Banks lack of service

[Chris34]

Hi all, not been on here for years, thought it would be the best place to see how everyone else is finding their service from their bank.

I bank with HSBC. Ever since we've had this virus, trying to get through to my bank on the phone is near impossible, their live chat on their website is not available and to make matters worse they've reduced their working hours dramatically.

Luckily I've not really needed to speak to them urgently but when I've tried to phone them I get put on hold for over an hour. Yesterday was the final straw, there just seems to be no service, like there is nobody working and it's all automated with computers, so I'm now looking for an alternative bank that can be contacted.

How is everyone else finding the service with business banking? Have you tried phoning your bank?

Any recommendations for a new provider with a reason why is much appreciated.

Chris.

 

[Mr D]

Had to phone my bank once in early April about a problem - after 90 minutes on hold just got through to someone and my handset ran out of power. So call cut off. They immediately rang back after I'd put the handset back in its cradle but 5 seconds isn't enough recharge time for a conversation.

Rang back on the mobile. 2 hours later got through to someone and finally resolved the matter.

That was Santander. No trouble since so no need to call them.

 

[Chris34]

Had to phone my bank once in early April about a problem - after 90 minutes on hold just got through to someone and my handset ran out of power. So call cut off. They immediately rang back after I'd put the handset back in its cradle but 5 seconds isn't enough recharge time for a conversation.

Rang back on the mobile. 2 hours later got through to someone and finally resolved the matter.

That was Santander. No trouble since so no need to call them.

Thanks for the info. I rang mine around April time and had the same waiting time. I let them off for that but the service is worse now than it was then. I cannot actually get hold of them now, I've had to just give up. I did file a complaint via their email system but even though they acknowledged the complaint they didn't make any attempt to resolve the matter. Really poor service.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

How is everyone else finding the service with business banking? Have you tried phoning your bank?

I had a minor problem with Barclays, phone support was useless and online chat less so. To resolve the problem required 2 visits to a branch which is 12 miles away.

I complained, itemised my expenses and time with a claim of £290. They phoned me within the week and offered £125 which I declined.

Now in the hands of the ombudsman.

Rather than jump ship to get similar bad service or a fancy app with nothing behind it, I would urge anyone to do the same as I did. Eventually, if enough people kick up a fuss they will do something about it.

Make sure you put your complaint in writing and send to their complaints address or head office. An email is likely just to be ignored or lost in the system.

 

[Chris34]

I had a minor problem with Barclays, phone support was useless and online chat less so. To resolve the problem required 2 visits to a branch which is 12 miles away.

I complained, itemised my expenses and time with a claim of £290. They phoned me within the week and offered £125 which I declined.

Now in the hands of the ombudsman.

Rather than jump ship to get similar bad service or a fancy app with nothing behind it, I would urge anyone to do the same as I did. Eventually, if enough people kick up a fuss they will do something about it.

Make sure you put your complaint in writing and send to their complaints address or head office. An email is likely just to be ignored or lost in the system.

Wow, that's really concerning to hear that other banks, big banks are just as bad. This is the exact reason I asked, I don't want to jump from the fire and into the frying pan.

I'll write out a complaint to both the head office and the ombudsman. Will update when / if I hear anything.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

I Bank with HSBC too and never encountered such long wait times. If you don't wanna wait on the phone use their secure message via online banking or phone app. Chat is useless as they can't do anything really. Called on Monday 5min wait time for my mistake blocking my hsbc banking app.

 

[Bob Morgan]

I had a minor problem with Barclays, phone support was useless and online chat less so. To resolve the problem required 2 visits to a branch which is 12 miles away.

I complained, itemised my expenses and time with a claim of £290. They phoned me within the week and offered £125 which I declined.

Now in the hands of the ombudsman.

Rather than jump ship to get similar bad service or a fancy app with nothing behind it, I would urge anyone to do the same as I did. Eventually, if enough people kick up a fuss they will do something about it.

Make sure you put your complaint in writing and send to their complaints address or head office. An email is likely just to be ignored or lost in the system.

BE CAREFUL You can find yourself without an account!

 

[Darren_Ssc]

BE CAREFUL You can find yourself without an account!

Yes, if you complain you could be asked to go elsewhere but does that mean you should tolerate appalling service? In any case, that would also go to the ombudsman and they would feel the sting of that one.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

I'll write out a complaint to both the head office and the ombudsman. Will update when / if I hear anything.

Technically, you should go through the banks complaint procedure first and only go to the ombudsman if they [the bank] do not resolve the issue.

However, you're going to have a long wait before your case is dealt with so the sooner the better really, maybe cite financial hardship as a reason for jumping the gun? The first step is a simple registration to join the queue anyways.

 

[Gettingthereslowly]

I hear the big four are all as good/bad as each other.

Don't hold too much hope with the Ombudsman.

I am having a major issue with my long standing bank (30 yrs loyal customer). Went through normal internal bank complaint procedure = found no wrong.

Went through Financial Ombudsman Service = found in my favour and ordered the bank to repay over £60k. The bank is now both ignoring my correspondence, and the FOS. In the last 12 months they have ignored 7 FOS letters and 14 from me.

(Note this level of poor service was way before Covid was on the scene/FOS reached their recommendation last year)

Just waiting for the next step in FOS armoury.

I've asked accountants, solicitors, other business friends, and non of them are keen to recommend their banks.

 

[Alison Moore]

We bank with Lloyds... I wouldn't recommend them though. If I ever need to get through to anybody other than our banking manager, it takes forever (that was always the case pre-covid). Plus they keep on changing our banking manger. Thankfully I rarely have to contact them, so it's rarely an issue.

 

[Paul Norman]

The reality is that none of the large banks ( and probably not the smaller ones either ) are geared up to take calls and offer help. There are simply not enough staff to do that.

The reality is, now, that business banking for small businesses is cheap, but that if you need anything that cannot be done online you are going to listen to a LOT of onhold music.

But as the charges typically are less than a tenner a month, that is kind of what we asked for. Cheap banking. If we thought cheap banking means anything other than poor service, we didn't think it through.

Of course, if you are running an overdraft you are paying more, because you have fees and interest for the overdraft. And they are not going to be cheap. Sadly, though, the service will still be poor, I suspect.

 

[Chris34]

Just an update. HSBC's complaints department got back to me on Sunday, I was quite surprised as I really didn't think they'd bother. As you can imagine it was all the usual covid-19 blah blah safer working blah blah longer wait times blah blah. At the end of it they said that they had credited my account £50 by way of an apology. This I wasn't expecting as I hadn't said I wanted any compensation. I checked my account and sure enough it had been credited that day.

The last part of the email it says I can forward the complaint to the ombudsman if I wish to do so. Is the ombudsman there to ensure that the complaint is settled or are they there to report poor service? Obviously my complaint would be poor service, is it correct to forward the complaint based on it just being poor service?

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Obviously my complaint would be poor service, is it correct to forward the complaint based on it just being poor service?

Unless you want more compensation, and can justify it, there is no point continuing with a complaint for the sake of it; you'll just be logging up the system.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

But as the charges typically are less than a tenner a month, that is kind of what we asked for.

I accept this as a valid point but you can still get through to people on the phone and via online chat, messaging and so on but they fail because it's not face to face and they either can't be a**ed and fob you off or are not allowed the necessary time to resolve your complaint.

To get things sorted properly often requires a branch visit, or a formal complaint, so I'm not sure how that justifies low charges?

 

[Mark T Jones]

The reality is that none of the large banks ( and probably not the smaller ones either ) are geared up to take calls and offer help. There are simply not enough staff to do that.

.

To clarify, there are banks like AIB, Handelsbanken and others who are set up to do offer exactly that service

And they charge for it

 

[Darren_Ssc]

To clarify, there are banks like AIB, Handelsbanken and others who are set up to do offer exactly that service

And they charge for it

I don't see anything in Barclays standard business banking terms that they will hang up on you or abruptly terminate an online chat because your problem is too hard to fix?

There are premium services that offer the world for high fees and there are basic services that just fall down dead because of lack of care and investment. Customers are right to complain.

 

[PugwashEQ]

Metro Bank- you can go into a branch and see someone and the branches are open long hours

or

First direct for non business (that's not very hlpeful in this thread i accept) .

Handelsbanken is another- more expensive but your RM will at least know your company name!

 

[Gettingthereslowly]

I tried to move to Handlesbanken a couple of years ago.......and was prepared to pay higher fees...but they wouldn't accept me as my net worth was not high enough for them (they wouldn't say how much more/what level it needed to be....but i'm guessing £1m+)

So if anyone knows what kind of assets you need to get HB interested in you, please let us know!

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

I've had problems with Santander for over a month.

Forget the online chat, which directs you to a Chatbot that tries to second guess your enquiry. Calling the Customer Services number multiple times, waiting up to 20 minutes at a time I gave up.

The only way I got through to Customer Services quickly is by going through on the mortgage arrears/financial difficulty hotline ( i'm not) and asking to be transferred.

I haven't made a formal complaint but described the lack of service as shameful to every person I spoke to, that I was able to keep calling in the hope I could get through as I work for myself. Lord help anybody who's in a factory and is using their lunch break to sort out an important matter.

 

[VasilisaH]

sadly it appears that all the customer service organizations of the banks are using the covid-challenge excuse. hopefully we can get past this and get back to normal.

 

[Gill Courage]

In my experience they are all as bad as each other.
Had problems with Natwest for well over a year now; they randomly changed our business banking correspondance address to an unrelated company close by.........we have had no explanation of how, or why. That took a lot of yelling to get changed back and required physical visits to branches. More recently they have "associated" our personal accounts with another director of a company that I used to be a director of and added his address. Since we sold our house and had a lot of cash there, we found that rather worrying. Last week they contacted us and said that they had investigated and found they did nothing wrong............
RBSI have been appalling through the pandemic. They are the only bank I know that sends out paper statements on business accounts and has no online option. They are still working from home and tech support is useless. Since I have only been home for about 3 weeks this year, that has caused me no end of problems. Finally got them to change the correspondance address and send me statements where I currently am. Three weeks ago.
All the banks seem to be open for shortened hours - requiring a very late start if I need to visit a branch. Happily, that is not often but it shows exactly how much they think of their customers.