Grateful for advice:
In short,
I received a letter from Santander saying my application (made online) for a personal loan had been successful.
The letter (dated 12/08/14, signed Pam Speed, Director of Santander Operations)
said the money would be in my account within 2-4 working days if I followed "THREE EASY STEPS".
1. Read the Pre-Contract Credit Information and Pre-Contractual Explanation.
2. Sign and date the 'Signature to Agreement' section of Our Copy of the Agreement and,
Step 3, Return in the envelope provided: Our Copy of the Agreement.
These three things I did - 17/08/14.
The 2-4 working days expired - no money in my account.
I rang 26/08/14 and 27/08/14 to find out why (three times in two days).
But Customer Service couldn't get through to the Applications dept.
All they could tell me was my application was "pending".
I persisted - but the applications dept. were unreachable by Customer Services.
Then, a day later, when I called again, I was told my "application" had been cancelled - 27/08/14.
I complained - Customer Services advised me to do so.
But the Complaints department couldn't contact Applications either.
They even said that when they did get through Applications would hang up because it was a call from the Complaints dept. Or were "rude".
I am not making this up!
Finally someone in Applications agreed to talk to Complaints and
I was informed the reason my application had been cancelled was I hadn't responded to a letter requesting further information:
proof of address, wage slips, 3 months bank statements
(all of which I would have been perfectly happy to provide) if I'd received such a letter - which I didn't.
When pressed, they said the letter had been sent out on 12/08/14
- the same day Pam Speed, Director of Santander Operations wrote to me saying:
"I'm pleased to tell you that your application has been successful."
I'm disinclined to believe any such letter was sent as 1.
I didn't receive it and
2. why send two separate letters out on the same day .
..one, unequivocally, saying my application had been successful
and another requesting further documentation? And
3. different members of Customer Services said the letter requested varying/different types of documentation.
But, all moot in any case because I was not allowed to present the documentation due to my "application" having been irreversibly cancelled
- even though I was unaware of the request, despite calling Santander three times to find out the reason for the delay in receiving the loan.
My application was cancelled 27/08/14
- even though the letter I DID receive 12/08/14 said:
"we can only reserve this loan for 28 days from the date your application was accepted".
Even if the letter was sent, and I'd received it,
was I given sufficient time to respond - 12/08/14 - date of alleged posting
- and 27/08/14 - date of cancellation of "successful" application?
I have now spent all this week trying to resolve matters
- I simply want Santander to honour the agreement they entered into with me, and I entered into with them - in good faith.
But dealing with the various Complaints depts. is a nightmare.
They appear to have utter contempt for their customers, not to mention one another within the organisation!
How on earth does this company stay in business, or function?
And how do I get an answer from Santander about why they send at best misleading and at worst false letters to their customers?
Why tell a customer in writing his loan application has been successful when this is untrue?
Or are Santander sending out "holding" letters saying the loan has been approved, to buy time, when in actual fact it hasn't?
Based on my experience, I would caution anyone entering into any legal contracts with Santander.
To date I have not received written notice that my loan application has been cancelled,
nor any letter requesting and detailing further documentation.
Most grateful for advice on how I should proceed.
