Archive for June, 2007

Compensation Received

Published June 29th, 2007 in Post. Closed

Today I received a letter, dated 25th June, and it was sent 1st class, so in this instance Abbey weren’t to blame, but the Royal Mail were the cause of delay. Anyway, the letter thats been sent to me, if NOT a standard letter, but a personal one from John Reed, Senior Customer Resolution Manager. In it he apologises for the length of time it’s taken to respond to me and the fact that the Visa failed to return any of my calls.

It goes on;
I’d like to thank you though, because now I know about the problem I have been able to tell toher managers about it, and they will do everything possible to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I have been assured feedback will be given to address the issues raised.”

OK, so the letter doesn’t directly answer every question I raised in my correspondance to them on 6th June, but lets just hope they do what they say, and act upon the issue highlighted in order to stop it from happening again, to me or any other customer.

They have arranged to credit my current account with £130 in full and final settlement of my account which personally I think is a fair sum, considering the amount of problems, time and money I have spent in trying to get this resolve.

How did I do it?
1. After 81 days of getting knowhere through the usual channels, I created this website, and emailed the CEO.
2. I then advertised this site on Google and MSN, ensuring my advert was shown for popular Abbey and Banking search terms, in many cases appearing above Abbey’s official website.
3. I wrote to them in the same time limiting style, giving them 7 days to either contact me or sort out compensation.

Will I still move my bank account from Abbey?
Yes - once the £130 has cleared.

Abbey National Empty Promises

Published June 27th, 2007 in Post. Closed

Well today is Wednesday 27th June and the postman has been and gone. Sadly he didn’t deliver anything from the Abbey despite being promised by the Customer Services Department that I would have something in writing by today at the very latest. I can’t say I am the least bit surprised at being let down by Abbey again, after all why should they change their ways?

I noticed on the BBC News website today, that another Abbey National Customer has received a lot of problems over the past few months too. Mary Welsby tried to gain access to herAbbey savings account but was refused as she was dead! This bank is seriously getting worse and worse and I really think its time that the Financial Obudsman or some other governing body started to investigate how they are dealing.

So what next for me? Well I will give them to the end of the week for receipt of this promised letter. I suspect that Abbey may have sent the communication out to me, but like last time, in order to scrimp and save, resulting in a crap service to its customers, they’ve sent it out second class post. All for the sake of £0.13.

Oh and by the way, for the record, the postal strike has not yet started! It is due to take place on Friday 29th June, just incase the Abbey try to use this as an excuse, after all, they must be running low on excuses by now.

Don’t Give Up Hope

Published June 22nd, 2007 in Telephone Banking. Closed

I’ve just received a phoncall from Abbey. No prompting, no promise of call back, completely out of the blue! It was from their complaints department and they basically explained that they were still investigating my complaint and will be writing to me by Wednesday 27th June with an explanation and full apology.

They confirmed that any amount will incorporate compensation to cover;
Phone call costs
Time and effort
Lost interest
Overdraft charges
General inconvenience

Therefore I am expecting to recieve a healthy sum, especially if they are fair in their compensation appraisal.

Is it worth it? Well in all honesty no. I would rather have had the money refunded immediately rather than have to go through all the hassle and stress this has caused. If they had refunded within 7 days as I was told, then I would actually be away on holiday now with friends. Sadly, because of the delay I was unable to book.

I’m Rich!

Published June 13th, 2007 in Internet Banking. Closed

Today it appears that ALL the visa disputed purchases have been refund to my bank account. Total time taken since raising the issue with Abbey to recovering the funds has been 3 months and 4 days! I didn’t receive any notification, no letter, no phonecall just an increase in my available funds.

I am still waiting to hear about compensation for the phonecalls and time its taken to resolve this, lost interest and refunded overdraft charges. They have until 29th June in which to respond until I continue my pursuit. In the meantime I have paused all the adverts I was running to promote my ongoing struggle.

You Have To Be Tough

Published June 11th, 2007 in Post. Closed

Today I have received two letters, both from Richard Harris who is listed as Head of Complaints. The first letter is in response to my email I sent to Abbeys CEO, Antonio Horta-Osorio in which Richard Harris says that my complain has been referred by the CEO to him personally, and that the will investigate my concerns fully and reply to me within 15 working days. The letter is date 11th June, so this means they have until 29th June in which to respond.

The second letter, again from Richard Harris, I suspect is in repsonse to the letter I sent last week. Strangley they have got their facts mixed up in this one, as it says “it has now been eight weeks since you first contacted Abbey”. This is blatantly incorrect as my first contact with them as on 9th March, unless he means my first contact with Abbey Customer Service.

He apologises for the delay and goes on to say;
Although we have made progress, we want to make sure we fully understand the problem before writing and we are unable to give you a full response just now.

To me, this sounds just like any other fob off. What progress has been made? Surely they could tell me this, and also inform me of what the hold up is? As they have admitted that 8 weeks has passed (since I contacted Abbey Customer Service), I am now entitled to take this further with the Financial Obudsman. I have already completed all the forms for the Financial Obudsman and received a repsonse from them back in May following my contact with them.

I have decided to wait until 29th June until I progress further with the Financial Ombudsman, giving the Abbey the fifteen working days they require in order to reply in full.

We’re getting there!

Published June 6th, 2007 in Post. Closed

Today I received in the post a letter from the Abbey National, asking me to sign a form confirming all the transactions that I dispute. They have given me 7 days in order to send the signed form back to themselves, yet they sent it 2nd class. That means I have exactly 24 hours in order to ensure the completed form gets back. If it doesn’t then they will ‘assume that you no longer wish me to dispute these payments’Absolute bloody cheek! It has taken me 3 months to get to this stage, yet then give me less than 24 hours to respond from the time the letter has arrived!The exact letter reads as follows

Dear Mr NNNNN

Card Number 4547-1234-1234-1234

Thank you for your claim regarding Visa payments as listed on the enclosed statement.

Could I please ask that you read and sign the enclosed statement, adding to the BACK, you telephone number and any comments you feel would help your claim. Please return the completed statement, within the next seven days. I enclosed a prepaid envelope for your convenience, however, if you wish, you can fax the statement to me, on the number at the top of this letter.

Please be aware, that if I do not receive the signed statement within this time, I will assume that you no longer wish me to dispute these payments. I will close your case and no further action will be taken.

If you have dealt with the retailer(s) before, could you also provide any documentation you have.

When I receive your statement, I will credit your account accordingly and ask the retailer’s bank(s) to check the payments. If they are then able to supply documentation to confirm that any of the payments are valid, I will send you a copy and arrange to re-debit your account. However, if they are unable to supply valid documentation, the credits will remain on your account. We will have no need to write to you again and you should regard the matter as closed.

I am sorry that you have experienced this problem on your account and hope our actions have dealt with your concerns.

Yours sincerely

UNSIGNED!

Notice, there is no mention of compensation for the expenses incurred, the time I’ve wasted or any mention of charges refunded! So my statement is being faxed back, with the following covering letter.

Dear Abbey


RE: Card Number 4547 1234 1234 1234

Thank you for your unsigned letter dated 1st June 2007, received 6th June 2007 using 2nd class postage, providing me with 24 hours in which to respond. I enclose the statement, signed as requested along with my contact number.

I would now like to raise a number of issues with yourself, and request that you return, by letter, an explanation or resolution to each within seven days.

Please be aware, if I do not receive a resolution or response to each point listed below, I will assume that Abbey will not be attempting to address these issues. I will therefore continue to publicise this ongoing case via internet and tabloids, and will continue to seek legal advice in order to rectify each one;

• When can expect to be refunded ALL charges applied to my account, as a result of these transactions taking me overdrawn.
• When I will receive interest owed to me on the £n,nnn.nn that was taken from my account without my authorization.
• When I can expect to receive compensation in order to cover my expenses and inconvenience, which has equated to over 49hrs spent on the telephone in a total of 47 phone calls to yourselves over the past 3 months.
• Can you please explain why it has taken 3 months for Abbey to investigate my case, when every time I made contact with yourselves, I was told there was a 7 day delay.
• Why you insist on being contacted within 7days, yet only send the letter 2nd class, giving me 24 hours to respond to you.

Until I receive a response to all of the above points, I will not consider this matter closed and ask that you do the same.

Yours sincerely
 

Me

So, I am a step closer, but there is no way I am simply going to accept a refund of the money owed to me, without any compensation or a personalised response apologising for the way I have been treated.

Anti-Abbey Adverts Are Live

Published June 3rd, 2007 in Internet Banking. Closed

This website is now showing on Google and MSN for selective search terms. I informed Abbey that this is the route I would take if it wasn’t resolved quickly, so unforutantely, as I am no further forward, its time to stick to my guns.

The images below show the advert to this website, that has been targetted at specific Abbey search terms. Click the pictures to see the full size screen shots.

Google Advert      MSN Advert
Google                               MSN

My Time Wasted

Phone calls to Abbey - 47
Phone calls from Abbey - 3
Hours on phone - 49

Emails to Abbey - 3
Emails from Abbey - 2

Days between claim and receiving full refund = 96

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