Santander stopping alerts - why would they do that?

UncleK

uk1 said:

It’s about time Santander had their botty smacked. 

 Big time 

UncleK

uk1 said:

It’s about time Santander had their botty smacked. 

Indeed - Big Time

WillPS

Jabba_flabba said:

Yesterday morning I tried to register a complaint about the changes via their Chat, and it wasn't very fruitful. I suspect if I'd chosen the 'I need to speak to someone now' option rather than 'Something else' I would have been able to register my complaint verbally, but frankly I'd prefer to stick with Chat. 

Here's a screenshot from when I checked the Chat just now. AFAICT, the chat never got handed off to a human, but time will tell if this gets picked up. In the old days, you could simply send them a Secure Message - I can still see the messages I sent them 10 years ago. Not sure when that stopped being an option.

Surely "I want to raise a new issue" is the one for a new complaint?

GeoffTF

It is annoying to see a helpful feature go, but I am well defended nonetheless. I use my account for direct debits and sometimes for moving large sums of money. I do not routinely use the debit card otherwise. My defensive measures are:

(1). Have only one account with Santander.

(2). If I know when a large credit should arrive, have the date in my diary.

(3). Remove the money as soon as it arrives.

(4). Keep as little money in the account as I can.

(5). Use the debit card only when it is absolutely necessary.

(6). Keep the debit card well hidden away.

(7). Disable contactless, or set the limit to a very low level.

(8). Keep as little money in the account as I can.

(9). Set the overdraft limit to get me home when I have lost the other card.

(10). Do not use the app.

My typical balance plus overdraft limit is a tiny fraction of my net asset value, so I do not have too much cause to worry. The banks would like us to put all our eggs in their one basket, but I believe in fire walls.

Jjkwh

I wonder if the alerts rely on SMS rather than RCS messaging. Reason being SMS uses  2g and mobile operators are talking of switching off 2g in some areas as early as this year. 

GeoffTF

Jjkwh said:

I wonder if the alerts rely on SMS rather than RCS messaging. Reason being SMS uses  2g and mobile operators are talking of switching off 2g in some areas as early as this year. 

SMS will continue to function:

https://www.quora.com/What-will-happen-to-SMS-when-2G-network-shutdown-and-there-is-only-3G-and-4G-network-available-Are-people-still-able-to-send-SMS-and-receive-SMS-from-their-3G-mobile-phone

Jjkwh

..even if it can be done with 4g could be a connection...

born_again

Not defending Santander, as annoyed as everyone else.  Would rather that they just mirrored these stopped messages to push notifications.

A complaint will not get anywhere. This is a internal process & ALL the regulatory messages as still covered & being sent. So even going to FOS will not change anything 🤷‍♀️

Section62

Jjkwh said:

I wonder if the alerts rely on SMS rather than RCS messaging. Reason being SMS uses  2g and mobile operators are talking of switching off 2g in some areas as early as this year. 

Jjkwh said:

..even if it can be done with 4g could be a connection...

Santander will continue to send some text messages - they are only stopping some options.  So if there was some kind of 2G switchoff issue then either Santander have already found a workaround, or else they aren't being truthful when they say SMS will continue to be available for the (regulatory) messages (and OTP's).

Jabba_flabba

WillPS said:

Jabba_flabba said:

Yesterday morning I tried to register a complaint about the changes via their Chat, and it wasn't very fruitful. I suspect if I'd chosen the 'I need to speak to someone now' option rather than 'Something else' I would have been able to register my complaint verbally, but frankly I'd prefer to stick with Chat. 

Here's a screenshot from when I checked the Chat just now. AFAICT, the chat never got handed off to a human, but time will tell if this gets picked up. In the old days, you could simply send them a Secure Message - I can still see the messages I sent them 10 years ago. Not sure when that stopped being an option.

Surely "I want to raise a new issue" is the one for a new complaint?

True, though it shouldn't matter if I'm being put through to a human anyway. I checked again just now and they still haven't replied 😒