tweaked the navigation through their online portal.

To be fair, I did go on to say that in my case I believed that it was Santander's systems that were at fault rather than their customer services.

People's views of customer services are subjective and will be influenced by individual agents. Interactions can lead to misunderstanding and will lack the benefit of body language.

It appears in the OP's case, Santander did not have clear links to their complaints procedure. If it relies on searching for them or on learned contributors on financial social media sites, then there appears to be a case against Santander.

Daliah

RG2015 said:

I did have a dispute with Santander and they never admitted they were wrong, blaming Equifax who in turn blamed Santander. Both kept promising to fix the issue and neither did. I decided to switch my Santander account and this fixed the data error with Equifax.

Everybody can find somebody who has made a less than positive experience with any bank or Building Society. 

I have been a Santander customer ever since they took over Alliance & Leicester, which is now over 10 years ago. In 2011, they held up an outgoing payment for no good reason and it took several days before they released it. They paid me £35 for it as a "go away" payment, which I thought was a fair settlement. I also had two lots of other compensation payments from them, one in 2012 and one in 2014, for matters I can't remember now, £25 and £30.

I am less than impressed with their payee handling in their app, and their empty promises (in the app store) they would be doing something to improve it. But that's my only gripe, and they remain my main current account provider. I fondly remember those heady days when they paid 3% AER on an unlimited number of current accounts. I also loved their Amazon voucher promo, their Life Insurance and Retailer offers, as well as their more recent switch offer and credit card offer, which netted me several hundred pounds between them. Oh, and the cashback, which is still worth over £5 a month to me, after the account fee. More than anything, I like them as my hub account provider, processing several tens of thousands in and out each month, without any trouble. I can do everything I need to do online or in the app - in fact, I prefer the app - so don't really have a need to call them. Their systems seem to be reliable (fingers xed), and I have no plans or reasons to move. Equally, if something went wrong and didn't get fixed without undue delay, I would have no hesitation to raise a formal complaint.

RG2015

j.p said:

Appalling service from this forum as well.

Complaint to the bank -- they won't listen to you.

Complaint here -- you're told, "The problem is you."

Time to vote with one's feet with regards to this forum as well.

Sadly though, the MSE Forum had a monopoly on decent financial forums.

Edit (thanks to Daliah) Has not had.