Bank blocked my card!!!

LGDNUFC

Not sure where to start, so I'll start at the beginning....
On the 31st October my Visa Debit card expired and I rang my bank Abbey on the 3rd Nov to ask where my replacement was, they said "its on its way, left 23rd Oct".So I gave it another couple of days and rang again and this time they said, we will send another one.
10 Days past and the replacement card didnt arrive, so I rang again, Abbey checked my address and said we will cancel that card and send another.7 days past and it didnt arrive either so I rang again and the assistant said she was going to check every possible thing as she couldnt figure out why my cards werent getting to me.Eventually it had appeared that when I moved house in March 2007, Abbey just changed my correspodence address but not my card or pin address, so my card had been going to my old address in Edinburgh!!!!! (I live in Newcastle now!!)
Eventually on the 1st of December my card arrived and my pin arrived on the 6th Dec.I rang and logged a formal complaint and my complaint was dealt with and I was given £100 compensation.
Yesterday I started my Christmas shoppong as I had been away visiting friends for 5 days. I used my card in 2 shops without any problems until I got to my 3rd shop and my card was declined. I didnt think anything of this as I thought I had had no action with my card for about 5 weeks then all of a sudden I was spending like crazy all in 1 evening.
This morning I placed my online Christmas grocery shop with my local supermarket and my card was decclined again, so I rang Abbey.
Abbey asked for card details and he said "are you sure" at that point I knew something was up!!
Eventually I found out that some person from Abbey had blocked my card giving the reason "gone away" which means the card didnt get to my house!!!Abbey were very confused why this had happened as I had had my card for 2 weeks now.
I ended up in tears on the phone as my replacement card wont get to me before christmas and I havent done much, if any shopping.
Abbey have said sorry, but cant actually do anything about it.....
This has made me stressed and upset and I want Abbey to take responsibility for this muck up.What if anything can I do to resolve this problem?:mad:
Sorry for being so long winded!!I had to get it off my chest as I have been stomping about all morning

siren13577

What a time for this happen, it's really, really rubbish and I truly feel for you. A strongly worded letter of complaint would be sent to the bank if that were me. Perhaps you could go into the bank and draw the money you need out. I know this doesn't help you with online purchases but at least you wouldn't be knocked back in the shops. I would be very. very po'd about this. Good luck getting this sorted and Happy Christmas.

nealallen

I can't believe Shabbey are still making all these mistakes, this is well over 6 months months now :mad:

exel1966

OP you're fortunate you've actually got a card ! Abbey once again featured on BBC's Watchdog programme this week with complaints that some people had been waiting over 5 months for a new debit card !!

They've been getting complaints (deservedly so) about dozens of differing problems all tied up with their 'New' IT systems. They really are the most shambolic incompetent organisation in the country at the moment without doubt.

I'd pay a visit to your local branch first thing Monday morning and ask to speak to someone with authority (NOT a C/s rep) and make your feelings known. Be forceful in what you want and expect, but be polite and don't let them fob you off.

LGDNUFC

I didnt know Abbey were on Watchdog this week.I wish I had seen it.I will be making my feeling known on Monday and I will be closing my account.

dunstonh

Eventually I found out that some person from Abbey had blocked my card giving the reason "gone away" which means the card didnt get to my house!!!Abbey were very confused why this had happened as I had had my card for 2 weeks now.

If the address was noted as gone away this means the mail they sent out has been returned to them.

Its possible that the earlier card they sent out that you never got found its way back to them as mail returned and your address removed as mail returned. That is normal when mail bounces.

PBA

If there's a "Gone away" marked on your account the card doesn't need to be cancelled. You just need to prove the correct address at a branch and the account will be unlocked.

One of the new features of the Abbey Partenon system is the ability to set correspondence addresses on accounts. However there have been cases where staff haven't been trained correctly, leading to main addresses being changed but the correspondence address left as the old address. All Abbey staff are undergoing retraining at the moment to make sure they know how to change addresses correctly.

LGDNUFC

dunstonh wrote: »

If the address was noted as gone away this means the mail they sent out has been returned to them.

Its possible that the earlier card they sent out that you never got found its way back to them as mail returned and your address removed as mail returned. That is normal when mail bounces.

The card that had been cancelled was the card that was in my hand, as they kept asking me to reread the number on the card and kept saying "are you sure?"
All the other cards were going to a previous address, but since that address, I have moved again since then.

LGDNUFC

PBA wrote: »

If there's a "Gone away" marked on your account the card doesn't need to be cancelled. You just need to prove the correct address at a branch and the account will be unlocked.

One of the new features of the Abbey Partenon system is the ability to set correspondence addresses on accounts. However there have been cases where staff haven't been trained correctly, leading to main addresses being changed but the correspondence address left as the old address. All Abbey staff are undergoing retraining at the moment to make sure they know how to change addresses correctly.

I rang Abbey again today and spoke to someone in card services and he said that the unblocking couldnt be reversed.
I rang complaints this morning and they told me to ring back when my card arrives and they will offer me more compensation.