Complaining

Thanks Nanna not sure I want to receive tweets from all of those organisations but it could be an idea in the short term.

Nonnie and all who have recommended Twitter -
1. Set up a Twitter account.
2. "Follow" BBC, local news stations, etc., as well as the Bank itself, and any other large public institutions you can think of, like your City Council, Better Business Bureau.
Then 3. Make a short tweet with no personal info, just on the lines of " Lack of Service at "..........." Bank and Branch is driving me CRAZY. What is going on with them?"
That should do it.
Then sit back

newnany yes I wrote to their CEO. I think an old fashioned letter sometimes has more impact than an email.

Willow I think direct debits can be set up by phone but in your case it looks like someone set it up correctly but someone in the bank keyed it in incorrectly.

Just had a message from them saying they can find no record of my complaint! Presumably the Marcus I spoke to realised that if he actually registered the complaint which he told me he would, it would be clear that it was all his error. I do now have my money but still want to make the complaint about the way it was all handled in the (possibly vain) hope that someone will learn from what happened to me.

I left nationwide some years ago after they twice paid the wrong CC account (it was their CC company) from my account bit left me to contact the cc company to get my £school back. I got charged as my payment to cc was late and they refused to pay the charges for their errorespective. I went in one day and asked them to cancel dd and so from my current account, then asked them to close my current account, then the 3 other accounts I held wits them. The lady got very flustered asking if there was anything she could do to change my mind. Now with lloyds and they really are a pile of poo as well I'm considering the mattress bank even though I don't have much money!

A couple of years ago my husband was checking our Yorkshire bank account which only had the small mortgage interest charged to it each month - we didn't use the account for anything else. He couldn't understand why there was a large direct debit taken 2 months in a row totalling something like £!500. Panicked I rang the bank and was told it was mortgage payments to a Halifax mortgage account but she could tell me no more than that and I would need to speak to the Halifax. When I did I was told there seemed to be an error and they would investigate and call me back. To be fair they rang an hour later and admitted it was their error - they had put the wrong account number on a new mortgage and it was coming out of our account!! They refunded it the same day and also gave us £100 compensation and the phone call costs but to this day we've no idea how they could have set a direct debit up on our account without our signatures.

I have had problems getting my own money out of Natwest. A couple of years ago I was in France buying a house and I had my money in Natwest. I rang Natwest and asked for £ X to be moved across to my French account. They said it was too much money to move in one go, so I had to phone 9 days in a row moving £X each day. I was very annoyed as I had to pay 9 lots of transfer fees. They were very loath to let the money go and I had to remind them on several days that it was my money and I was at liberty to spend it how I wished. They made me speak to a security team to explain why I wanted it. I was fuming. It is just like they don't want you to take your money out and spend it. No wonder you are angry Nonnie. Make a written complaint.

Last night I had another Facebook message from them asking for the sort code. I sent it (again) and said that I was surprised they needed it and asked just how many Nonnie's they had who had complained to Marcus in Savings last Friday! Still waiting for a response but I think they close over the weekend.

A few years back NatWest, who at the time were advertising 'Helpful Banking' changed the type of account we had with them and asked us for proof of identity. We had been banking with them for 48 years! DS was staying with us and had his passport so we went into the local branch and the poor chap on the counter couldn't find out what it was all about so called his senior colleague. We were taken into an office and I asked the woman to take a copy of DS's passport for identity purposes. She refused as they 'don't do that'. I asked her how else he could identify himself as he was only in the UK for a couple of days. Every time I spoke to her she answered DH and I got progressively more annoyed. She didn't have any answers and offered no solutions. DS said to just take him off the account as he doesn't use it but, by this time, I was on a mission! I stood up to leave and said I was going to Tweet and Facebook about NatWest Unhelpful banking and she took a copy of his passport. Later that day they rang and spoke to DH and said that it was all sorted! Interestingly they have now dropped the 'Helpful Banking'!

We added our DSs to our bank account when they were student and have kept them on as apparently it makes like a lot easier for them when we die.

I've been with First Direct for 20+ years. Excellent customer service and have had absolutely no problems.

Couldn't agree more with all the dissatisfaction here but I don't actually have a 'general' solution. Think it ultimately lies with the government (any party) to clip their wings hugely and that's never going to happen. I had a horrendous time with Barclays. Small error which I went into the branch to point out in decidedly affable mood. Four months later, after the consequences had snowballed and were dire, I had it sorted. There is no financial compensation of any size that compensates for the stress involved. If I could I would use under the mattress but it's my emergency roof or funeral cash so I daren't risk even the pittance.

I agree with the advice to go to the Ombudsman. A few years ago I went into a local branch of my bank to withdraw some money. The teller told me that there was no money in my account (humiliating in front of a queue of customers). I told her there must be some mistake as there were plenty of funds in the account. She was adamant. I was in a real panic and rang my bank. They said 'something has happened to your account but we are not allowed to tell you what'. I was frantic. I spent a fortune on phone calls, missed time from work trying to sort it out. The stress was horrendous. In the end, they said it had been 'sorted' and offered me £50 compensation for my 'inconvenience' My DD worked in a bank at the time and told me that I should tell them I was going to the Ombudsman and they offered me a bit more compensation which I accepted. There was never much of an apology.

The whole complaints process is ridiculously complicated? as others have said you have to go through the (usually cumbersome) internal complaints route first then get either a deadlock letter or have had no response after 6 weeks!! Before you can go to ombudsman. I am not convinced either that the ombudsman service is fair minded always as I have seen some shocking decisions! That said complaints to the Ombudsman have shot up in the last year (according to their own website) and no wonder! Big companies treat customers very often as cash cows and behave with contempt? the worst offenders are Banks, utility companies and Telecom providers!

I have always used the CeeO route when I found myself banging my head against a brick wall. It has never let me down and I have always had a quick response, Talk Talk for example email to CE Saturday received a response Sunday, fixed Monday. My daughters carers had been nearly 2 weeks trying to get a problem fixed. Job done. Just google the CE of any company.

Make sure your complaint is recorded as an official one. Tell them you are counting the days until you can go to the ombudsman (though I think it was about 53 for the energy companies!) It often gets a quick response anyway

I hope you aren’t driven to these lengths nonnie.
This happened just round the corner from my local butcher’s, as it was at the time.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1370620/NatWest-pays-dung-protest-farmer-300000.html

It's interesting that if you go 1p overdraft they communicate immediately and make charges for months, but if you want your money it takes weeks and there is no interest for you. The systems are designed to keep your money for as long as possible so they can make a profit investing it. I also object to being pushed towards online banking which I consider dangerous still. I may go back to 'under the mattress'

Nonnie
Ombudsman Services website gives full details how to make a complaint It is infuriating that your bank is dragging its heels however the ombudsman requires that before they give you their assistance you send a formal letter of complaint, not an email, to those services you are complaining about ie your bank, then wait for their response. OBM services can be a very lengthy process and I believe you will find it much quicker to push your bank.

Agree about Twitter, Gillco and Rivendell. Companies are NOT happy to see complaints to them being noted by all in Twitterland!

I think there's something slightly more sinister about all this. In these days of electronic banking, money doesn't just disappear... it goes somewhere. And if it's gone for a couple of days, it's earning interest for somebody, somewhere... and isn't that somebody the Bank ?

When my Sister moved house, the bank said they couldn't find her new account. Consequently her salary went missing for five days. It caused great upset.

She demanded to know where the money had been ... and was told all Banks have accounts into which they put money. And for which any interest paid goes to the Bank !

I have heard the Co op bank for at least the last 12 years. No problems at all, very helpful. On the other hand it took Halifax 6 years to eventually close a credit card account after I had asked for it to be closed.

I find Twitter very good for getting complaints sorted out. You have to follow the company your complaining about, we've done this a few times when we've had problems with a company and every time we've had someone ring very quickly and sorted problem out.

Customer Service at banks, internet providers, energy suppliers etc etc seems to be pretty grim all round. They all seem to have been trained to respond in a certain way, using your name constantly and apologising profusely without actually doing anything. Their ingratiating attitude always reminds me of Uriah Heep... ugh!

Should read problems!!

I found that using twitter to raise a complaint or emailing a company CEO both yielded very quick resolutions to probld.

NatWest once bounced a very large cheque that my husband had issued. It was the "lump sum" part of his pension, transferring to a different financial institution. It was the end of the financial year and it would have been very difficult if it didn't go through. Our local branch said it was because he didn't have authority to sign on the account as they did not hold his signature - he was over 60 and had banked with them since he was a teenager. I had also had authority to sign since he travelled a lot, but they had no record of this either.
They said that signatures had now been digitised and something must have gone wrong - but that the good news was that there was one person who was authorised. Turned out that this was our daughter, who had never been able to sign on his account at all.
We provided passports, driving licenses, utility bills etc. etc. and in the end they relented and allowed him to transfer his own money - they did make an attempt to make him pay for the CHAPS payment which was necessary to get the payment there in time, but eventually dropped the charge.
Their excuse for all this was that it was for security reasons - but they could not explain why my daughter would have been able to access his account at any time when he could not. It could just as easily have been another person with the same surname as us. Laughable if it wasn't so dangerous....

Uhhh, infuriating !!