just to update further for posterity
so I emailed back last night to say the number they provided was incorrect, no response
so again, I logged onto online banking, went to live chat (this is not without difficulty while working as you can't let the banking window expire and if they start chatting and you're in another window, they close it down after 1 minute) as it doesn't pop up in the other window. Every minute or so, you have to go back and refresh - if you don't do this, it times out and kicks you out back to the beginning. This is not easy when you're trying to work and do meetings. So after 30 mins of it timing me out and me finally telling everyone to leave me alone so I can refresh the screen permanently, I talk to someone in live chat who can't write in full understandable sentences.
I say the form is STILL not there and they told me yesterday if I hadn't done it in 5 days, the accounts would be closed. She tells me that this is not correct. What is correct is that the form will APPEAR in 5 days time. I said what happens if it doesn't, she says it will. I say please can you give me the number for the team responsible for the form. She goes away and finds the number. I can see the number they have given me is one digit out from the number in the email so obviously someone typed it wrong when they sent it to me on email.
I call the number. I have to select option 2. I have a digital phone system at work. When i select option 2, it doesn't register on the other side so I have to wait with the call going round in circles till someone finally says for the 4th time, you have still not selected an option and passes me to someone.
I give my account details. They say they need my telephone banking password. I have never set up telephone banking. He said no you did, you went into a branch and did it. I say I have never been into a branch for business banking. He says you did. I say well maybe it's the same as the telephone banking number I have on my premier account. He says fine let's try it. We try it. It's not that. He says ok you have one more go. I said what if it's wrong because it will be wrong as I don't know what it is. So he said if it's wrong, we can do other security measures like checking your transactions since the last statement. I say ok great, that's easy because the only thing that's happened since my last statement is YOU CHARGING ME FOR AN ACCOUNT I CAN'T USE
we try it again, it's wrong so we move to alternative security. He says before I start this, your account is now frozen from a security perspective unless you pass these tests. I said my friend, the account is so frozen, nothing we are doing makes a difference. He said fine let's start with the debit card number. I said , I don't actually ever use the debit card as we make all our payments online. He said sorry we can't proceed until you have this number so I'm going to end the call right now but if you don't call back within 24 hours, there will be problems with your account as you've failed the security checks!
ARGH
tomorrow is another day