Bank Error leaves me at technical financial Detriment - Thoughts?

Tom_Hendo

Hi All

Just want peoples thoughts before I progress a complaint with Virgin Money.

My Fixed ISA is just coming to an end, and I have scanned the market for the next best which came in at Virgin Moneys Exclusive at 5.85%. 

2 weeks ago I applied for a current account to be able to set the ISA up ready for the transfer. In the initial set up there was a technical fault that generated me 2 (and somehow 0 still) customer numbers meaning the account wouldn't link to anything, and hence failed. After sending it to the technical team I got a call back this week to say the application had to be cancelled and started again. On starting again it came across another error to be checked before automatically opening like the lady said it would. They said this should have been fixed today, but on calling today they are running 5 days out of SLA and will complete it early next week. 

Irritating, but not world ending. However, in the mean time their best rate ISA has been pulled (or is due to by next week) and will be replaced by one 1.1% lower in AER according to the sponsored ad I jsut got about it.

My question is, do I have a leg to stand on that the banks error and following incompetence means that I missed out on a product that would have generated more than £400 additional interest per annum. And if I do have a leg to stand on, do you think the bank will honour this mistake (I have call logs, and undelivered promises on recordings)? Secondly if they don't would it be worthy of a Ombudsman complaint, in breach of multiple treating customer fairly regulations.

Thanks, 

Tom 

MattMattMattUK

Tom_Hendo said:

Hi All

Just want peoples thoughts before I progress a complaint with Virgin Money.

My Fixed ISA is just coming to an end, and I have scanned the market for the next best which came in at Virgin Moneys Exclusive at 5.85%. 

2 weeks ago I applied for a current account to be able to set the ISA up ready for the transfer. In the initial set up there was a technical fault that generated me 2 (and somehow 0 still) customer numbers meaning the account wouldn't link to anything, and hence failed. After sending it to the technical team I got a call back this week to say the application had to be cancelled and started again. On starting again it came across another error to be checked before automatically opening like the lady said it would. They said this should have been fixed today, but on calling today they are running 5 days out of SLA and will complete it early next week. 

Irritating, but not world ending. However, in the mean time their best rate ISA has been pulled (or is due to by next week) and will be replaced by one 1.1% lower in AER according to the sponsored ad I jsut got about it.

My question is, do I have a leg to stand on that the banks error and following incompetence means that I missed out on a product that would have generated more than £400 additional interest per annum. And if I do have a leg to stand on, do you think the bank will honour this mistake (I have call logs, and undelivered promises on recordings)? Secondly if they don't would it be worthy of a Ombudsman complaint, in breach of multiple treating customer fairly regulations.

Thanks, 

Tom 

You do not have any entitlement to the account. You might get a £50 "gesture of goodwill" at most, but likely nothing.

boingy

No, you don't have a leg to stand on. Make a complaint - they might give you a few quid but they are not going to open an obsolete account for you.

grumbler

It's not 'obsolete' yet - https://uk.virginmoney.com/savings/products/1_year_fixed_rate_cash_isa_exclusive_issue_7/