Firstdirect are just fab!

[partystress]

have banked with them for donkey's years, but always had mortgage with Barclays for some reason I have forgotten. Needed to remortgage to fund some improvements. To cut a long story short, Barclays were so pants, I threw a hissy fit and said they could forget having our business. Went to FD, who could not have been more different. Not one jobsworth in the whole process, loads of text updates, fast, smooth and sorted in less time than it took Barclays to get an application form in the post. Not on commision, honest, but just wanted to fly the flag for excellent service. [hsmile]

They are fabulous aren't they. About 6 months ago they sent me a half case of wine and when I asked why they said just because.
A chap phoned me from their credit card deptartment yesterday to let me know that a payment for paralympic tickets had been declined because they had given the wrong information about my card. The thing is he phoned to tell me so that I could contact them to amend the details & had the number for me to ring them straight away to try to sort it out because he knew it was important to me.
On another occasion when my card was stolen and I needed cash someone offered to drive the cash to my house.
They always go above and beyond what you expect from good customer service

Oh, feeling [henvy] now cos they've never sent me half a case of wine! But the one and only time they have ever messed up, when a council tax DD didn't get paid, they instantly offered to write to the council admitting responsibility so that it didn't count against me. Still, might start dropping hints that I'm a Pinot Grigio kind of a gal!

Hear, hear! What you all said. We've been with them since they started - 1987? or something. Never, never a problem, they are more than helpful and you GET TO TALK TO SOMEONE STRAIGHTAWAY! None of that arsing around - press option 101 for whatever. Why aren't all banks like this.

I have been pissed off with them a few times for blocking my cards when abroad (I used to travel to Eastern Europe on business and they always over-reacted to charges from restaurants in Riga, Moscow and Warsaw). That said I am with fd since '97 and never considered changing (RBOS I hope you feel sick for refusing to open an account for me - big mistake!)

I love FD - banked with them for decades (no wine tho' yet...!), great service, great well trained staff etc. I really do recommend them to everyone and will stay with them forever. But this year they keep stuffing up on everything to do with my joint account - I am separating from stbeh - they have just not handled it well. I used to be a process manager with an investment bank so get controls, processes etc and don't understand why they are not working properly here.