Today, at lunchtime I called into my Natwest to arrange an appointment to transfer my account to them following the problems I had with Abbey National. The only regret I have is that I didn’t do this earlier!
Today I need to transfer a small sum of money to HM Revenue & Customs so phoned up to make the transfer as the online banking facility wasn’t available. I was told at 11am that their internal systems were also offline and I would have to call back after 1pm. I got through to the Abbey again at 1.30pm and was told that I would need to call back in 30 minutes as their systems were still offline.
Eventually I got through to someone… and their systems were online! Next problem, I was asked the usual security questions which I confirmed after 3 attempts as the Indian call centre didn’t understand me. Sadly, they tried incorrectly so many times that my account is now rendered useless. I can not transfer money, pay bills or anything via the website or the phone.
I asked the person to put me through to his manager and the conversation went along the lines of;
“I wish to speak to your manager, as you have disabled my account because you didn’t listen or understand the security answers I gave you.”
“You have to go to your branch with ID to confirm who you are.”
“I can’t as I am in work, and I need to make this payment now.”
“You have to go to your branch with ID to confirm who you are.”
“Did you just hear what I said or did you not understand?”
“You have to go to your branch with ID to confirm who you are.”
“Seriously you are annoying me with your constant message. I hear what you are saying, but do you hear what I am saying?”
15 SECONDS OF SILENCE
“Put me through to your Manager now please.”
“You have to go to your branch with ID to confirm who you are.”
“I said put me through to your manager now. If you won’t then I want your name and your managers name now.”
“You have to go to your branch with ID to confirm who you are.”
“I understand what I have to do to make this payment, however I want to register a complaint against you to your manager and speak to him please. Do you understand what I am asking?”
15 SECONDS OF SILENCE
“Seriously, this isn’t a difficult question! Will you give me the name of your manager? Its a simple YES or NO type of question”
15 SECONDS OF SILENCE
“Let me try one more time. What is the name of your manager?”
“You have to go to your branch with ID to confirm who you are.”
…. I decide to hang up at this point before I lose my patience, swear or get personal.
I decide that try again. Maybe I just got a numpty? Maybe his cue-sheet was stuck and therefore wasn’t sure what to say in this circumstance, after all we know how these call centres work. Sadly, my next call wasn’t any better and despite speaking to a different person, they were reading off the same cue-sheet… “You have to go to your branch with ID to confirm who you are.”.
So, after having enough I phoned cusomter services. They have been able to track who I was talking to, and will raise an internal complaint and have this investigated. In the meantime I am on hold while they (a nice UK Cusomter Service lady) try to find me someone who speaks the same language as me… i.e. ENGLISH!
I went through all security with the lady from Customer Services and she was able to confirm in seconds that I was the account holder, and confirm all my security answers such as DOB, recent transactions on the account etc. When will banks and other companies learn that the last thing many of us English people want, is to speak to someone from a foreign country who doesn’t undestand me, I don’t understand them, and they don’t understand the importance of some of our requests?
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