West Bromwich BS : on a go slow for you too?

mk-donald

Is anyone else suffering a lamentable lack of customer care from our society ?

I had/have a fixed rate/period mini-cash ISA that was due to mature 5/4/2008 but nearly 4 weeks on I am still not in control of it :mad:

I went through the various hoops West Bromwich Building Society set me to tell them I intended to transfer it away upon maturity to a (far) better paying BS - that took a 19 minute phone call on their premium 0845 number!

I duly filled in the necessary ISA transfer form to another BS and sent that, with several others, off to that BS in mid March. The other 2 societies (Kent Reliance & National Counties) promptly acted on the instructions and wrote to me to confirm transfer values etc. I had heard nothing from West Brom.

Phoned West Brom today 1/5 to find out what the tardiness was, to be told they had the form on 31/3 and would process it within the 30 days set by the Inland Revenue - which runs from 6/4 apparently as that is the first day I could have had the money!

Our Society's conditions say they will transfer within 30 days but will TRY to process within 5 days. Apparently they are BUSY currently - something to do with APRIL tax year end - which presumably comes as a surprise to them each year ?!?!

Am I alone in having my money 'linger' in their coffers for the maximum possible period or have I been singled out for processing taking 5 to 6 times the period they endeavour to provide a valued member with ?

If the former it's a good wheeze to maintain assets & liquidity but a damn sharp business practice for a mutual!

10_66

I haven't got an ISA with them, but I have been requesting a statement from them for 3 months now, to show my balance in a Star Easy Access account. I have nothing in print to say what my balance is, and of course, you can't access anything online with them. I have now raised it to a complaint level, and I still haven't had anything from them.

nicko33

10_66 wrote: »

but I have been requesting a statement from them for 3 months now.

You've been requesting a statement since the day the account was launched onto the market (1st Feb) ?

10_66

nicko33 wrote: »

You've been requesting a statement since the day the account was launched onto the market (1st Feb) ?

Sorry, to be precise, 2½ months, it just feels longer. I bet when I get to 3 months I still haven't had any written confirmation of my balance.

Red_Cat

Don't get me started on West Brom BS.

The service in branch (Erdington) waas really poor. I was the one telling the staff there how much you can put in an ISA these days and one of them was trying to kid me that one of their products wasn't with any exposure to equities - when I knew that it had as I have the same product already.

If I wasn't the loyal ytpe (towards mutuality), I would have ditched them by now.

churchill23

Hi red cat

nice to hear a local on here,my dad worked on the tyburn rd for 30years a place called cincinaty(milacrom)or something like that,i`ve never been there i live in halesowen,my brother in law was a branch manager over here with w/brom bs and he is arrogant/self centred ,needless to say the branch is now closed,with people like him being the face and voice for them god help us,going back over to pensions now so see ya around

Old_Slaphead

I don't think that it's just the WBBS that's poor at the moment - on 6/4/08 I requested transfers of 3 ISAs from Barclays, KRBS and NS&I. To date, ONLY the Barclays one has been transacted!

maple41

Hi MK Donald
I also had a West Brom Isa finish on the 5th April. When the letter came from them in March asking what you wanted to do with it did you return it with the instructions to transfer it on maturity?
I did, having been into the Nationwide and asked them to process the transfer on the 5th April giving them a copy of the West Brom letter.
Any way the West Brom took until the 22nd April to send a cheque to the Nationwide, stuck to the 30 day rule apparently from when I gave them the instruction to transfer.
Nationwide have still not opened the account, in the branch last week was told that them have 30 days from when they receive the funds - but they do backdate to when cheque received.
After the bit on Working Lunch last Friday I intend writing to complain to both West Brom and the Nationwide once transfer is finished. Apparently they have 30 days IN TOTAL to carry out the transfer according to the FSA, not 30 days each!

undercoat11

Hi

Well I went into the branch in Kings Heath to ask for the ISA rate and was subjected to a 5 - 10 minute hard sell from the Manager!

Their isa is linked to the FTSE and you get a minimum of 12% - I said what is that per annum - she said no over 4 years!!! So if the FTSE falls, I would only get 3% a year.

I told her I could get a better rate at the Nationwide with no risk and she was clearly really annoyed that I had mentioned a competitor, despite having been subjected to a high pressure sales pitch from her.

Very annoying Building Society in my opinion - she clearly had targets to meet and took me for a total fool.

mk-donald

Update on 8/5:

It being now 32 days after the a/c matured (ie from when they are counting a transfer request could be given, even though they actually received the paperwork a week earlier than that!) I wondered why I hadn't heard anything....

Phoned up using the http://www.saynoto0870.com/ site to find a 01 number that won't cost me the 5p/min of their rip-off rate advertised 0845 number.

Got told they HAD transferred the funds - you can guess what day - yep on the 30th day after the 6/4 - ie on 6/5. I do not think that it was just a co-incidence that they did it on that date - I assume it was policy to retain my money and hold my transfer for as long as they felt legally able to do so and that stinks.

HMRC stipulate that transfers "must not exceed 30 days, and should represent whatever reasonable period the manager requires for practical implementation". Such a shame that the Society can tell its members that 5 days is their expectation for providing transfers, but in reality it's not 28, not 29, but actually to the T&C wire at exactly 30 days.

At least they have paid me 5.25% on the funds during that period so I've only lost out £2 from their attempt to improve their liquidity at my expense but the idea they can exploit rules to deny me control of my funds is shoddy, shoddy, shoddy!