Application form problems opening a Nationwide fixed rate ISA

Happychappy

Light at the end of the tunnel.....possibly....but knowing Nationwide, it's a bloody train coming.

I sent three letters as well as a letter to the Daily Mail who forwarded it directly to Beale the Ch/Exec or more to the point one of the lesser knowns, I also filled on the Financial Ombudsman form to start a complaint with them.

My wife and I went into the branch on 10th April with cheques to open a fixed rate ISA for this year, as well as trnasfer form for the ISA's with NS&I from last year.

Long story of bland responses and no action until today, I get a letter apologising that I felt it necessary to write to the Daily Mial etc, etc and they will now open the accounts etc.

The thing that totally !!!!es me off is I wrote three letters to them directly, as well as three messages on the account online section, but no mention of these, just we are sorry you felt it necessary to write to the Daily Mail.

What is it with these incompetent characters that they don't understand, certainly the title Customer Service should be removed from any literature they produce, I cant wait for these damn things to get set up so I can move them out, even with penalties.

No mention of the loss of interest in money sat in a non interest paying flex account waiting for these characters to take three and a half months to access it to fund the ISA's. So good luck.

john_s_2

DavidRossitter wrote: »

Hi
What is the consensus on what I must do to get resolution - do I go down the complaints dept, go elsewhere, write to someone. Clearly all attempts to liaise with the ISA dept is a complete waste of time.

I would definitely make a written complain as per their How to Complain page on their website:

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/contact_us/making_a_complaint/procedure.htm

Even if things get magically resolved without it, at least you've started the ball rolling. You need to give them 56 days from making a complaint before taking it to the Financial Ombudsman (according to the next page from the one I linked to).

My 56th day is mid August. I'm still waiting for my transfer to be completed properly. They wrote to me a week after complaining to say they'd reply by 15 July. I've heard nothing more since. I'm not going to chase them about this - if things still aren't sorted by mid August then I'm going to the Ombudsman.

I cant wait for these damn things to get set up so I can move them out, even with penalties.

I'm inclined to agree with you. I'm tempted to do the same. But six months' interest is a lot to lose - I'd be cutting my nose to spite my face. But I'm making sure I moan about how useless they are, to friends and family, at any opportunity I get. They are shameful.

Hungerdunger

Happychappy wrote: »

No mention of the loss of interest in money sat in a non interest paying flex account waiting for these characters to take three and a half months to access it to fund the ISA's.

I managed to get a letter out of them which assured me that when I eventually get the ISA set up, it will be backdated to the date we deposited our cheques. In fact, my partner received her certificate today and it showed a commencement date of 8 April.

Looking in the bright side, your £3,600 has been sitting in your flex account earning 0.10%, so in addition to the ISA interest, you will have profited by approximately 1p for every day of the delay. :rotfl:

john_s_2

Just a quick update. As a reminder I sent a letter of complaint on 24 June. A week later I got a letter telling me I would get a full reply by 15 July. That came and went with nothing in the post.

I got a letter today saying that the investigation is going well but it's taking longer than thought. They should reply by 12 August.

Too right they should! Cos by my calculation that's when their 56 days is up to correct their mistakes. Otherwise I can take my complaint to the Ombudsman.

In the meantime I've heard nothing more about the mistake that needs correcting (no interest added to the account from February to April). In fairness they said this would take 28 days and that's not quite up yet. [sarcasm] It must be very hard to do those sums. It's not like they've ever calculated interest payments before. [/sarcasm]

john_s_2

Update to my continuing saga.

I have now received my full reply to my complaint. Basically they confirm what's happened and apologise. Not a lot else they can say really.

Interestingly they advise that if I'm still unhappy I can write to their Member Services Dept. That is who I wrote to (see link I posted a few posts ago). It is the "ISA Executive Complaints Team" that have replied. Whatever...

Since I wrote my complaint a further problem arose - that my interest due from February to April was not paid on one of my ISAs. I was told over a month ago that this should be corrected within 28 days.

I phoned up about this the other day and the clerkconfirmed that I was due the interest and he would look into it. When he came back to the phone he said that I won't have any interest added to the account until the next 'capitalisation' day - 31 March 2009.

I asked him why my other ISA (transferred in around the same time) had the interest added in April. He couldn't explain. I pointed out that one of them must be a mistake - either I am due the interest to be added both ISAs, or it shouldn't have been added on the other. He agreed one of them must be a mistake but couldn't explain why it had happened. We agreed to terminate the call as we were going round in circles.

So I guess I'll now write to their 'Member Services' (again) to ask for an explanation of this. They are such a tiring organisation to deal with. It's like pulling teeth.

The only logical explanation I can think of (re the missing interest) is that because the first ISA was opened in early April, the interest got added. But as the second ISA wasn't opened up till early July they wait till next April before adding the interest.

If that's the case then fair enough, I'll wait. But what I'm worried about is that when I transfer these ISAs out (next Feb/Mar) they still won't pay the interest from Feb 08 to Mar 08. And I won't know this until they send me the closure letter. I've not been able to get any sense out of them as a customer - as an ex-customer I'll be completely stuffed!

esbo

Having problams with HSBC tried to open an online ISA butit came up wih an error,
I eventually completed the process but I can see nothing so I don't know if it is being procesed or not.
Phoned up the branch, they were no help either, knew nothing about it.
Thinking of closing my account. - They don't want my money apparently.

john_s_2

Re my post above. I finally got a letter today from NW today saying that they have credited the interest I was due from February to April.

No apology, no admitting their mistake. But finally, over six months after my application, my ISAs are finally open, and with all due interest paid.

Now that *is* different!