tl;dr - After a (long) visit to the branch, and more hassle, my wife has had her refund Full - A recap: - Santander told my wife that she had to wait 15 days before they would even start a fraud investigation, let alone consider refunding her the £250, all because of this "existing relationship" with Oyster. No block on the card, no fraud investigation, no refund, no help, no sympathy... - The FSA website clearly states "The bank must make the refund immediately". - The FSA website clearly states "Your bank must only refuse a refund for an unauthorised transaction if it can prove you authorised the transaction – though your bank cannot simply say that use of your password, card and PIN conclusively proves you authorised a payment". - The FSA website clearly states "Your bank must only refuse a refund for an unauthorised transaction if it can prove you are at fault because you acted fraudulently or, because you deliberately, or with gross negligence, failed to protect the details of your card, PIN or password in a way that allowed the transaction." - The FSA website makes no mention of a 15 day wait due to having an "existing relationship" with the retailer/payee. Today's update: My wife remembered something that I would have thought would cast doubt on the "existing relationship" nonsense: he last time she used her account for Oyster was way back when her card was still an Abbey card... with a different number to the one she has now. The current card has never been used with Oyster. My wife visited the local branch today, to try and talk to an actual person and get somewhere with this mess, rather than be fobbed off again by the CSR robots on the phone. She waited and waited and waited. She was insistent that she speak to someone actually capable of helping her, and that she did not simply want them to put her through to the fraud phoneline again, as that would not get anywhere. Eventually she was seen, and went over the whole issue with the branch staff member. The branch staff member phoned the fraud phoneline herself, and managed to eventually break through the 1st line of robots and actually got through to someone who could help instead of simply repeat lines from a script. The situation was explained once more. The more senior person from the fraud phoneline went over my wife's recent transactions with her... revealing two earlier fraudulent transactions that were rejected. My wife stated she definitely did not attempt to make either transaction. She also knew nothing at all of them due to them being rejected straight off, and so not appearing on her statement. Question: Why on Earth was this not done the first time my wife phoned the fraud phone line? Or the second time? If a customer phones and reports an unauthorised transaction, does it not make sense to go over their other recent transactions with them to make sure that there were no other unauthorised transactions or attempted unauthorised transactions, even if the reported one was with a retailer the customer had an "existing relationship" with? As this now made it quite clear-cut that my wife's account was a victim of fraudulent unauthorised transactions, a fraud investigation was opened and my wife was given a reference number. She was told that she should get the two successful unauthorised transactions refunded. The refunds were processed at the end of the working day A replacement card is on its way. I also managed to catch Santander's attention via the power of Twitter. I moaned about Santander to MSE's Martin Lewis and BBC Money's Paul Lewis, while "mentioning" Santander's Twitter account each time. Santander replied to me this morning, asking me to contact them via a "media relations" email that they give out to people who complain on Twitter. I passed it to my wife, and she emailed it earlier. They phoned back while she was out. Oh, and this thread is currently the no. 3 Google search result for "Scumtander", with two threads I created elsewhere taking 1st and 2nd place

My wife is in the process of writing a complaint at the moment. I've suggested that she also make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, too (and of course mention that to Santander...). I'll pass that on to her

My wife has the misfortune of banking with Santander. At the start of each month, we both move money from our own accounts into our joint account to cover the rent, council tax, and other household bills. So, here we are at the start of July, and she can't transfer her usual amount because some has somehow made two fraudulent transactions on her Santander account for £125 each to Oyster. She phoned Santander and explained that these two transactions were not authorised and were therefore fraudulent. After being given the run around, and having to explain the situation again and again to different people, she was finally told that... ... she must wait 15 days before they even class it as fraud and begin investigating No immediate refund, no card cancellation, just "please wait 15 days". Their excuse? She has an "existing relationship" with Oyster, therefore she must wait. Can she do anything in the meantime? "Phone Oyster". So, she phoned Oyster. They can't do anything or tell her anything, other than that it definitely was not her Oyster card that was topped up. Also, apparently the figures in question are actually somehow above the maximum top up amount for Oyster. She phoned Santander back. Went through it all again. Won't budge. "15 days 15 days 15 days..." WTF? Here's what the FSA has to say: fsa.gov.uk/consumerinformation/product_news/banking/know_your_rights/solving My wife did not authorise it, and she contacted her bank immediately. - Santander has not mentioned having proof that my wife authorised the transaction, it merely says its procedures require it to wait 15 days as she has an "existing relationship" with the payee. - Santander has not mentioned having proof that my wife is at fault due to acting fraudulently or negligently etc., it merely says its procedures require it to wait 15 days as she has an "existing relationship" with the payee. Santander has no evidence that one of the above reasons applies. Santander has not asked my wife to "answer some questions and fill out a form confirming what has happened". Santander is not conducting an investigation before making a refund - it is making my wife wait 15 days before it even considers it to be fraud or gives her a refund. My wife passed the phone to me the last time she was on the phone to Santander, as she was getting too upset. I tried to keep my cool, but after the robot kept going on about "15 days 15 days 15 days" each time I quoted the FSA, I did raise my voice... :erm: Unbelievably useless. I have had unauthorised transaction issues with NatWest twice in the past. Each time it happened, my account was refunded as soon as I phoned them, even though the payees were both companies I had an "existing relationship" with (Santander's excuse for their 15 day wait). This farce with Santander is one of the worst examples of customer service I have ever experienced, rivalling the time that DSG "lost" my TV when they had it for repair. My wife is now thinking about ditching them for her current account, although isn't sure as "they're probably all as bad as each other".

I'd forgotten all about this thread! Yep, I did get the vouchers *Eventually* [copy & paste from another forum]

I had a callback later on Monday afternoon, from someone in the "Medics Team" (some sort of escalation/resolution team or something). He didn't actually seem to have been briefed on the situation though, so I had to explain it all again. Various people on the phone, since I first reported the fault, had told me of a "21 day rule", where if the problem has not been resolved by 21 days since the original fault report, you can request that the item is written off & then be issued with vouchers to the value of a replacement of "equivalent specification". As it was now 25 days since I first phoned (21 days since the engineer confirmed the fault, & 14 days since the TV was taken away to be repaired), I asked the guy from the "Medics Team" to initiate a claim for me under the "21 day rule", as I was fed up & did not want to have to wait for however long it would take for them to find & return my TV. He agreed to this, & I gave him my email address (which he said should speed up issuing the vouchers, as once the claim was processed they could just be emailed instead of posted). He said it can take 10-14 days IIRC, but should be faster. He told me he would still chase up what happened to the TV, & would call me back again on Tuesday. On Tuesday, he called me back as promised, and explained that they had still not tracked down my missing TV. He said the system now seemed to show that it was set for re-delivery on Tuesday 29th (the original re-delivery date before I phoned to change it to Monday 28th), but they still couldn't find it. He said I may come home on Tuesday to find a note saying there'd been a missed delivery. [There wasn't however: no delivery was attempted on Tues, nor on Weds, or Thurs. I think they have truly lost it ]. I asked him again if the 21 day thing had been requested, and he assured me that it had been. He said it's now in the hands of the insurance side of Coverplan/Whateverhappens. I got his name, and a geographical phone number instead of the 0844 number. So now I'm waiting for my vouchers to turn up... Some worries which remain though: 1) Fear that when I chase it up, they fob me off by telling me that the claim was never initiated. 2) Fear that when I chase it up, they fob me off by telling me that it's actually supposed to be 28 days / 6 weeks / 8 weeks instead of 21 days. [Yes, I'm a rather negative person, but given what has happened so far, I have zero faith in anyone at DSGi sorting this out properly or doing what they promised]. They really are horrendously bad Their communication is a joke too, not just with customers but between their own departments!

[short story: TV faulty. TV picked up for repair. TV then lost instead of re-delivered...] Sorry for the long post, but... here goes: I bought a Samsung LE26R73BDX HD Ready LCD TV from the "Currys" store in Cambridge’s Retail Park back in December 2006. At the time of purchase, I gave in to the salesman and also purchased Currys' extended warranty scheme, called "Coverplan" (it has since been rebranded as "Whateverhappens"). A few weeks ago, I thought I finally had justification for taking out the extended warranty, as my trusty Samsung developed a rather annoying fault I first noticed it on Tuesday 1st September: a dark vertical line on the right hand side of the screen, running all the way from the top to the bottom. The line wasn't perfectly straight, and had a curve in it at the top. It appeared on all channels and inputs. How noticeable the line was depended on what was being watched, on the colour, the brightness, etc. On some things, you had to look for it. On other things, you could not help but see it and be distracted by it. I phoned the Currys' "Coverplan" ("Whateverhappens") phone line (an 0844 number!) on Thursday 3rd September, and explained the problem to the woman who eventually answered. She told me they aim to resolve things within 21 days, and that if the TV could not be repaired (or was beyond economical repair) then I would be issued with Currys vouchers to purchase a replacement. She booked an engineer visit for Monday 7th September, and from what I recall she said that if the engineer confirmed that the TV was faulty, he or she would then take it back to the service centre. So I used a day out of my little remaining annual leave to take the 7th off work. Monday 7th came, and the engineer phoned me in the morning, to say he'd be here "between 12:00 and 15:00". So I waited… he finally phoned back shortly after 2pm, and said he’d parked at the Grafton and needed directions. "The Grafton? Erm, that’s a bit far to be carrying my TV back to your van," I said to him. "Oh no, I'm not taking the TV. I’m just coming to give it a look," replied the engineer. He turned up a while later, after I acted as a human SatNav and gave him turn by turn directions over the phone. The engineer checked the TV out, and agreed that there was a fault. He phoned his supervisor, who told him that they wouldn’t have the parts for that sort of fault on a TV of that age. He then phoned to arrange the "Uplift" of the TV, and was told by a different person that they would actually have parts for this TV. "Uplift" was finally agreed for Monday 14th September, as any earlier date they offered was too short notice for me to take yet another day off work. So, I used yet another day's annual leave, for the following Monday. Monday 14th September came, and I phoned the 0844 number to find out if they could give me any kind of time window for the "Uplift". "Between 11:30 and 15:30," I was told. And so I waited… Two guys from the Currys Home Delivery service turned up in the afternoon, gave me the paperwork, and took away my TV In its place, I temporarily set up the little 14″ portable from the bedroom Better than nothing… After giving Currys a week, I phoned the 0844 number on Monday 21st September. After navigating the menus, and waiting on hold, I finally got through to someone. The man I spoke to said that my TV had been assigned an engineer that same day, and that it would be assessed later that day. He advised me to phone back on Wednesday. Why on Earth did it take a whole week before they even had a look at it? So, anyway. I phoned back on Wednesday 23rd September. The man I spoke to looked up my details, and said that the system said… "No fault found". No fault found? NO FAULT FOUND?! I explained that there definitely was a fault, and that their own call-out engineer had seen it and confirmed its existence. The man said that perhaps the system had not been updated, and that I should phone back again on Friday. He also said that the TV would still need "bench testing" anyway before being sent back. So, I got home on Wednesday 23rd, feeling rather annoyed with Currys' service so far, only to find a letter from them sitting there waiting for me. Opened it up… it alleged that my TV had actually been repaired already, and said that re-delivery had been scheduled for Tuesday 29th September (after they allegedly failed to contact me to arrange a convenient date: Strange… No message on the landline, no message on my mobile. I did have a missed call on my mobile on Tuesday, but it was from a blocked number, and no voicemail was left, so if that was actually someone from Currys, they didn’t put much effort into contacting me). "Further to your flat panel television being repaired in our workshop…" Hmm. Now, if I hadn’t talked to anyone on Currys’ expensive phoneline, that letter would have cheered me up, and made me feel impressed at what would appear to have been their speedy repair service. But, the thing is, seeing as someone told me that it had been deemed that there was "No fault found", I have to wonder whether they’ve actually done anything at all with it! My current assumption is that the "engineer" somehow failed to notice the fault, marked it up as "No fault found", and just flagged it for re-delivery, generating a standard "your TV has been repaired and will be returned" letter. [OK, maybe I’m wrong, maybe they somehow managed to fix my nearly three year old TV really quickly, without needing to order parts for a TV that is no longer actually made, and it's actually just their communication (both internal and with customers) that sucks.] Anyway. I phoned the Currys/DSGi support line again last Thursday 24th, to find out just what was going on. They told me that it was still down as "no fault found", and that a return had been actioned (explaining the letter… well, apart from the part of the letter saying "Further to your flat panel television being repaired in our workshop"). I then phoned their delivery centre (another expensive 0844 number), and asked for the delivery date to be changed from Tuesday 29th September to Monday 28th September (off work today anyway). The person I spoke to on Thursday confirmed the change to the re-delivery date. He confirmed that it was now set for Monday 28th September. So, today, I got up early (early for a day off), as I had to wait around for the delivery people… I had tried to phone the automated line on Sunday night, to find out the 4 hour delivery window, but it didn’t work... so I phoned again this morning and spoke to someone instead. I was told "Between 8 and 12". And so I waited, and waited, and waited… It hit 12 noon, with no sign of the delivery people, and so I phoned up the delivery centre again… I gave my details again, to a different guy than before, explained the situation again, and he told me he’d transfer me to someone else and I got put on hold again… Finally, someone else answered, and they told me… the TV had not been sent to the delivery centre, and was still at the service centre. What?! So why was I given a delivery window of between 8 and 12? "Sorry sir, I don’t know. You should phone the service centre." So, I phone the service centre (0844). Explain it all again, get put on hold again… the guy comes back, and tells me he doesn't know what is going on. He says he will phone around to investigate, and will call me back. I wait a while, and he phones me back… They still don't know what is going on, and have escalated the issue, but it appears that for the moment they have actually LOST MY TV. It’s not gone out for delivery, nor is it at the delivery centre, but the people at the service centre can’t find it there either. So now I have to wait for a callback. Possibly today. Possibly tomorrow. If I'm lucky, I might get my TV back in "a couple of days". Great. So I have to take another day off work. But I don’t know when. And I can’t take Thursday or Friday off this week, or Monday off next week, as my supervisor is off on those days, and I'll be covering for him. And I just know that when it does eventually come back, it will have the exact same fault as before, because the service centre people seem to be blind and couldn't find it. Utter farce.