Santander have lost the plot - Craziest day ever

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In September I moved address and ever since I have been trying to update my address at Santander for a loan I have with them.

So I phoned up and asked how to proceed and I was instructed to call in to a branch with some proof and do it from there. I go to the branch and they tell me to write in. So I write in and follow up a month later with a phone call and guess what they tell me - yep, I need to go in to branch to with proof of address. I went through that loop twice.

So today I went in to the branch in Pontypridd and it all got very mad.

Cashier No 1 said it was ok, all I needed to do was sit down and fill in form. I pointed out I didnt bring my account details but he said as long as I passed data protection he could fill that bit.

I return to the desk with the completed form and cashier no 2 says she cant accept it without account details. So I explain what cashier no 1 said and she said that he was wrong to say that. So getting a little bit frustrated I start demanding to see the manager. The 60+ year old security guard starts shifting closer

Manager comes out and informs me that I shouldnt have listened to cashier number 1 as he was a trainee. At which point I'm starting to get louder and the security guard is starting to look edgy and as though he was wishing he had booked today off.

So I have a brain wave - While talking to them I phone their call centre, pass data protection and get all the account details they need. I confirm with the call centre that they should now have everything they need.

I give this to the woman behind the counter who says that is all great and you have everything you need, all I have to do is post it to this address.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

A bit more shouting and I can hear the security guard breathing behind me, I think he needed a puff on his puffer.

I explained I wasnt going to go through that particular loop again. I had given them everything needed and their call centre had also told me everything was in place as well (Got to point out all the ID was acceptable and they never raised a question about it).

Both cashier no 2 and the manager are now both telling me the call centre is telling me the wrong thing. So back on the phone to the call centre and get through to their complaints department fairly quickly. I confirm with the gentleman there that I was in the right, so I ask him to speak to the cashier or the manager, he agreed but the cashier and the manager refused because i could have dialled anyone. Fair enough so I asked the complaints guy to call the branch on an internal line, which he did.

So now the strangest bit happens, I'm now in a 3 way conversation in the bank with the cashier and their complaints department. One telling me I'm right and one telling me I'm wrong.

I'm in the middle of this conversation and the complaints guy is telling them that they are wrong and I'm write and the cashier is arguing back that the complaints guy was wrong. The cashier by this point has had enough and hands of to the manager who just continued where the cashier left off.

The security guard chances his arm at this point and asks me to keep it down. Of course I have no beef with him so I explain to him that I'm not a violent person but I'm not leaving until this is sorted. I also pointed out that I had been shouting the odds for half an hour yet and none of the managers had even tried to manage the situation by taking it in to an office - so if they were happy to display how incompetent they are in public I'm more than happy to go along with it. That got a few smiles form the queue.

At this point the manager tries to pull rank on the complaints guy, who to be fair stuck to his guns all the way through. She asked to speak to his supervisor which he put on straight away. He must have been high up because the managers face physically dropped when she heard his name.

She snatches the paperwork off the counter and faxes it straight to their head office. She comes back and tells me its all done. No apology or anything.
 
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Crossdaz - I think you are right that is the 3rd time through that loop for me. I have still to receive the written confirmation in the post yet, so there is still time for them to muck it up. I will keep you posted.

Massey - Me and the Mrs found it really funny and although I was raising my voice with the staff we were still having a laugh and a joke with the people in the queue. They didnt seem surprised by any of it and were even agreeing with it. I'm a surprised with all the fuss I was making they didnt try to contain the situation by moving it in to a side room. I guess that just proves the staff have no care about their work
 
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obscure

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Jan 18, 2008
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Yep I bet this stuff happens most days. I had some fraudulent cheques passed on my Woolwich (R.I.P.) account and luckily opted to walk into the branch to report it. Spoke to a women there who said that they didn't have the necessary but that she would contact Openplan (I think it was called) - their centralised helpline.

Over the next 30 minutes they repeatedly told her that they didn't deal with cheque fraud and that she needed to talk to...
Dept x - they said "nope it's Openplan you need"
Call this number - it was a fax
Call this Dept Y - number discontinued
and on and on.

Of course it was Openplan who were supposed to deal with it. Glad it was the Woolwich employee who had to go through the whole ridiculous process.

Then when they did fax over the form they only faxed one side of a double sided document, which led to a whole new saga down the line.
 
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deniser

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Jun 3, 2008
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It doesn't surprise me; it took me months to regain some missing interest on a matured ISA when they just ignored my complaint altogether until I got the the Ombudsman stage of the Official Complaints Procedure.

It's frightening that they seem to be taking over a large proportion of the banks in this country.
 
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AndyBlue

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Mar 27, 2011
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Have to say in my experience with Santander and Alliance & Leicester before them, that this doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Being told to do one thing and then finding it out it is wrong is an everyday occurence. I hate when ever I have to amend a standing order or Direct Debit as I just know it will go wrong.
 
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So today I went in to the branch in Pontypridd and it all got very mad.

I just KNEW it would be a fun story once the valley Commando girls got involved.

I can just see it now she is sat behind the glass, all smug like, you start raising your voice and .....

"Oi butt, carry on gobbing off and i will come round there an put the ed in" :D
 
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thanks for that, it gave me a chuckle this morning.

I am a mortgage broker and deal with santander on a daily basis, your storey doesn't surprise me one bit.

it's normal to call them about a criteria question, put the phone down, call straight back and speak to someone else and get a completely different answer. That’s why I always record my conversations with them to protect myself and my clients.

Saying that, all lenders are the same, not just Santander!:mad:
 
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KateCB

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May 11, 2006
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Barnsley, South Yorkshire
I have been trying to get to my 'secure message' that Santander sent me 3 days ago about an account that appears to have 'gone missing'....they emailed, said that they had sent a reply and I must login and go to my message area to retrieve it.

So off I went, logged in, Hello, NO Messages? Ok, maybe I was a bit quick off the mark - tried again later that night, still no messages; nor yesterday, or today, so now I have missing messages and a missing matured regular saver account.......mmmmm, perhaps Nationwide did have its good points after all!
 
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KateCB

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May 11, 2006
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Barnsley, South Yorkshire
Santander - I called them after searching 'saynoto0870' for a geographic number about this missing account...


Guess what - I have to write to them, using snail mail - the customer services advisor told me that they don't HAVE email :| but they can't understand why their secure email system :| doesn't show their emails :| to me.......errr?

What a load of gobbledygook! I give in - as soon as I locate this missing account it will be moving home :D somewhere that actually looks after things and can tell me where my money is would be helpful don't you think?
 
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Doesn't surprise me.

I opened a personal account back when they were Abbey National. They seemed fairly clued up at the time - within 6 months they'd been taken over by Santander and the first thing they did was write to me and tell me that in order to improve service, they were tripling unauthorised overdraft fees.

It takes what, 10-15 minutes to draft a letter to the complaints department, print and sign and put it in an envelope? I figure it's often quicker to do that than it is to mess around between branch and call centre.
 
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Bill1954

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May 24, 2010
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I just got off the phone with them (it's a regular monthly thing, so much I'm on first name terms with them. Our card was declined when I tried to pay a bill so I did a test transaction through our own site and yes it was declined :-D
Rang them and went through all the rigmarole of answering security questions and then "why has the card been declined ?" err youy made a lot of payments this week...
But it's a business, dont businesses usually make a lot of payments at the end of the month ? Oooohhh it's a business account.... I'll put a note on the file !!!
Errm which department am I talking to ? Santander business banking...
at this point I had a coughing fit and had to pass the phone to a fellow director.
 
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I dont actually bank with them thank god - It is just a personal loan I have with them.

They do try to sell me a business account everytime I go in there though and at one point I was tempted. I'm so glad I didnt now
 
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Jenni384

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  • Oct 1, 2007
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    That's priceless!

    I never had a problem with them, til one of my (thankfully old) business current accounts vansihed off my online banking on Monday. I still use it, so where was it?

    It was closed. Yes, Santander closed my business current account. That I was still using. Because I wrote them a letter asking them to close the associated Reserve account, and they didn't read the letter and closed both.

    The best bit? They sent me a cheque for the balance :D Where am I supposed to cash that then eh?!?! :rolleyes::|

    Actually the best bit was when they re-opened it the next day with a minimum of fuss, but really?! Lost brownie points for me now!:rolleyes:
     
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    the locksmith

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    Mar 31, 2010
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    I know I am tempting fate here ... but for quite some time now I haven't had much in the way of problems with A&L / Santander ...... apart from last week when their pay-in machine wouldn't accept cheques. So I went up to the counter and asked them to pay them in manually as they have had to do a number of times before.

    "We can't do that any more since the system changed. You can go across the road to the post office and pay them in there."

    "No ... I don't have a pay-in slip with me and besides that the last time I paid in via the post office about £2000 worth of cheques went on a two week holiday!"

    As it happened I was going across town anyway and was able to use the machine at another branch. Fine ... but a real pain in the butt.

    Oh ... just tried the business banking website just now and they are obviously having problems today. Got logged out twice and the pages are taking ages to load !

    GREATTTTTT !

    Mind you I think all the banks are just as bad and you have to bear in mind it's "FREE" banking .... not "Stress Free" !
     
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    I

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    I hate those paying in machines - They have them in Lloyds as well as they never accept all the money as it doesnt like one of the notes - so you end up back in the counter queue anyway.

    Then when you are in the queue someone from the bank then trys to hound you back to the machine.

    I just ignore them now and go straight to the counter
     
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    i had a similar problem with lloyds passing the buck between the CC and branch, i ended up moving to hsbc as a result, which i have to say are very professional so far in their glasgow branch.

    in most banks these days either the banks/managers don't want to train their staff enough and just put them out there to try to wing it, or the staff themselves just dont care. From your story with a trainee working as an unsupervised cashier i'd say it was the first.
     
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    ScotComp

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    Mar 11, 2011
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    Scotland.
    I can't stand Santander either!

    Me and my family have had non stop issues with them and when I found out my business account was being transferred from RBS/Natwest to Santander because of this European Commission thing, I ditched them and went straight to my RBS branch so I can stay away from them.
     
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    OptiRick

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    Jun 4, 2010
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    This sounds like the sort of service I get from HSBC.

    I have a current account with a small agreed overdraft. I don't use it as my main account.
    I noted that some months when I had dipped slightly into my overdraft my Credit Expert account was marked 'overdue'.

    Confused by how a current account could be overdue I called their centre.
    They seemed bemused by the fact that I could read my own credit file, which was a concern as it's hardly a new concept, and had no idea why I was getting these marks on my account.
    I called my local branch and they were equally confused. They wanted me to print it out and take it into the branch. How will that help, I asked, I'm telling you exactly what it says.
    I did print it and take it in, the best advice they had for me was to take it to another branch in a neighbouring town to see if they could shed any light on it! :|

    I phoned the call centre again and was passed from pillar to post until I was told that I needed to pay a minimum amount into the account regularly.
    Sadly nobody within the HSBC organisation could tell me how much and how often this amount was so now I simply make sure I don't use the overdraft.

    It's not good is it?
     
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    I

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    Santander today announced the closure of their off-shore call centres because it was effecting the quality of their service. Sort of missed the point of their customer complaints a bit there I think.

    I have never been put through to a Santander off shore call centre, everyone I have dealt with has been in the UK. There is a massive lack of training, systems, processes and consistency throughout the company (as my story highlights). Get that right and all your call centres, no matter where they are, will work great.
     
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    Gillie

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    Apr 12, 2006
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    Will admit having accounts at various banks both personal and business and was amazed at how easy it was to open an account with Santander. I literally went on line, ticked a few boxed, entered some information and next thing, I have cheque book, card and pin through the post, and not once have I been asked to provide ID!! (This has been passed on to the various authorities ie money laundering etc before anyone mentions it!)

    They also do seem to work in weird and wonderful ways compared to other banks - they make up their own rules it would appear then when you question them about it, stating that all other banks stick to other codes of practice, they assume a wonderful arrogance and tell you the other banks have it all wrong and they are right ... ah well!
     
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    ctrlaura

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    Nov 20, 2010
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    Reading your story about Santander has just brought the frustrated memories flooding back to me on how it took me about 2 months to set up a bank account with them due to their incompetence. It really was shocking how thoughts on how something is done differs so much between people in branch and several people I spoke to at the call centre.

    An extremely frustrating experience I never want to go through again.... until the next time I need them to do something!!
     
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    I

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    So in the end I write to them to ask for an explanation on why their service was so bad.

    I get a nice letter of apology today full of the usual guff with no real detail or answer to my question. They finished it by saying "I enclose a cheque of £30 as a gesture of goodwill". Well guess what?

    Yep, they forgot to include the cheque!!!
     
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    KateCB

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    May 11, 2006
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    Barnsley, South Yorkshire
    Lol! They lost an account of mine that was an old Alliance and Leicester savings account - they take money every month from my Santander Zero account, but couldn't find the account they were paying into!

    After 3 weeks on the telephone, I have received a letter today, stating that they have found it, and it shows on my online banking list - it doesn't.

    The next paragraph says I must log in using my details, as I appear not to be ????How am I logging in then? I only have MY details - it goes on to tell me to make sure I am logging into the correct URL - santander.co.uk. Well.

    So I call e-team (Definately not the A Team!) and they find the account and say they will do a datamerge so that it shows on the account. Great - started chasing this last October, and finally, something is about to happen!

    Just had a call from the eTeam to say they can't do a datamerge, as my date of birth has been incorrectly keyed when they moved the account from A&L to Santander......I have to go into a branch with my passport and account details to get my date of birth corrected, then email the eteam to say that it has been done, and THEN they can merge the accounts!

    I can't believe it, THEY made the keying error, but to correct their error, I have to prove my DOB......unbelievable!
     
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    Mustaka

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    Feb 3, 2009
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    So in the end I write to them to ask for an explanation on why their service was so bad.

    I get a nice letter of apology today full of the usual guff with no real detail or answer to my question. They finished it by saying "I enclose a cheque of £30 as a gesture of goodwill". Well guess what?

    Yep, they forgot to include the cheque!!!

    I spit coffee all over my keyboard when I read that. Please sign that cheque over to me for compensation. Oh wait.....
     
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    D

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    It's taken eleven weeks for Santander to open an online savings account and after two complaints they have sent me a cheque for £30.00 for my inconvenience.

    Doesn't give you much confidence to invest money with them as I have now put the money elsewhere.
     
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