Blooming Barclays Stockbrokers!

Paul_Varjak

I thought that when my mum died in November 2004 and her account was closed in March 2005 that the problems with Barclays Stockbrokers would be over. I was wrong!

Briefly, whilst my mum was alive I handled her afairs and virtually every contact I had with Barclays Stockbrokers was a disaster! They repeatedly failed to ask for my password when I rang with queries; they sent me other people's statements and, seemingly, sent my mum's statements to other people!

Things got so bad that I received a personal call from the managing director of Barclays Stockbrokers apologising for their failings!

In October 2007 Barclays Stockbrokers (for some inexplicable reason) sent a statement on my mum's closed account. This went to my old address of course but, luckily, I had redirection in place for two years. I contacted Barclays who promised no more problems but, in January 2008, yet another statement arrived! So, I made a complaint - which (as you will see from the correspondence below) they even managed to mishandle my complaint! And it seems that the problems are not over even now, suggesting I may still receive mail at an old address I left 16 months ago!

Barclays_Stockbrokers wrote:

Dear Mr Varjak

Further to your email of 4 February, addressed to Gayle ******** of our Client Contact Team, your complaint has been reassigned to the Client Relations Department of Barclays Stockbrokers for investigation and response.


We place the highest level of importance on the service we deliver to our clients and I assure you that your complaint is being treated with the careful attention it deserves. The function of Client Relations is to ensure that you receive an impartial review of the circumstances surrounding your complaint.


I understand Gayle has sent you our complaints leaflet called ‘Don’t hold back your feedback’ for further information on how we deal with complaints. I have attached a leaflet for your reference. I hope you find this helpful and are reassured that we value your comments and I will work with you to resolve this matter.



<<Complaint leaflet for nominee.doc>>


I apologise that Gayle incorrectly referred to you as Mr Collins and provided you with his complaint reference in her letter. I assure you that we take matters relating to Data Protection very seriously and I am sorry that this is not the first time you have experienced issues with our service. I have highlighted this error with her Manager.

I have spoken to the relevant department to establish why an error has occurred with your late mother's account. It seems that it was reopened in error in August 2007 and closed 5 days later. This will have generated statements for the account which would have been sent to the address we hold on record. I apologise for this and assure you that feedback has been provided to the relevant Manager to ensure that the problem does not reoccur.

I would like to take this opportunity to ask you to confirm the dates of the statements you have received. This will help me to ensure that the rights steps are taken to prevent further statements being sent to you.


It may be necessary to reopen the account in order to resolve the matter. I would only propose this as a last resort. I mention this to you now as this would generate further statements which would be sent to your old address. Unfortunately, there is no way of preventing these statements from being sent and no way to amend the address on the account prior to reopening it. I would, however, hope to resolve the matter before having to take this step.

I look forward to hearing from you soon. If, at any stage throughout this investigation, you feel there is additional information whichmay be of assistance please contact me on 0845 605 xxxx*, as I will be personally dealing with your file.

Complaint Officer
Client Relations Department

Paul_Varjak

I have just heard from Barclays again!

They want to remove my old address from my mum's closed account and put their own address in its place - so that mail they want to send to my mum (who has been dead for over three years) will be received by them instead!