Co-op £150 Switch & Stay Offer 27/9/24

Emily_Joy

Alexland said:

Emily_Joy said:

... meaning I need to send them a secure message again

Oh dear is this how we are supposed to spend the first 3 months of 2025 chasing £25 bonuses that don't pay? Maybe this is their way of punishing people they can see are only doing the bare minimum transactions and are clearly still running their main accounts elsewhere.

The only other time they annoyed me this much was about 15 years ago when I used to have a Coop Smile credit card and it was a really shiny gold thing that would impress people then shortly before expiry they reissued it as a ugly pink thing that looked like something Mr Blobby would carry with no explanation. Shame as the cashback rate was good but I couldn't use it in public it was so embarrassing.

15 years ago I just memorised the card details so I didn't need to take it out to buy things online. My favourite card design by far was RBS debit with a small wooden hut on a sea shore Chasing banks is now integrated in my weekly routine.

s71hj

Emily_Joy said:

Alexland said:

Emily_Joy said:

... meaning I need to send them a secure message again

Oh dear is this how we are supposed to spend the first 3 months of 2025 chasing £25 bonuses that don't pay? Maybe this is their way of punishing people they can see are only doing the bare minimum transactions and are clearly still running their main accounts elsewhere.

The only other time they annoyed me this much was about 15 years ago when I used to have a Coop Smile credit card and it was a really shiny gold thing that would impress people then shortly before expiry they reissued it as a ugly pink thing that looked like something Mr Blobby would carry with no explanation. Shame as the cashback rate was good but I couldn't use it in public it was so embarrassing.

15 years ago I just memorised the card details so I didn't need to take it out to buy things online. My favourite card design by far was RBS debit with a small wooden hut on a sea shore Chasing banks is now integrated in my weekly routine.

I have to say I adore my new Zopa card.

Alexland

Morton37 said:

My transferred balance from Barclays was £3k+, but they're still insisting it doesn't qualify.

I don't think they are treating you fairly as they are managing the switch timescales it's not within your control - did you ask for a complaint to be raised and did they give you a reference to prove they did it?

Alexland

So after a week they have come back to me to say that I didn't qualify for the £75 because they think I didn't register my card for Apple/Google Pay.

I've gone back and confirmed that I did add the card to my Google Pay wallet and I had already told them that was method I used it to pay for over 10 ebay transactions in the month after transfer and can provide the ebay receipts that clearly show the transactions on the bank statement were paid with Google Pay. I don't see how it could be any other way as I never gave ebay the debit card details and the only place I typed them in was my Google Pay account.

I've asked them to continue to investigate and progress my complaint. I've also reminded them that I feel they are treating me very unfairly and would be wiling to eventually take this complaint to the ombudsman if required.

It's not even about the £ incentive anymore they have really wound me up going around pretending to be ethical goodness while unnecessariliy being massively disappointing trying to ignore, fob off and screw over customers on small print when they are not even correct about the details they are claiming. It's really annoying as I was a happy customer for many years a long time ago and would have previously unreservedly recommended them - they are tainting my happy student banking memories.

Even if they end up paying me some compensation they will probably just continue to do this to other people.

They should be barred from taking new customers until they sort themselves out as they are a total disgrace.

Alexland

Sigh, the complaints team have closed my complaint making an error about not making an error

"I've now received a response from our Switching Team in relation to the Switching Incentive offer. As you didn't register for the Digital Wallet you haven't met the criteria and this is why the offer was declined for the Switching Incentive. Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused. I realise this may not be the answer you are looking for and I'm sorry I'm unable to help any further on this occasion. I appreciate your frustration regarding the decline of the Switching Incentive offer, however, when dealing with complaints we have to consider if the bank has made an error when we are making a decision about upholding or rejecting a complaint. On this occasion, we've not made an error and acted in line with our current processes and/ policy, as such I can't uphold your complaint."

I just called Coop to give them one more chance before referring them to the Ombudsman and actually got someone helpful who did a quick check and confirmed they did see a marker on my account of Google Pay being setup in the correct timescales so they don't understand why the switching team are saying it didn't happen.

She also agreed that the complaints team should have actually done an investigation as they would have quickly seen what she can see on the system that proves the switching team are wrong. She is going to speak to both teams on Monday and call me back about what can be done to resolve this.

dealyboy

Thank you for the updates Alexland ... oh dear oh dear.

Alexland

dealyboy said:

Thank you for the updates Alexland ... oh dear oh dear.

Yeah let's see what Monday brings the helpful person said they should call me back around midday. In some ways I kinda regret giving them that final chance as I had a rejected complaint so could have just taken it to the ombudsman to raise external visibility of how poorly the switch and complaints team are treating people,

The thing is, even if they were right and I had neglected to do one thing, surely the point of this offer was to attract customers not to upset them and for the sake of 75 quid. They must invest so much money in advertising and doing the account setup and switch it's a false economy to deny the payment when the customer has otherwise attempted to comply with it all. I'm surprised they don't have a policy that if all but one thing is done to payout anyway in order to have a happy customer.

It's like they run an offer then do everything possible to avoid paying out. Perhaps it's designed with so many steps and complexities with the expectation that they can avoid paying out to a proportion of switching customers?

If they are deliberately running an offer for many people to fail achieving that's plain unethical.

dealyboy

Alexland said:

dealyboy said:

Thank you for the updates Alexland ... oh dear oh dear.

Yeah let's see what Monday brings the helpful person said they should call me back around midday. In some ways I kinda regret giving them that final chance as I had a rejected complaint so could have just taken it to the ombudsman to raise external visibility of how poorly the switch and complaints team are treating people,

The thing is, even if they were right and I had neglected to do one thing, surely the point of this offer was to attract customers not to upset them and for the sake of 75 quid. They must invest so much money in advertising and doing the account setup and switch it's a false economy to deny the payment when the customer has otherwise attempted to comply with it all. I'm surprised they don't have a policy that if all but one thing is done to payout anyway in order to have a happy customer.

It's like they run an offer then do everything possible to avoid paying out. Perhaps it's designed with so many steps and complexities with the expectation that they can avoid paying out to a proportion of switching customers?

If they are deliberately running an offer for many people to fail achieving that's plain unethical.

Yes, I hear you. I think some banks / building societies do give people a second chance if they have been above board and acted in good faith, such that a small oversight or misunderstanding is not punished, but of course this is not the case here, you are the one showing magnanimity!

Morton37

Alexland said:

Morton37 said:

My transferred balance from Barclays was £3k+, but they're still insisting it doesn't qualify.

I don't think they are treating you fairly as they are managing the switch timescales it's not within your control - did you ask for a complaint to be raised and did they give you a reference to prove they did it?

Thanks for your reply (and your previous replies) Alex. Yes, I've asked for each of my messages (all 11 of them!) to be treated as a complaint, but it seems that it makes no difference to the quality of their response.

Sorry to hear they've been messing you around too. It seems pretty clear that they're playing dirty to avoid paying out these incentives.

I think I'll fire off a claim against them on Money Claim Online. If they want to play silly beggars in front of my local county court judge (a sharp chap who doesn't fall for any nonsense) then good luck to them.

We have a raft of very strong consumer legislation in the UK, now consolidated and bolstered by the Consumer Rights Act, which offers safeguards against vague, contradictory terms and conditions and companies who try to creatively interpret them in their own favour.

Alexland

Morton37 said:

Yes, I've asked for each of my messages (all 11 of them!) to be treated as a complaint, but it seems that it makes no difference to the quality of their response.

So did they actually raise complaint(s), give you reference(s) and later give you formal response(s) to uphold or deny those complaint(s)? If so you are now in a position to raise with the ombudsman if you wanted?

I think I'll fire off a claim against them on Money Claim Online. If they want to play silly beggars in front of my local county court judge (a sharp chap who doesn't fall for any nonsense) then good luck to them.

I think a court would expect you to have at least exhausted the complaints and ombudsman process before bringing a claim to their attention.

About 20 years ago when I competed early repayment of my student loan I was having problems getting the SLC to issue instructions to stop taking deductions from my pay. They said it would happen in the next tax year so I waited diligently for over a year but the deductions wouldn't stop and by this time I was owed thousands of pounds so I told them I was going to start small claim court action against them, and sent them my email correspondence with moneyclaim who had confirmed I could start action against them despite being owned by government, and it obviously got escalated as they called me back within a few hours and told me they were sending a cheque with interest and issuing the instruction asap,

So rather than starting small claims action against Coop you could just do some email correspondence with a court to confirm that you are able to launch action for breach of terms and then send that to Coop to see if they take note?