Abbey bank rant

[Systreg]

Abbey bank are useless planks

A few weeks ago, my mrs received a letter telling her she could pick her new card up from the Abbey branch, except the branch is about 80 miles away in Ramsgate where we lived previously.

She phoned Abbey to point out we now live in Hastings, and the bloke said she had to collect it from Ramsgate as that is her original branch, what a div, anyway, she finally persuaded him to have the card sent from there to the Hastings branch, they wouldn't send it to our house here for what he called security reasons, which we couldn't understand as card usually comes to our house any other time.

But instead of that, he cancelled her current card which shouldn't expire until August this year, the first she knew of that was when she went to withdraw some money from the hole in the wall at another bank and it swallowed the card.

So she goes in to Abbey and asks what's going on, they explain that card was cancelled by mistake, so she comes home and phones Abbey again and explains that they wrongly killed her current card.

She tells the woman that the new card is being sent to the Hastings branch, and the woman said would you prefer it sent to your home address, my mrs then explains that the previous Abbey bloke said it can't be sent to home address for security reason, the woman said that's not correct.

So she cancels the new card that's suppossedly being sent to the Hastings branch, and orders a new one to be sent to our home, should be 7-10 days, wait 10 days, nothing arrives.

Phone Abbey again and they say there was an embossing error on the new card, but they left it at that, didn't tell us about it and didn't send a new card to replace the one with the embossing error on it grrrrrrrrrr

Phones Abbey yet again about 5 days ago, new card ordered, will be delivered to our home, then today Abbey send a letter saying the card will be available to collect within 7-10 days of the date of this letter, not 7-10 days from the date of the phonecall saying it was 7-10 days.

But, the card the letter refers to is one of the others that got cancelled, still no nearer to getting a new card, so what's the chances that there will be further f*ck ups before a new card arrives, one might arrive only to find it's already been cancelled.

This all puts me behind paying my Nominet invoice, as I like to pay invoices the day I get them, also can't pay for transfers with no card, pain in the bleedin neck, Abbey scum bags

It's also a hassle drawing money out from inside the Abbey branch, mrs asked for £250, they rang head office and would only allow £100, next time she asked for £250 and got it, the other day she asked for the same amount, they rang head office and would only let her have £50

Now my mrs is pretty quiet, but she actually shouted in the bank, it seems they keep saying different things each time head office are phoned, you can have the amount you require, or you can only have £50 in case you are a fraudster, well why give even £50 if it might be someone who has stolen my mrs ID, despite her actually having all her ID to make a withdrawal, bloody nightmare.

 

[stender]

i took them to the financial ombudsman for a similar issue. they had to pay me compensation. totally useless.
they also sent my daughter a letter saying she was eligible for a £30k loan. she was 1 at the time!

then recently despite us telling the muppets many many times to stop sending post to our address for the previous owner 4 years after we moved in the muppets outdid themselves.....we got her new credit card this week.
unforunately i can't report them to the ombudsman this time as i'm no longer a customer.

 

[doodlebug]

Systreg > all bank are fu**ing useless mate, my bank likes to payout money to through direct debits which I never set up and for companies such as a car garage when I don't even drive
Also my card says ME instead of MR, I havn't complained though because it looks good, medical examiner :lol:

Stender > you should have took the 30k loan, if any company gives credit to an under 18yrs old then they can't claim it back, I read about a 17yrs old who got lots of storecards and never had to pay it back.

 

[retired_member32]

i don't think it a good idea telling half of the world what bank you are with....scammers are everywhere and giving them a headstart is a bad idea....remember that you have your domains in your sig and a quick whois would give out too much detail....remember people use facebook and scammed through the details that are readily available......


"walls have ears" :!:

 

[doodlebug]

Yes, maybe Systreg should edit, I don't think it's a major security breach as he hasn't give any details and from his own scam sites I am pretty ure that he wouldn't fall for a fake e-mail or letter.

I would say that it is indexed now anyway.

What shocked me amongst us regular computer users was Demonshky saying that he lost his Mac book with all his passwords on it :shock:

 

[Systreg]

@ Deliajen, honestly, it's not a problem, I'm well up on online/offline scams having been in to fighting fraud and warning about fraud/scams for the past 6 years.

No fear of me falling for any email phishing or similar postal mail scams, and there's no way for any potential scammer to get anything from our rubbish bins with any personal/banking details on, as all details on paper are run under water and completely mulched, then flushed down the toilet for disposal, it's far safer than shredding paper where details could still be readable after shredding, also, I don't use any form of online banking, so no bank login details to obtained via phishing anyway.

Even if someone managed to get my home details from one of my domains, the bank account isn't held in the same name as the name my domains are registered too, so it's another brick wall for any scammer

I don't use facebook or other social networking sites, I did open an account at Facebook recently, but as expected, I couldn't see the point in it so deleted the account, and I never post any personally identifiable details anywhere online.

 

[retired_member32]

i am amazed at what these scammers can do,i was watching something on youtube the other day and was horrified what they can retrieve from networking sites ,it was an IT expert working on behalf of the BBC in which he contacted a random person on facebook and told them so much detail about themselves they cancelled there account instantly,it was saying that passwords are generally re-used on many sites and we are creatures of habit (use a handful of sites daily).

On another note : i completed an online application for business bank account with a popular high street bank and ever since i get four emails a day saying my account has been hacked into or "wrong password entered three times".....

even though i decided not to go with this bank....

makes you think....

 

[stender]

you should always use different usernames and passwords at different sites even though it's a pain. Many people will use the same details on all sites.
You may subscribe to a website entering an email address, creating a username and password and it might not be encrypted. the website owner can then try your password you chose on the email address you entered and hey presto... they can then probably find things like your ebay/paypal username, amazon etc... as you've received emails from them. Same password for those then.......

we should have a competion. we pair up and you have to pm your partner as much information about them as you can. That'll probably shock us.

 

[doodlebug]

Tip > always use a basic password for new sites until you think you can trust them, that's what I do so at best a new site might get into my very much neglected Estibot account and then realise that their domain is worth $47,000 and join up with acorn just to get ripped

 

[Systreg]

what's the chances that there will be further f*ck ups before a new card arrives

This is going from bad to worse, got a letter from Abbey recently saying new card on it's way to our local branch, then a couple of days later, another letter saying to collect it from Ramsgate, planks, , back to fkin square one again, as the initial problem was with them sending it to Ramsgate in the first place, we moved from there to here a few over 2 years ago, complete planks.

After yet more phone calls to the Abbey complaints department, it was finally sorted, and my mrs collected the card from our local branch today, I just asked her for the card to make a Nominet transfer payment, and when she passed the card to me, it's just a standard card for use only in the hole in the wall, no visa branding on it, no cvv number, nothing

She just phoned the bank now to ask why we have been sent this card, and they say this one is a replacement for her isa account which expires next year, so, presumably, the complaints department who have escalated our complaint, and credited us with £50 for the hassle, they think this is all about the card we got today, we still haven't received the Visa card, woman on the phone said that's still been sent and should be at our branch in a couple of days, but we've been told that numerous time already, so still no nearer getting a damn card.

Done with Abbey after this, mrs will open an account at another bank.

 

[khalid]

Complain to ombudsmen bud thy give them a slap, it goes against them heavily and you'll get coin

 

[Systreg]

Finally, after nearly 2 months, we now have the new card, hurrahhhhhhh

Recieved a letter from the manager in the complaints several days back, saying I see you now have your isa card, and here is another £30 in full and final settlement for any blah blah blah caused, but of course, no, we didn't have the new card.

Phoned complaints and asked to speak with the person who sent the letter, explained to her that it's not the isa card we need, but the current card, explained to her exactly what had been happening, and she wasn't happy, as she had not been told any of what had gone on previously.

She didn't know that we had been told at least 3 times by her department that the card had supposedly been sent from Ramsgate to Hastings, she didn't know that one of the new cards had an embossing erro and that rather than send a replacemnt for that one, they just left it and didn't even tell us nor send a new card in it's palce, she didn't know much else either

She said she will be using everything that's gone on to try and get some changes made in how things are dealt with in future, as obviously there was no proper procedure in place, no records were written down each time we were in contact with the complaints department to expalin the chain of events.

In the end, when we phoned her a few days ago to say that no, we hadn't received the card, she personally rang the Ramsgate branch, and they told her the card was there waiting to be collected , they said nobody had authorised them to send it to the Hastings branch, despite complaints telling us at least 3 times they had told them to send it, anyway, she told them to send it to our local branch on that day by recorded post, and that once it got to Hastings branch, they were to phone us to let us know it had arrived, which they did today, and now have a card, friggin nightmare.

 

[doodlebug]

Congtatulations :mrgreen:

 

[stender]

Very similar account to what I went through with those muppets. I got about £180 from them after reporting to the ombudsman. Don't settle for £30! they obviously don't learn from their Sh*t service mistakes.
needless to say I don't bank with them anymore

 

[doodlebug]

Natwest any day, 7 yrs and no problems, except one unathorised direct debit but that can happen at any bank and is usually the merchants fault.

 

[Systreg]

Don't settle for £30! they obviously don't learn from their Sh*t service mistakes.

@ Stender, that £30 was the second credit they paid, they credited the account with another £50 the other week.

Mrs is going to open an account at another bank now anyway, b*llox to Abbey, or Santander as they are rebranded as now.

 

[Edwin]

I would never dare stick to only having accounts at any single bank these days, given all the financial chaos and desperate mergers/acquisitions. You could wake up one day having gone from decent customer service to being stuck in the WORST banking group, with nothing you can do about it...

 

[Skinner]

I bank with Barclays (who I'm also sub contracted via employment too) and to be fair I've never really had any major issues other than their 'degradable' plastic cards maybe enviro friendly but when you need a new card every 6-9 months instead of every 3 years its not really that enviro is it.

The only issue I ever had was when I closed my hosting business account, signed it off withdrew all the cash barr the remaining fee's. A year later I get a letter telling me I owe like £1000 in unauth overdraft charges, interest, bank fee's, etc. I sent a letter in saying on X date I closed the account, emptied it, left money in for the remaining fee's as instructed, why is it still open. Was phoned and told it was closed now, and the fee's refunded including the previous fee's as a good will gesture. 9 months later, I get a letter demanding almost 2,000 blah blah.

I went into the branch, complained, explained I'd returned the pdq, chucka (manual card payments thing before PDQs), card, cheque book, and closed out the account. They put in writing it would be closed, and I'd be compensated. About 2 weeks later I got a cheque and a letter saying the account wad closed, all moneys for the last 24 months had been refunded (6 months of that the account was active). So I was paid a nice lump sum.

So I can't fault Barclays in person, Altho at one point they used to have badges that said "Personal Banker" which made me laugh, now they are called Relationship Managers. Ever since I got my black card off them, they answer the phone direct to a person no choose 1 or 2, a direct number for your local branch (where your account manager is) and all goes smoothly. Add this to Barclays Wealth and your laughing.

 

[aZooZa]

I use CitiGold as it's hassle-free except for no instant BACS, but I can open an account in lots of countries just by presenting my card (subject to local regulations) without a hefty deposit. For BACS I use Halifax which has been good too.