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AIBU?

AIBU to believe that Santander is the worst, least helpful bank?

41 replies

Lilymaid · 07/12/2011 13:16

I've had nothing but unhelpfulness and rudeness and ignorance from their staff concerning my deceased DF's bank account and I have had to read extracts from their own bereavement guide in order to show them what they should do.
Now I have grant of probate and provided it to them, they are still refusing to release the funds until I have got what they call an "internal form" signed/witnessed by a solicitor. They also refused to accept my driving licence as photo ID because the postcode (not the rest of the address) on it has been very slightly changed (but they will accept a passport which has no address on it!)
Just wanted to vent, as when I have released the money, I shall never ever have to cross the threshold of a Santander branch again!

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BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack · 07/12/2011 13:21

I have had nightmares with Santander like you would never believe....they are the work of the devil. They took £10k from our joint bank account by mistake, took ages to pay it back and then wouldnt let me make a mortgage payment because I was overdrawn. When I pointed out I was only OD because they had made a mistake the answer I got was "well our system doesnt know that" . I was so angry I am surprised I didnt have a stroke on the spot....they sent me a massive bunch of flowers to apologise....bet the florists they use love them, they must gets loads of work from all their cock ups!

My DH who is a builder does a lot of work for one of the managers of our local Santander branch and even he admits they are dreadful!

Pixieonthemoor · 07/12/2011 13:22

Totally not bu. They are simply awful - just try opening an account with them and see how far you get (about 5 different ref nos not one of which work and every single person you speak to gives you different instructions). Then try checking your balance - it's enough to sent a saint off the deep end. Really stressful and they are not in the slightest bit embarrassed or apologetic about their incompetence. Avoid at all costs!

BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack · 07/12/2011 13:22

oh....and sorry to hear about your DF! :(

SnowieBear · 07/12/2011 13:22

Sorry for your loss, Lilymaid, it must be really awful to have such an insensitive bunch to deal with.

YADNBU, they are consistently poor and I've lost count of how many times they've messed things up with my banking... Everytime I visit them in branch, there are people with issues or quite serious complaints, so I know it's not just me.

I do hope they sort everything out for you soon and you get an apology from them. For all your banking, First Direct - they are great and nothing is too much trouble for them.

FruitShootsSantaandLeaves · 07/12/2011 13:27

My DF also banks with Santander. When he developed dementia I still had to make numerous phonecalls, go to numerous meeting in my DFs local bank (which is not local to me!) and send of loads of proof of identification forms in order to get authority on his account AND I already had Power of Attorney.
Nat West did it all over the counter!

YouOldSlag · 07/12/2011 13:29

YANBU. DH banks with them and they kept bouncing Direct Debits even though there were plenty of funds in there with nothing else pending. They then fined him £35 for the Direct Debits bouncing when it was their mistake. They did this about five times in six months, despite DH having full funds and no overdraft. They are useless.

camilla2010 · 07/12/2011 13:32

YADNBU they just stopped my DD as well for NO reason it took 3 months for me to notice and in the meantime health insurance canx etc COMPLETE NIGHTMARE!!
Have called and written to complain but they seriously couldn't give a monkeys. Need to change bank but just not been able to. But I will!!

LizzieMo · 07/12/2011 13:33

I had terrible trouble with them too. I eventually got given some compensation for my complaint, but it took loads of phone calls & visits to the branch (not local) I would not go near them again.

Lilymaid · 07/12/2011 13:38

Pleased that I've given others the chance to vent as well!
Fortunately for me, I have access to a solicitor who will sign the extra document without charge (obviously a court order in the form of a grant of probate is not good enough for Santander). Everyone else I've had to deal with has been helpful ... why are they so ghastly?
I almost pity their staff, who must have to deal with far more aggrieved customers than is usual for a bank and most of whom seem to be untrained in basic banking knowledge and in customer care.

OP posts:

ratspeakeratsolstice · 07/12/2011 13:42

YANBU

I too found them unhelpful and rude after my dad died. That was Dec 2009 and it doesn't sound as if they've improved since then

dippydoodah · 07/12/2011 14:45

YANBU, they were utter utter crap. Our Alliance & Leicester account moved to them and the customer service fell through the floor. Consistantly stressful. We're now with First Direct - miles better!

leftmymistletoeatthedoor · 07/12/2011 14:49

Yanbu they are awful

They asked me as a security question 'can you name a standing order or your account?' I said 'no' and she said 'I'm sorry you've failed' and refused to talk to me about the account - got dh to call back and it was because we have no standing orders?!

ddubsgirl · 07/12/2011 14:50

natwest have been bloody unhelpful,they bank went down few weeks ago and dh went od,trying to pay it all back and he thought it was sorted now getting letters saying its being refered to debt collectors,tried ringing and everytime the system is down,went into bank they cant help you need to call grrrhhh

DamnBamboo · 07/12/2011 14:53

Never had any problems myself.
They've always been very good.

I think all banks are shit some of the time.
I thought I read that Santander was moving up the ranks in terms of customer service.
I had them on the phone not long ago checking to see if my advisor last night was good and if I would mind doing a customer satisfaction survey. All in all, it was fine.

theoldtrout01876 · 08/12/2011 00:18

DamnBamboo Hope the fckers call me about doing a customer satisfaction survey at some point. Id be delighted :o

THEY SUCK !!! :o

OldLadyKnowsSantaClaus · 08/12/2011 00:28

If Santander are moving up the rankings for customer service, it can only be from shittest ever to second-shittest ever. I don't have an account with them but have read plenty.

WorraLiberty · 08/12/2011 00:33

They're a bunch of useless fuckwits

My solicitor threatened to sue them/charge them for wasting his time when I had my DH's name added to my mortgage.

It took them 4 months instead of the usual 3 weeks because they constantly lost documents and forms...and none of the departments knew what the fuck the others were doing.

5ofus · 08/12/2011 08:01

They're bloody awful at credit cards too. I had a promo 0% rate and they set the DD up to take the WHOLE amount the first month. Took ages to get my money back then they couldn't reset the 0% which meant I ended up having to call them each month to refund the interest charge. Bloody useless. Would never trust them with anything else.

YouOldSlag · 08/12/2011 09:50

My friend opened an account with them and they didn't send her a bank card for five months. They sent her a few hampers though, but no good if you can't access your own money!

SadlyNo · 08/12/2011 10:32

Cards sent to wrong branches, branches randomly closed, awful passive aggressive customer service... I imagined all banks were like they are, but I did finally changed and I've never had a moment's trouble with Natwest or Halifax.

Last straw was a six month nightmare. I went over my unauthorised overdraft and had a charge imposed of £75 - ouch, but fair enough. So I made sure there was extra money in to cover the charge. Not so simple! Their system somehow managed to decide it was appropriate to levy a charge on the charge (the original charge had obviously just taken me further into my unauthorised overdraft). So my extra money wasn't enough and I ended up with a charge on the charge on the charge .

I thought I was just being dippy at first, and put in DOUBLE the amount (which I could ill afford at the time) in case I had missed a date or something. Next month same again. After several months shovelling money into this bottomless pit I called customer services. They claimed they had sorted it and refunded the latest charge. Next month, same again. Called them again. Again they claimed to have sorted it and refunded the latest charge. Cross-questioned them and explained my problem. No real engagement, just the usual singsong "this has been done is there anything else we can help you with Miss SadlyNo" etc.

Next month same AGAIN so I went into a branch with the bank statements (this was a very little-used account, so all the transactions were charges, charges on charges and refunds of the charges!) and was treated with APPALLING rudeness by a little turd in a suit who actually ended up muttering an insult at me when I persisted (crossly but certainly not ranting and raving) in suggesting that this didn't make any sense. His far more competent manager instantly saw it was ridiculous and sorted it permanently while apologising graciously. And I was later told frankly by a branch manager that they knew their phone customer services were awful and were amazed the business allowed them to carry on!

MabelLucyAttwell · 08/12/2011 10:37

Good God! I hope you all changed to another bank. Try the Co-operative Bank plc. Nothing but praise for them.

Lilymaid · 08/12/2011 11:40

Update - having fumed all day about my treatment at Santander yesterday, I phoned their Bereavement Centre today and spoke to a a really helpful and pleasant person at the Centre who told me that I had filled in the form correctly and that the member of staff in the branch was wrong on every count. If there is any trouble today, she advised me to get the branch staff to phone the Bereavement Centre who would put them right.
So, shall spend my lunch hour dealing with this again and hopefully come out with a cheque and will never have any further dealings with Santander Bank!

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DitaVonCheese · 08/12/2011 20:01

YANBU. Similar experience to SadlyNo with current a/c (prev A&L a/c).

Also have mortgage with them (prev Abbey!) - tried to change to interest-only a/c and had months of being shifted from dept to dept, told could only do in person so walking into town with baby only for mysterious person to not be available and never calling back x several times etc.

LOATHE this bank. Hope to be free of them forever shortly and will never look back!

microserf · 08/12/2011 20:18

i cancelled all my accounts with them. the person doing it asked me what they could do to convince me to stay.

i told her the last time i was at a branch, the queue was so unbelievably slow, an actual fight broke out.

she closed the accounts without more comment.

DitaVonCheese · 08/12/2011 20:33

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