to be fuming with NatWest?

[lotuseener]

About 4 weeks ago I applied for an overdraft increase with NatWest. Dh and I signed the paperwork and then posted it back. A week later I called to check if we had been approved and they had no record of receiving our signed papers so they sent me another form. We signed and sent that off and a week later they said they hadn't received it.
We decided we were better off applying for a loan so I applied for a joint personal loan online. When the documents came saying we had been approved after the initial assesment pending verifcation of documents we took the documents into the branch instead of taking the chance of them not receiving papers again.

DH sat down with a customer advisor who checked that everything was in order and said she would pop it in to the internal post and that the money would be in our account on Friday. We then put a deposit on a car and told them we would be back on Friday to pay the blance and collect the car.

We phoned NatWest this morning and guess what? They have not received any of our documents in their internal post and just offered that our documents may have been lost in their internal post and we could reapply for the loan. The only explaination they have been able to give is that I used my personal id number to log into our bank account and apply for the overdrafts and loan but typed DH's name in first so he was listed as the 1st lendee on the applications so when logging into the bank account online it should have been his personal id number and not mine. The person on the other end of the phone said that only a NatWest employee would have noticed that and that is probably why are applications didn't go through ( although they say they have no records of receiving our signed documents 3x now) Now we don't have the loan to pay for a car tomorrow and I am hoping we won't lose our deposit.
I think NatWest should have at least notified us if this was the situation preventing our overdraft and loan from going through. I have talked to several people on the phone today and no one can give any concrete answers and just keep passing us from one person to the next. I am very unimpressed with NatWest to say the least, actually I am fuming!

[BuntyPenfold]

It is typical of them in my experience.

[Angree]

All financial Service firms are required to comply with treating customers fairly principles and are supposed to have these at the core of their business.

You may want to refer them to this when you make you complaint.


Outcome 1: Consumers can be confident that they are dealing with firms where the fair treatment of customers is central to the corporate culture.

Outcome 2: Products and services marketed and sold in the retail market are designed to meet the needs of identified consumer groups and are targeted accordingly.

Outcome 3: Consumers are provided with clear information and are kept appropriately informed before, during and after the point of sale.

Outcome 4: Where consumers receive advice, the advice is suitable and takes account of their circumstances.

Outcome 5: Consumers are provided with products that perform as firms have led them to expect, and the associated service is of an acceptable standard and as they have been led to expect.

Outcome 6: Consumers do not face unreasonable post-sale barriers imposed by firms to change product, switch provider, submit a claim or make a complaint.


from here - www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/doing/regulated/tcf/

[BuntyPenfold]

Wow you are clever Angree.
I wish I knew what to do about this scenario:

Mum needs hip op, waited ages, decided to go private as in severe pain and is sole carer for very ill husband.
Asked NatWest to transfer funds from deposit to CHQ account to pay for op.
Nat West say as deposit is joint ac my very ill father has to authorize it too.
Nat West say he has to go into bank himself.
My very ill father drags himself to bank somehow, for meeting in which money transfer is arranged.
Mum goes into hospital for hip replacement. Writes CHQ.
Mum finds hospital admin by her bed saying chq has bounced.
Mum rings NatWest - she is mortified at this.
NatWest say - they did not transfer the money following the meeting. No apology, no explanation. They just didn't do it.
I say they should apologise to my parents and explain to the hospital that it was their fault entirely.
As my father then died my mum did not follow it up.
I am very sad and furious.

[Angree]

Very poor service there, sorry for your loss.

You definately have cause for complaint there.

A problem with Natwest/RBS at the moment is they are in quite a lot of corporate turmoil (government owning a large part of the company/various other issues) and customer service and inter-departmental process are going to suffer. It will probably take quite a long time to deal with your complaints. But you both have very valid concerns that would fall under a failiure to "treat customers fairly".

For both of the issues on this thread, I would recommend contacting these consumer help from the Guardian - here www.guardian.co.uk/money/series/bachelor-and-brignall-consumer-champions. They have a pretty good success rate at resolving issues and a company usually resolves quickly to avoid negative press.

[BuntyPenfold]

Thank you for reading all that Angree - you are kind as well as clever.

[LucyLouLou]

Wow you've been very unlucky! In good conscience, I would say I probably wouldn't have put the deposit down knowing that the bank had been such shitheads so far, but that's neither here nor there really. I hope it all works out!

[lotuseener]

Bunty- I'm so sorry what you have been through. I hope you can resolve this with them by at least filing a complaint. They have been an annoyance to me but that doesn't compare to what you have been through. Thank you angree for your advice.