Santander appalling service

pridehappy

I had quite a few issues around 10 years ago with my local Santander branch and the arrogance of our branch manager, which was the reason  I switched away from them as my main bank. They couldn’t even understand how to cancel a direct debit.

More recently, I’ve had a switching account with them and found it easy to use and setup, although the online banking and app did seem a little outdated at the time. I’ve also dealt with their bereavement team which wasn’t exceptional but by far not the worst.

Overall, I wouldn’t call them terrible but not amazing either.

[Deleted User]

Following the good advice and information on this helpful Forum, I decided to open a second Current Account - to be on the safe side and have it in reserve.  Not long after my new Santander Current Account was open I had reason to go into my local branch (this is why I chose Santander - because there was a local branch and easy for me to get to) and, although only one experience, I was disappointed.

There was a long queue (almost to the door) of customers waiting and there were just two 'tills' with advisors open.  I waited what seemed like a long time and, when I was about fourth from the top of the queue, the lady at one of the two tills attended to the customer she was seeing then closed her till down.  With only one till open, and the customer being served there seemed (not unreasonably) to be taking a long time, I gave up and went away.

A few times after that I went back and, seeing long queues again, I did not wait.  After about a month I decided that the Santander Current Account was not for me as I really wanted an account with an accessible local branch.  I didn't say anything to anyone - just completely closed the account.

With fewer high street banks being available it is understandable that branches which are still open will become increasingly busy.  I know there must be many very satisfied Santander customers but it wasn't the right bank for me.  The main Post Office is always very busy and, unless I have to, I rarely go there now.  It has a row of about ten 'service' points and I notice that they are also closing down some tills - it seems to be a common problem.

I hope mikejp doesn't think I'm being a time waster.  I'm posting this because it seems relevant to this post.  Thank you.

Middle_of_the_Road

[Deleted User] said:

Following the good advice and information on this helpful Forum, I decided to open a second Current Account - to be on the safe side and have it in reserve.  Not long after my new Santander Current Account was open I had reason to go into my local branch (this is why I chose Santander - because there was a local branch and easy for me to get to) and, although only one experience, I was disappointed.

There was a long queue (almost to the door) of customers waiting and there were just two 'tills' with advisors open.  I waited what seemed like a long time and, when I was about fourth from the top of the queue, the lady at one of the two tills attended to the customer she was seeing then closed her till down.  With only one till open, and the customer being served there seemed (not unreasonably) to be taking a long time, I gave up and went away.

A few times after that I went back and, seeing long queues again, I did not wait.  After about a month I decided that the Santander Current Account was not for me as I really wanted an account with an accessible local branch.  I didn't say anything to anyone - just completely closed the account.

With fewer high street banks being available it is understandable that branches which are still open will become increasingly busy.  I know there must be many very satisfied Santander customers but it wasn't the right bank for me.  The main Post Office is always very busy and, unless I have to, I rarely go there now.  It has a row of about ten 'service' points and I notice that they are also closing down some tills - it seems to be a common problem.

I hope mikejp doesn't think I'm being a time waster.  I'm posting this because it seems relevant to this post.  Thank you.

This is a situation which is developing in many bank branches, and as you say also post office counters. It's also only going to get worse as more and more branches are closed.
Nationwide say they intend retaining local branches for the next few years. Not saying you won't see the same queues there, but generally the service they provide is rated higher than other high street banks.

GeoffTF

Santander just manages the top half of the table for in branch service:

https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/personal-banking-service-quality-great-britain-february-2023

Nonetheless, the service is poor or non-existent. Metro Bank tops the table, with Nationwide second.

Frogletina

I've had poor service from Santander more than once.

The latest was when I recently opened a Santander Edge current account but the address did not match the one I had with my 123 account. I was sent an email to send in documentation but instead I rang them. I was told to take ID to my local branch where they could check and correct so that the two profiles could be merged. I did this and was not asked for the documents (I just had to put my card into the card reader) but the advisor amended my address details there - difference was one said 'number, house name,' and the other said 'Apartment number, house name', and then said that the two profiles would be merged in 48 hours.

Two days later I rang again and was told not yet merged and to ring again the next day,

The next day the profiles were still not merged, and when I rang I spoke to an advisor who decided to do a more thorough check. She printed both profiles and then could see the error - one did not show the street name, well, this was originally on both! She corrected this herself and although she said it could take up to 48 hours for the profiles to merge, it only took about 2 hours.

I don't understand why it couldn't have been done over the phone in the first place. After all, the automated service had already checked I was calling from my regular number and checked my voice. 

On a previous occasion I'd gone into the branch to open 3 accounts for my grandchildren with the documentation requested, but was told needed another document - went back with the new document but was told I needed yet another document! However, this time the advisor told me that with the documents I had, to save me coming back into town, I could open a similar account with the Coventry Building Society! 

You couldn't make it up.

GeoffTF

Frogletina said:

I've had poor service from Santander more than once.

The latest was when I recently opened a Santander Edge current account but the address did not match the one I had with my 123 account. I was sent an email to send in documentation but instead I rang them. I was told to take ID to my local branch where they could check and correct so that the two profiles could be merged. I did this and was not asked for the documents (I just had to put my card into the card reader) but the advisor amended my address details there - difference was one said 'number, house name,' and the other said 'Apartment number, house name', and then said that the two profiles would be merged in 48 hours.

Two days later I rang again and was told not yet merged and to ring again the next day,

The next day the profiles were still not merged, and when I rang I spoke to an advisor who decided to do a more thorough check. She printed both profiles and then could see the error - one did not show the street name, well, this was originally on both! She corrected this herself and although she said it could take up to 48 hours for the accounts to merge, it only took about 2 hours.

I don't understand why it couldn't have been done over the phone in the first place. After all, the automated service had already checked I was calling from my regular number and checked my voice. 

On a previous occasion I'd gone into the branch to open 3 accounts for my grandchildren with the documentation requested, but was told needed another document - went back with the new document but was told I needed yet another document! However, this time the advisor told me that with the documents I had, to save me coming back into town, I could open a similar account with the Coventry Building Society! 

You couldn't make it up.

That is staff members messing it up. I do not think that is company policy.

Frogletina

GeoffTF said:

Frogletina said:

I've had poor service from Santander more than once.

The latest was when I recently opened a Santander Edge current account but the address did not match the one I had with my 123 account. I was sent an email to send in documentation but instead I rang them. I was told to take ID to my local branch where they could check and correct so that the two profiles could be merged. I did this and was not asked for the documents (I just had to put my card into the card reader) but the advisor amended my address details there - difference was one said 'number, house name,' and the other said 'Apartment number, house name', and then said that the two profiles would be merged in 48 hours.

Two days later I rang again and was told not yet merged and to ring again the next day,

The next day the profiles were still not merged, and when I rang I spoke to an advisor who decided to do a more thorough check. She printed both profiles and then could see the error - one did not show the street name, well, this was originally on both! She corrected this herself and although she said it could take up to 48 hours for the accounts to merge, it only took about 2 hours.

I don't understand why it couldn't have been done over the phone in the first place. After all, the automated service had already checked I was calling from my regular number and checked my voice. 

On a previous occasion I'd gone into the branch to open 3 accounts for my grandchildren with the documentation requested, but was told needed another document - went back with the new document but was told I needed yet another document! However, this time the advisor told me that with the documents I had, to save me coming back into town, I could open a similar account with the Coventry Building Society! 

You couldn't make it up.

That is staff members messing it up. I do not think that is company policy.

I agree that the individuals made the mistakes.

However, the merging of the profiles was finally done correctly online without me supplying any documents by post or at the branch, which is the current company policy.

GeoffTF

Frogletina said:

GeoffTF said:

Frogletina said:

I've had poor service from Santander more than once.

The latest was when I recently opened a Santander Edge current account but the address did not match the one I had with my 123 account. I was sent an email to send in documentation but instead I rang them. I was told to take ID to my local branch where they could check and correct so that the two profiles could be merged. I did this and was not asked for the documents (I just had to put my card into the card reader) but the advisor amended my address details there - difference was one said 'number, house name,' and the other said 'Apartment number, house name', and then said that the two profiles would be merged in 48 hours.

Two days later I rang again and was told not yet merged and to ring again the next day,

The next day the profiles were still not merged, and when I rang I spoke to an advisor who decided to do a more thorough check. She printed both profiles and then could see the error - one did not show the street name, well, this was originally on both! She corrected this herself and although she said it could take up to 48 hours for the accounts to merge, it only took about 2 hours.

I don't understand why it couldn't have been done over the phone in the first place. After all, the automated service had already checked I was calling from my regular number and checked my voice. 

On a previous occasion I'd gone into the branch to open 3 accounts for my grandchildren with the documentation requested, but was told needed another document - went back with the new document but was told I needed yet another document! However, this time the advisor told me that with the documents I had, to save me coming back into town, I could open a similar account with the Coventry Building Society! 

You couldn't make it up.

That is staff members messing it up. I do not think that is company policy.

I agree that the individuals made the mistakes.

However, the merging of the profiles was finally done correctly online without me supplying any documents by post or at the branch, which is the current company policy.

You finally spoke to a member of staff who was good at his or her job. The first two clearly were not. You were unlucky. I have no doubt that the other banks have some members of staff who are not very good. I have not had any serious problems with Santander.

trust.no.1

GeoffTF said:

Frogletina said:

I agree that the individuals made the mistakes.

However, the merging of the profiles was finally done correctly online without me supplying any documents by post or at the branch, which is the current company policy.

You finally spoke to a member of staff who was good at his or her job. The first two clearly were not. You were unlucky. I have no doubt that the other banks have some members of staff who are not very good. I have not had any serious problems with Santander.

I have had the same experience as Frogletina but far worse. According to one of the customer service agents I spoke to - a change has been made at the "back end" where address checking against the Post Office address database is now exact. The slighest variance - for example a misplaced comma can result in a mismatch and a duplicate profile. This can leads to issues especially in the case of flats. While a human being can easily tell the two addresses are the same in the case of say a misplaced comma, the "computer" will flag a mismatch and lead to duplicae profiles and requests for id/address verification.

I stress that I'm repeating what Iwas told. Make of it what you will. The problem as with Frogletina is that when this happens, resolution can be a long an stressful experience. My partner and I went through this when setting up a new joint account online - to get a better interest rate than our existing account that was setup in branch years previously. We are both on the electoral register at the address. Suffice it to say it took almost 2 months to get resolved including several iterations of posting ID information, several hours of calls to customer services and also a 2 hour visit to the branch. It was finally escalated to the back end IT department who merged the the profiles. I did raise a formal complaint and did receive compensation though Santander did not acknowledge there was any issue.

Fast forward a few months where we again opened a new joint savings account online and exactly the same thing happened with requests for ID & adddress verification before the account could be opened. I rung the complaints department referring to my previous complaint and went through the same rigmarole of being passed from pillar to post. One of the agents I was passed to in the "account openings" stated "I'm not sure why your call was passed to me- what do they expect me to do?"

Eventually I was passed to another lady (I think she was also in account openings) who appeared familiar with the issue. She was investigated the address entries on our profiles and corrected slight mismatches. She then waited on the phone while we opened a new savings account online. This time it went through with no issues. It took almost 90 minutes of her time but she was able to resolve it.

Prior to this I had never had any major issues with Santander other than their generally poor interest rates . I am still with them but have moved a significant portion of my savings since. For sentimental reasons I haven't closed all my accounts.

 

GeoffTF

trust.no.1 said:

GeoffTF said:

Frogletina said:

I agree that the individuals made the mistakes.

However, the merging of the profiles was finally done correctly online without me supplying any documents by post or at the branch, which is the current company policy.

You finally spoke to a member of staff who was good at his or her job. The first two clearly were not. You were unlucky. I have no doubt that the other banks have some members of staff who are not very good. I have not had any serious problems with Santander.

My partner and I went through this when setting up a new joint account online - to get a better interest rate than our existing account that was setup in branch years previously.

That seems strange. When I have changed my account to get better terms, I have rung customer services and got them to change the account type without changing the sort code or account number. No address checks were involved. Nonetheless, what you experienced is a real mess.