Correcting garbled name on credit card account

Diana2014

I have had a Sainsbury's Bank credit card for over 24 years. It was set up using my initials and title, to prevent their using the wrong first name for me.
Six months ago, first my credit card statements and then a new credit card were issued using the wrong first name, instead of the previous, accurate account name. Today, I received a letter using only that wrong name, omitting both my title and the initial of my other Christian name (the one that I've used all my life). So I tried for the umpteenth time to get the account name corrected, only to find that all previous channels of communication have become impassable.

One cannot effect a change of account name online, so I rang their general credit card enquiry number - which is now only answered by a recording, telling one to use their website instead. I do not use online banking, so that didn't give me any effective means of contacting the bank at all.
Sainsbury's Bank's emergency credit card number, which worked in the spring - but repeated requests to which didn't result in the necessary correction - is now answered only by a recording, leaving the caller in an endless queue.
Sainsbury's Careline is still eventually answered by a human being but even they can't effectively transfer the call internally: one just ends up back in that endless queue again.

In May 2022, Sainsbury's website included a webform for making electronic contact in writing, but it was malfunctioning. Repeated requests to get it working resulted only in its being taken down.
Repeated requests made via Messenger from May onwards for the bank to contact me by e-mail resulted only in promises of reporting the problem to the relevant department but never in any actual contact from them. Using Messenger now doesn't even result in an annoying standard form acknowledgement, let alone an actual (if ineffectual) response from any human being.
The only means of making any written complaint is by snail mail, which is both impracticable for anyone without a printer and impossibly inefficient. No wonder that Sainsbury's Bank claims that so few complaints are made about it; they effectively prevent customers from complaining to it in any form that can't be lost by them!

As far as I can see, the only effective means of making a written complaint to Sainsbury's Bank about its inaccessibility is to use the Financial Ombudsman Service. Were it not that I'd made repeated complaints via Messenger, I'd have no written evidence at all of my previous attempts to contact the bank.
This is a nonsense. Surely every bank has to have an effective system allowing customers to contact it and, if necessary, complain to it.

Brie

have you tried ringing them as if you aren't in the UK?  Sometimes that gets you through to customer service to deal with customers who are in trouble when out of the UK so you might get a better service.  I don't currently have a S's card but have used this trick in the past with others.

Credit card enquiries
Lines are open	8am–7pm, Mon–Fri 8am–5pm, Sat - Sun
Phoning from inside the UK	08085 40 50 60 *
Phoning from outside the UK	+44 131 549 8040 *

MrFrugalFever

I would just be persistent with trying to get through on the phone. I’ve got 2 savings accounts with them and have had good success getting through, even during the height of COVID lockdown.

I strongly encourage setting up online banking, there’s very little in the way of excuses as to why this can’t be done these days. That way ‘secure messages’ can be sent if phoning proves to be a dead end.

Tigsteroonie

The only means of making any written complaint is by snail mail, which is both impracticable for anyone without a printer and impossibly inefficient.

Back in the old days, we actually hand-wrote letters. 

Ebe_Scrooge

Tigsteroonie said:

The only means of making any written complaint is by snail mail, which is both impracticable for anyone without a printer and impossibly inefficient.

Back in the old days, we actually hand-wrote letters. 

Well said!  I'm sure that some people these days are so used to doing everything on a computer that they forget it is still possible to do things the old-fashioned way.

Maybe I'm an old fuddy-duddy, but my kids still hand-write "thankyou" cards to people that give them birthday and Christmas presents.

born_again

The only way to get anything like a name change is to go through security, so they know who you are. Even a letter will not change details like this.
As it could be anyone asking for it.

Bank & Credit card will be different systems.

flo22

Stating that you want a name change will complicate things, you are not changing your name just changing which of your 2 names is displayed on the card, they already have both your names on record.  Let them know that your middle name is the preferred name and the you either want the card to just show your initials or to show the middle name on the card.

[Deleted User]

Tigsteroonie said:

The only means of making any written complaint is by snail mail, which is both impracticable for anyone without a printer and impossibly inefficient.

Back in the old days, we actually hand-wrote letters. 

Don't need to waste time on stamps and letters, a formal complaint can be lodged via email or even their messenger, though OP isn't helping matters by not using their online banking