How do you get your own back on Banks

dbdibble

Two months ago Abbey managed to lose a £5,000 transfer to Poland for me, we weren't allowed to complain they said as the matter was being "investigated" by them, despite numerous phone calls emails etc they never respond. They finally found their mistake three weeks ago, and have offered us £10 for the loss of interest on the £5,000 as it is not their policy to compensate.

I really feel the need to hurt them more than just moving my account. If it was just an accidental set of events then so be it, but their attitude is amazingly bad, has anyone any very clever legal solutions to making life difficult for the big banks?

morg_monster

It doesn't sound like you've exhausted the bank's complaints route yet. Write back saying that you do not consider the matter closed and say what you think to be a reasonable sum.

EG - the interest, even at 5%, a month's interest on £5000 is about £20.
The time you have spent writing and calling them - say £10 an hour (not sure what is reasonable here, sure someone else on this board would know).
The money spent on stamps and calling them (probably not a huge amount - though you might have been on hold for an hour - but still, put it in)
Any other calculable costs you have incurred as a result of this - EG bank charges or interest if it sent the person in Poland overdrawn if they were expecting the money, charges for a CHAPS transfer if you had to do that etc etc.
Tot that up and then maybe add an amount for the stress it has caused you over the month plus it was going on. I'm sure someone on here can say how much is a reasonable total.

You could also tell the whole saga again in this letter, make sure you mention anyone who fobbed you off, or didn't call back when they said they would. Also if anyone WAS helpful, mention that too.

Just be nice and don't come across as money grabbing. They really should give you more than £10 compensation! I got £25 with the whole Barclay's ISA saga last year and that was just £1000 and 50 days or so of hassle!

If they write back and say £10 is their final offer and they consider the matter closed, then you can write to the Financial Ombudsman - I believe this is within their remit?

YorkshireBoy

You can make your official complaint verbally to a member of branch staff...preferably a senior member of staff, because they often have the authority to make goodwill gestures up to £xx(x?).

In my experience, faced with the prospect of a half-hour dictation, they'd rather get it resolved there and then and not have the matter escalated to head office/central complaints.

Obviously if you're looking for anything more than £50/75 or so, they'll probably not be able to 'help' you there and then and it will have to be escalated.


Disclaimer: The above is based on several complaints I've lodged with Halifax over the last year or so. Abbey may be different?

ShelfStacker_3

In legal contexts, interest is usually charged at a rate of 8%, so their offer is way out - about 23 quid out per month.

They are being idiots. Write and complain to head office and, if they refuse to do anything more go to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

dbdibble

Thanks for these, but my point is even Morg Monster who seems to be more tenacious than me was out of pocket for 50 days with I imagine loads of calls/emails/time to eventually get £25, there must be a way of just causing a bit of mayhem, to be honest I would rather be a pain and forgo the compensation, for example, is there a limit to how many chequebooks you can order on line ie. can I order 50,000? It's ideas like this that I am after

Thanks

Dbdibble

KiKi

So you want to create havoc that they'll spend time clearing up and in effect will worsen their service for others because those people are spending time sending out 50,000 cheque books to you?

I appreciate you've had a bad experience, and you may want some compensation and an apology.

But you don't think that taking revenge in the most childish of manners is really rather...pitiful? And possibly illegal?

Grow up and pursue compensation and an apology. Don't make the service worse for everyone else, and don't make working lives miserable for people who had nothing to do with your money going missing.

KiKi

Mikeyorks

dbdibble wrote: »

'' there must be a way of just causing a bit of mayhem ...

Are you of an age to be making monetary transfers to Poland? As you don't sound it.

Most immature post I've read in weeks.

_Andy_

As above posts, you need to grow up and move on. Do you really think that ordering a bunch of cheque books is going to 'hurt' a huge company? It's just pathetic.