Sainsbury's Credit Card Incorrectly in Fraud Investigation

Mr_Moolah

Help! I used my Sainsbury's Bank credit card on Wednesday to make a large purchase, had to confirm the purchase via a code sent to my phone (I believe this is the two-factor authentication), transaction was blocked. Tried a few more times and still no success. The item was being sent to the same address as my billing address, all details matched etc.

I then received a personal (not automated) phone call from Sainsbury's Bank about activity on my card, and that it had already been referred to a specialist on the fraud department. The call operator couldn't pass me through to the department because they are busy (because of covid), and they couldn't go through the transactions with me to confirm whether it was me or not because the account has been put on a restricted mode due to the fraud investigation.

Two days later the card is still blocked, I contacted Sainsbury's and they said that the account is still blocked due to the fraud investigation, the call handler was blocked from viewing the transactions and I would have to wait to be contacted by the fraud department which can take up to 10 working days!

Essentially my card has been blocked because of a transaction (on a large purchase from a legitimate shop that has many branches in the UK and I have bought from in the past), no one has gone through the transactions to confirm whether it was me or not making the transactions and automatically decided to investigate for fraud.

My card is now blocked and I cannot use it for potentially two weeks, meaning that I can't buy a season ticket for work travel, can't buy much shopping (can only use my debit card) etc. And Sainsbury's just say "deal with it".

Previous cards I've had from different companies give an automated call, you confirm the transactions and the card is unblocked. But Sainsbury's will take 10 days to unblock!

What can I do? Or am I stuck for 10 days whilst this needless fraud investigation takes place?

WillPS

Complain. If you can pinpoint any financial loss this has caused then show your working on that and make clear that you expect an extra amount for your time spent complaining and the overall inconvenience.

In future, it's unwise to have just 1 credit card because these sort of things can happen (although I agree on the surface it does appear to be a ridiculous amount of time to wait for a card to simply be unblocked).

Mr_Moolah

Considering that I've called and sort of complained to the operator, and that's gotten nowhere, I'm not sure where else I can complain to.

I heard that once a fraud investigation starts this can also be put onto your credit file so that they monitor if someone tries to apply for loans or cards, so essentially I'll be blocked from even looking for another card because they'll think that application is fraudulent too!

I just can't believe I've got to go through all of this and no one has once asked me if I was the one making the transaction!

[Deleted User]

Mr_Moolah said:

Considering that I've called and sort of complained to the operator, and that's gotten nowhere, I'm not sure where else I can complain to.

I heard that once a fraud investigation starts this can also be put onto your credit file so that they monitor if someone tries to apply for loans or cards, so essentially I'll be blocked from even looking for another card because they'll think that application is fraudulent too!

I just can't believe I've got to go through all of this and no one has once asked me if I was the one making the transaction!

They won't give you the sort of CIFAS marker that blocks you from getting cards, in genuine fraud cases they would (as in you were committing fraud), but in some cases they might give you a protective marker which just means manual reviews for applications e.g. if you were the victim of fraud attempts.

With this, it's a pain certainly but it's worth doing an application for another card, assuming you have a mastercard, another card, ideally a visa card from someone else would help in this situation

born_again

Mr_Moolah said:

Considering that I've called and sort of complained to the operator, and that's gotten nowhere, I'm not sure where else I can complain to.

I heard that once a fraud investigation starts this can also be put onto your credit file so that they monitor if someone tries to apply for loans or cards, so essentially I'll be blocked from even looking for another card because they'll think that application is fraudulent too!

I just can't believe I've got to go through all of this and no one has once asked me if I was the one making the transaction!

How do you sort of complain? Either you do or do not. FCA rules are very clear. If customer complains it has to be recorded. If they can not resolve it, then it goes to customer relations/complaints team to deal.

Working in a fraud team. I know exactly why call center staff do not have access to security systems. They make far too many mistakes allowing fraud transactions to go through.

I am surprised that it takes up to 10 days for a simple card payment though. Most people complain if their card is blocked just because it is a genuine transaction & are not contacted straight away to sort it out.

As a aside. Fraudsters use big legitimate shops to make purchases.

On that point, was the year when John Lewis announced it best Christmas sales figures ever. We know why as they were hit big style by fraudsters. Despite being warned what was happening & to tighten their process on goods being picked up in store after online purchase to simply ask to see the card used they carried on ignoring the advice & lost a fortune in fraud chargebacks.

Mr_Moolah

Well complaining to the customer services appears to have done nothing, yes I suppose a redirect to the specific complaints department may be required.

I used to work as customer services for a different credit card provider, whilst not fraud department, it was our job to go through recent transactions, confirm with the card holder and unlock. If the caller did not confirm the transactions then it would be passed through to fraud.

Indeed I have had fraud before on a card, and it was only noticed because the transactions went through and onto my bill! You speak to customer services and then get passed through to fraud, but for this I am utterly shocked that it was passed directly to fraud, and now due to Covid/WFH it can take up to 10 working days for the investigation.

Whereas the transaction that I attempted to make was with a retailer I have an existing account with, the item was being shipped to the same address as the billing address, two factor authentication on the card was confirmed.

I just get a feeling that everyone is attempting to drag this out, and it very much appears to be WFH (drag out the investigation to enable more Netflix time etc).

Will have to push much harder tomorrow with the company, and get through to the complaints department.

WillPS

Have you used the words "I wish to open a complaint about this" or similar?

Just moaning about inconvenience is not the same as complaining.

[Deleted User]

WillPS said:

Have you used the words "I wish to open a complaint about this" or similar?

Just moaning about inconvenience is not the same as complaining.

Agreed, I had a (polite!) moan to NatWest as I had noticed they had been allocating payments on a BT card to a second balance that ended later than the first balance, the CSA did mention it was something they had seen and they would mention it internally but nothing more. It wasn't until I actually used the messaging app and specifically said I wanted to complain that the complaints team picked it up and rang up to apologise and offer to extend the 0% deal at the end if I wasn't able to pay it off in time.

born_again

WFH has not effect on speed of dealing with calls. They still get routed to the teams dealing with them just the same as if you were sat in the office. You still get pulled up the same if you are slacking. 
All KPI's are system based so sit there too long doing nothing & you have a manager on your back. Might even find one turning up on your doorstep if they think you are really slacking off.

Certainly as far as we go WFH has meant better productivity. Only thing that leads to long call waits is more customers calling. 🤷‍♂️
Rather sit at home, than spend 2 hours a day stuck in car too & from work.

kaMelo

born_again said:

WFH has not effect on speed of dealing with calls. They still get routed to the teams dealing with them just the same as if you were sat in the office. You still get pulled up the same if you are slacking. 
All KPI's are system based so sit there too long doing nothing & you have a manager on your back. Might even find one turning up on your doorstep if they think you are really slacking off.

Certainly as far as we go WFH has meant better productivity. Only thing that leads to long call waits is more customers calling. 🤷‍♂️
Rather sit at home, than spend 2 hours a day stuck in car too & from work.

Although of course the same cannot be said for every organisation.  "Because of Covid" or to translate "We're !!!!!! and we know we are" is still used by some to cover up what is simply poor service which in turn lead to longer call waits as more people need to make the call to sort something out.

WillPS

Are Sainsburys Bank finally allowing call centre staff to WFH then? They weren't for a long time.