Published August 22nd, 2007
in Internet Banking and Telephone Banking.
I have finally opened up an account with Natwest who provide me with a local branch, a local branch phone number and English speaking people on the phone from England… just like the good old days!
The Natwest raised a request with Abbey to transfer all money from my Current Account and linked ESaver account and then close them both. The Abbey followed the instructions to move the money, but only on my Current Account. They then proceeded to close my current account meaning I have no access to online or telephone banking. This is where the problems begin…
Because Abbey didn’t transfer my Esaver account then I still have money sitting in there, however, the Esaver account is linked to my current account. As my current account is now closed, I have no internet or telephone banking access so I’m unable to get a balance, withdraw or transfer money from my Esaver account to anywhere else. Abbey insist they are also unable to do this as its an account to be operated by Internet only which is fine if the Abbey don’t delete your Internet login.
So I have money, MY money, in a savings, MY savings account account which;
- I can’t withdraw
- I can’t transfer
- I can’t see the balance
- Abbey can’t make the transfer on my behalf (even though I authorise them to)
- Abbey can’t make the transfer on my behalf (even though I authorise them to)
I’ve now had to request a special ATM Card in order to gain access to MY ESaver account. Once this card arrives, I then have to apply for an ESaver Internet Login so I can access my account online. Once this arrives I can then transfer my money.
And they wonder why I am switching banks!
The Abbey is more like a comedy sketch than a business!
Yesterday I placed an order online with TravelEx to pickup my foreign currency directly from Heathrow. Today I received an email from TravelEx informing me they had been unable to process my card details. I phoned up TravelEx to see if they had more details, and went through the order with them. As soon as I mentioned that I was using an Abbey Debit Card, the bloke at TravelEx said that this was the cause of the problem.
Abbey will only allow £300 per day online purchase of foreign currency via TravelEx and he suggested that I used a different bank account or a credit card. Sadly I don’t have another bank account and I only have an Amex card which I’m not keen on using. So the other alternative? Well to get all the money in cash and turn up at Heathrow with rolls of notes to swap for my holiday spends.
Next problem, the amount of money I require, means that I can’t go into a branch to withdraw it as I have to give them notification. Abbey do not provide branch phone numbers so I am yet again stuck in a phone queue (32 minutes so far) in order to speak to my branch, so I can arrange to take time off work and call in, allowing me to withdraw some of my money, so that I swap it for foreign currency in order to have some holiday spends.
This is getting absolutely friggin ridiculous now!
Published June 13th, 2007
in Internet Banking.
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.
Published June 3rd, 2007
in Internet Banking.
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 MSN
Published May 30th, 2007
in Internet Banking.
Abbey have very kindly sent me an email this morning however I am still no further forward. The email, from Abbey Customer Services reads as follows;
Thank you for your further comments.
I’m sorry to hear that you havent had any further correspondance at this stage and I apologise that you’ve had to contact us to chase the matter.
I do appreciate your comments and I can assure you I have sent your email to the relevant team and have marked it for their immediate attention.
I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused and the department who are in receipt of your past communication will make every effort to respond to you in full as soon as possible.
Regards
So again, it is simply an apology telling me the information has been passed to the relevant department. The department that has been contacted by Customer Service for the past 3 months and still haven’t acted up on their requests. Due to this, I expect the relevant department will not act on the latest communication sent by Customer Service.
Bearing this in mind, I have now started to PPC this website on Google and MSN on Abbey relevant search terms. In my reply to Customer Services, I have requested that this matter be resolved in 7 days by which I mean, money refunded, interest owed refunded and charges applied to my account because this has taken me overdrawn, also refunded. If this is not carried out within 7 days, then I will be speaking to the media in an attempt to bring it to possible future customers of Abbey, warning them of the experience I have received.
Published May 23rd, 2007
in Internet Banking.
For the past 5 days I have been trying to gain access to my account details online but sadly the Abbey website is down and has been unavailable since late Saturday! There is no announcement on the website, and whenever you phone any Abbey Departments you are put on hold for god only knows how long. Surely it would make sense to have a message about the website unavailability?
The problem I now face is that I want to move money from my eSaver account to my personal account. This process can not be done over the telephone as eSaver accounts are only accessible via the internet!
So I have an account with Abbey which I need to transfer funds from and to, yet I have had no access to this money for 5 days!
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