Contacting Santander

steveksullivan

Now need to contact them about a balance transfer that hasn't gone through ....

SOOOOO sick of queuing on the phone for over an hour to get to CS (especially after already having a call to Virgin of 40 minutes this morning ....) decided to give Sandi (online chat) another go....

Ask to speak to a person .....'I can help you with that ....'  ....ask the question then get into an infinite loop of unhelpful suggestions, without any sign of  real human.

Can anybody suggest a question they have tried,  that I could try, that wont just get into this loop.....?

refluxer

Is this a transfer in or a transfer out ?

pecunianonolet

"Sandi" is just a bot, usually "speak to agent" triggers interaction with a human in any chat if one is actually on the other side

Steve_xx

Try writing "speak to an agent".

steveksullivan

refluxer said:

Is this a transfer in or a transfer out ?

Transfer out .... new fee free interest free Santander card to pay off another ..... always been 'instant' transfers in the past and website indicates max 24 hours - been 5 days now (including weekend .....) With their recent history I have no confidence ......

steveksullivan

pecunianonolet said:

"Sandi" is just a bot, usually "speak to agent" triggers interaction with a human in any chat if one is actually on the other side

I realise that ..... but speak to agent only gets a 'what do you want?' question followed by the loop .......

pecunianonolet

Local branch in reach? Worked for me when I opened the esaver and was told to hand in documents which the branch manager said are not needed and basically took the form to put in the shredder. Quick passport check and I was out in 5 min

steveksullivan

No local branch within 10 miles..... last time I had an issue with Santander on the phone (AML stopping payment and account being locked ....) they told me only way to fix quickly was in branch ....

Got to branch and they said we cant do anything except verify your documents......

On my insistence they then sat me in an office for 90 minutes with a member of staff queuing on the phone in the same queue as if I had phoned from home .....

All in all, 2 hours in branch and a 20 mile round trip .....

Been with them for about 15 years (probably more ....) but now getting so fed up with their CS.

southone

Phone at 8AM gets though without a long wait normally

refluxer

steveksullivan said:

No local branch within 10 miles..... last time I had an issue with Santander on the phone (AML stopping payment and account being locked ....) they told me only way to fix quickly was in branch ....

Got to branch and they said we cant do anything except verify your documents......

On my insistence they then sat me in an office for 90 minutes with a member of staff queuing on the phone in the same queue as if I had phoned from home .....

All in all, 2 hours in branch and a 20 mile round trip .....

Been with them for about 15 years (probably more ....) but now getting so fed up with their CS.

Wow, that's completely unacceptable - I would have moved all of my money away and not looked back !

Against my better judgment (due to the numerous reports on here of similar issues), I've opened a couple of accounts with Santander recently to take advantage of some good rates but have made sure to only fund them with money I don't need instant access to, just in case of issues like this. 

I can see why the smaller banks and building societies have to employ the bare minimum of people in order to keep running costs down, but Santander are the 7th biggest bank in the country and have no excuse, IMO.

mebu60

steveksullivan said:

pecunianonolet said:

"Sandi" is just a bot, usually "speak to agent" triggers interaction with a human in any chat if one is actually on the other side

I realise that ..... but speak to agent only gets a 'what do you want?' question followed by the loop .......

I emailed the chief exec asking why they had replaced the perfectly functional secure messaging with the inane bot.

An executive assistant person replied to say that it was to speed things up, give the customers a quicker response.

I replied that I'd rather wait for a considered response than endure the frustration of dealing with a bot that clearly cannot cope with anything remotely outside of limited basics.

But I'm only a customer, what do I know? So now I will ring should I need to ask a question. Normally it doesn't take long before someone answers but with the 2.75% account launch and retraction I would expect it's a 'mare currently.

TBF I've not had much cause to contact them and I've had my main account with Santander since they took over A&L.