Barclays incorrect information on credit file

BigMart64

I've got a bit of an ongoing gripe with Barclays at the moment, which the best way to explain is to start from the beginning.

At the start of Covid in 2020 my partner was laid off and I lost all my overtime so I decided to take a 3 month payment holiday from my Barclayloan, when the 3 months were nearly up I had the option of extending it for another 3 months.
As our situation hadn't changed so went for the extension.
For some reason, the application didn't go through and I wasn't made aware.

In September 2020 my partner found another job and I also changed jobs with a higher salary so in October I contacted Barclays to restart the direct debit.

I then started getting letters and text messages about two missed payments for August and September 2020.

I phoned Barclays to ask them if they could add the two payments to the end of the loan period which they refused to and insisted I complete an income and expenditure form and THEY would decide how I was to repay the two missed payments.
I refused to do this as I felt as though I was being pressured.

I sent a couple of letters of complaint which they didn't even respond to. 

The letters and particularly the text messages continued, these would come through at 6:13am.
The last straw was when not only did I get a text message on Christmas morning at 6:13 am but I also got one on Boxing day.

A few days later I complained to the Financial Ombudsman who contacted Barclays. The FO said I would get a response from Barclays but I never did.

I've contacted the FO a few times and never hear a thing from Barclays.

I've been keeping an eye on my credit report and even though the two payments in question are for August and September 2020, Barclays have been indicated that I have missed every single payment since, so I have 27 months of missed payments.

I've also updated the FO regarding this and nobody has been in contact.

Luckily I have only 4 payments left on this loan including the two that I've missed.
I'm not interested in any more credit, I just feel aggrieved at the incorrect information being logged.

I have thought about contacting the CEO but I'll probably get ignored.
 

penners324

Keep pushing the FOS, write to the CEO, tweet them etc et 

penners324

Send a complaint to the Information Commissioner Office as well.

sourcrates

Neither the FOS nor the ICO can take any action whatsoever until Barclays own internal complaints procedure has been exhausted, I find it incredible they would not respond to your complaint.

You can make your complaint in numerous ways -

Live chat via the Barclays app.

By phone on - 0800 282 390

By post - Freepost Barclays Customer Relations

This is their customer complaints commitment -

"Once you’ve made a complaint, we'll aim to contact you within 24 hours. We’ll confirm that we’re looking into your complaint and when you can expect a response. We'll also give you a unique reference number so we can find your record quickly". 

Personally, I would phone them, write down prior to calling what you want to say, make sure it`s logged, and you get a reference number, do they have up to date contact details for you ?

Brie

You definitely have good reason to complain if Barclays never responded.  The standard excuse (which doesn't actually forgive them in any way, shape or form) will be that "due to covid blah blah blah".  But frankly that will be an all out lie.  From March 2020 Barclays was fully supporting staff to work from home, including all their customer service centre staff.  Now some time was needed to equip them (still no real excuse) but everyone, and I mean everyone, in Barclays was either still working in the office or working from home with all the tech/pc/laptop/phone that they needed to do a full days work by June 2020 at the latest.  Ok - a few exceptions - some people may not have had really specialist kit required for disabilities but that is a small percentage, likewise those off sick (for normal reasons or covid).  

What did happen though (& still no excuse for bad service or behaviour) is that a lot of people took on work they weren't trained to do in the proper sense.  They might be WFH and have a trainer available when they needed assistance.  And so some people oozing confidence did things that weren't the right process, or didn't know how to do something and either forgot to get help on it or just swept it out of the way so they didn't need to think about it.  This is likely why your second payment holiday didn't get handled correctly.  

Then because of a backlog of work and a re-imagining on how things could be done and updating of tech a lot of customer service types moved into working social media and chat rooms.  And that's 24/7 work - this is why you (& the rest of us) would get messages at silly o'clock am.  And on Christmas Day (bonus pay for working!!!).

If your credit record isn't an issue for you, you aren't planning on needing new credit for the next few years then I would wait til you have paid the normal installments on your loan and not pay the 2 missing payments.  And wait for them to come asking for this again.  Likelihood (going by your post) they will need to pay you a substantial amount and this should be applied against anything that is really deemed as being outstanding as principle but I would assume that any interest on those payments should be written off. 

BigMart64

Thanks for the replies.
After not receiving any reply from Barclays I contacted the FOS, Barclays got back to them claiming they had sent me a letter regarding my "concern", a letter I never received and what they sent to the FOS wasn't even on headed paper, just like it was typed up on word.
This was the letter they sent to the FOS.

14 January 2022 Our reference: xxxxxxxxx

 Dear Mr xxxxxxx
 Your concern

 Thank you for your time Thank you for letting us know about the issues you have had with the communications you are receiving regarding your Barclayloan Payment Holiday. Unfortunately, I am unable to uphold your concern, as no bank error has been identified. I am aware that you're unhappy with the SMS messages and letters that are being sent to you reminding you about your Barclayloan payments. Unfortunately, I am not able to evidence the SMS messages being sent at the times you have stated you are receiving them. I am able to evidence a message being sent on 21 December 2021 at 10:04 am and this is the only message in December that I am able to see. I have spoken with our Collections Team who have informed me that they're also unable to evidence excessive SMS messages and letters being sent. I was also informed that any communications that are being sent to you are regulatory and not something that we are able to stop. I am aware that you're unhappy with the outcome of your previous written request regarding an extension of your Barclayloan on 10 March 2021. To speak about this further, please contact our Collections Team on 03457 034034* where an advisor can discuss this in further detail with you. We hope you are happy to continue banking with us and feel confident in letting us know your views again.

The FOS asked me if I wanted them to complain on my behalf which I agreed to, they said I should get a reply in writing within 8 weeks.

Barclays then tried to call me several times over a few days, my job is repairing/servicing over 1200 hospital beds and as you can imagine a hospital ward is not the ideal place to discuss personal matters so I refused to speak to them.
I did phone them a few days later and was told, "You're too late, you'll receive our final response in due course"

I'm still waiting for that response and have got back in touch with the FOS which was a few weeks ago now. 

It really does feel as though I'm just being ignored, fobbed off and they can bull***t the FOS.

All my contact details are up to date with them so no excuse.

I've no plans to get more credit, in fact, I should be virtually debt free by March or April next year.
The only time I would consider any more credit would be if my old car packed up before I had chance to save up for a new one, even then I'd probably buy an old banger until I'd saved the money. 

It's just really annoying Barclays have recorded I've missed loads of payments.

Where would I find the name and email address for the CEO of Barclays.

[Deleted User]

The CEO email stuff can be found on google but honestly it's pointless, all that happens is that the CEO's PA (or Executive Assistant these days) will forward the email to the complaints team. In times gone by it might be passed to an executive complaints team but the number of people these days use that email even as a default it will do diddly squat. Just pass the complaint onto the FOS as soon as you get the letter and make sure you have any evidence like SMS messages that contradict their reply above