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!

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!

Eventually they transfered to me Glasgow and within 6 minutes, security was confirmed, bill payment setup and payment made. So why the problem?

GET THIS….
The Indian Call Centre are working from OLD DATA! My 16 digit card number that I have in my hand, doesn’t match the number the Indian Call Centre have. I received this card in the 1st week of June so therefore the Indian Call Centre are working off security details that are over 2 months out of date! How shocking is this?

Atleast it explains why India were unable to confirm my identity yet the UK were, but in this day and age, why does it take more than 2 hours to update systems on a global level? Its possible as its something I manage fulltime!

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?

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.