Desperate plea for help - problems with TESCO bank

VCG87

I live in France and until recently had a Tesco Bank Savings account.  Back in the Autumn I received a letter to save that as I did not live in the UK this account would be closed - ok fair enough.  In the letter sent to me regarding the closure of the account under the heading of “What if I don’t withdraw before 30 November 2021” there is a phrase which I find very descriptive of my situation i.e. IF WE CAN we will make arrangements to return your money to you etc.

I phoned them in September and asked them how I could withdraw the money, could they do a direct transfer to another UK bank (oh no could not do that), ok could they send me a cheque to the address they had on file for me, yes they could.  I was told because I lived in France this cheque could take two to three weeks to reach me.  I left any contact for 5 weeks and then started ringing them and was obviously blatantly lied to because they said cheque had been requested and would be on its way to me.  I finally got the truth on 10th December when I was told no cheque had been requested etc etc.  I also sent an email to their managing director Mr Ian Harnet to which I have not had the courtesy of a reply.  I asked for an official complaint to be raised.  I got a letter dated 14th December from their Customer Relations Officer saying she upheld my complaint and that she was arranging for a compensation cheque of twenty five pounds to be sent to me as well as a cheque for the balance.  It is now 21st January and still no cheques.  I have taken the matter to the financial ombudsman but is there anything else I can do?

The balance of my account is not a huge amount but it is very much the principle of the thing and also how dare they put in writing that they will return my money to me “If they can”!

Any helpful suggestions greatly received

 Many thanks

Vicki

cx6

One way is to put in an official complaint to Tesco bank - they have I believe 8 (?) weeks to respond. 

Not sure if they will come back with 'you cannot complain because you are not a customer of ours now' !

eskbanker

cx6 said:

One way is to put in an official complaint to Tesco bank - they have I believe 8 (?) weeks to respond. 

Not sure if they will come back with 'you cannot complain because you are not a customer of ours now' !

OP has already gone down the formal complaint route, and subsequently escalated to FOS, both of which are the right thing to do - not sure there are any other realistic options to expedite progress.

However, it does seem odd that the situation is labelled as 'desperate' when it's just being pursued out of principle rather than financial need, and OP could easily have emptied the account directly if managing it online, i.e. without such access it was never going to be quick and easy to withdraw the money (but obviously it still shouldn't have been the mess it's turned into).

cx6

Yes, was suggesting the OP complain about the complaint resolution not being actioned but as you say that probably would not expedite the process.

VCG87

Thank you for your responses.  I know I put desperate in the title of the thread.  Fortunately I am not ‘desperate’ for the money but the whole thing is really agitating me.  I would give up but as my husband has said he wonders how many other people are having the same problem.  

eskbanker

VCG87 said:

I would give up but as my husband has said he wonders how many other people are having the same problem

I can't really understand why he'd be interested in whether this is happening to others, but if it's any consolation to him I don't recall seeing any mention of this situation on here before, although it's presumably a pretty niche scenario (Tesco savings account holders choosing not to manage them online, then moving abroad while leaving the account open)!

Not defending Tesco here though, they obviously haven't covered themselves in glory performing simple admin tasks, assuming that the delay to the customer service cheque is their fault rather than it going astray in the post of course.