Demonsterfying the banks-The negative side

[pugsley]

What annoys me about bankstaff is that they give out the wrong information as they haven't been trained properly, and expect you to accept what they say and not challenge it. I commend you for coming on here as you might learn to give out the right information, it shows you are interested in your job. If I was to work in customer services I would make sure I am uptodate on all the issues, but hey that's just me a sponge for knowledge, if I don't know something I try to find out, I know some people go to work and try and get away with the basics tp pay the bills.

 

The banking code seems to be a mysterious ideology to some staff, but it's just plain english so read it.

[Keith Phillips]

The staff at my local Crapifax are the most miserable, unhelpful bunch in town. The only time they smile is when they ask if I would like a credit card or want to move my mortgage! If you ask them to do something which involves getting up to go away from the counter, they give one of those wonderful withering looks.

Wish I could be positive but I'm sorry I can't.

[Guest NATTIE]

I tried to keep the Positive but having realised that clearly staff like me are just horrible and unhelpful, I would follow advice on my first post on the nice thread and start a negative one so feel free to vent but I won't reply on this one at all.

Please try and be humourous even through the red mist of your anger.

 

Thanks

[livelylad]

I tried to keep the Positive but having realised that clearly staff like me are just horrible and unhelpful, I would follow advice on my first post on the nice thread and start a negative one so feel free to vent but I won't reply on this one at all.

Please try and be humourous even through the red mist of your anger.

 

Thanks

 

 

how would you like like the cash today, What does that mean?

I would like it folded up as paper planes please or I would like all the £10 notes to be £50 please.

 

Muppets:D

[Guest NATTIE]

I once was asked how would you like your money before I worked for a bank, and I said Cash please. Felt like an absolute wally, what else would they give me it in....buttons!!!

[Guest Niklowe]

I tried to keep the Positive but having realised that clearly staff like me are just horrible and unhelpful,

 

NWSM I'm with natwest and have always found them very polite. You are obviously the one exception that proves the rule!!!!!!!!!!! LOL:D

[Allyxia]

The woolwich nuff said

[clint1974]

Well i must say the staff at RBS are poor, even had some office junior telling me it was my responsibility to run my account properly after phoning and complaining about charges, which i duly told her i would be claiming back,

[ncf355]

how would you like like the cash today, What does that mean?

I would like it folded up as paper planes please or I would like all the £10 notes to be £50 please.

 

Muppets:D

 

 

My particular fav is when you are asked this, say 'can I have it all in 5's/10's/20's please?' and get 'sorry, we dont have enough of X, so I'll give it to you as X and Y'

 

So why ask in the first place?

 

[kevb0444]

I like it when they try to come over all friendly by calling you by your last name....like "Thank you MrXXXX" I know it's nice but i find it funny. More so when i go in with my GF who's name they can never pronouce. Its such a giggle when they get it wrong or in most ceases you can see they've had a look and are having trouble with it and don't even bother....hehehehe:D

[Bookworm]

Actually, I once went in (Natwest) with hubby, for once on same shift pattern. He would usually do the cash drops, me far less often because of my work hours then.

 

Anyway, as I get to the till, the girl frowns and seems unhappy, and says: "Is this just your account, Mrs BW?" (Obviously recognising the account, but not me) SO I say: "Well, no, it's joint, there's my husband standing there". She looks up, sees DH, and shouts: "Oh, I know HIM!" with a big smile.... then turns SCARLET as I raise an eyebrow and she realises how suspicious that just sounded...

 

That gave everyone in the branch a laugh that day, l can tell you.

[Bookworm]

Natwest: Branch people, no complaints.

 

But oooh, you people at the Wimbledon lending centre

 

The number of times they reduced me to tears, the sheer bullying that went on, the scathing comments, the supercilious attitude.... Do they have to enjoy stamping on you quite so hard? :-?

 

At the times where things were that bad that we couldn't see if we'd ever see the light again, they put the boot in. And enjoyed it.

 

My word, but it was lovely a few months ago when I was able to take the high ground about my SAR and their non-compliance, and get one of them to actually grovel to me There and then, I realised that the best thing about discovering CAG was that I would NEVER have to go cap in hand to one of those a***wipes and humiliate myself for a tiny morsel of my money. Empowering? You bet.

[pugsley]

my friend Stacey was page 3 girl and then a branch manager for Abbey, she then decided wisely she would rather be a mortgage adviser, she is very nice.

 

This should be in the positive thread

[ppauls150]

There are two people in my branch that are both called Paul. They are both the complete opposites of each other lol. The first one said tuff you aint gettting your money back and i wont refund your charges. The other said i can understand your problem i will see what i can do i can understand why.

 

On another note i went in today with my GF to sort out the PPI the bank set her up on when she took a loan out 5 months ago. She goes up to the counter and ends up with Mr Miserable Paul. I said just tell him you want to talk to someone in private please. So she tells him and he says can i have your account number so she does. can i know what it is regarding so she does. I said what you doing ?? your telling the whole bank your buisness the sign says if you wish to discuss things in private please ask and if a room is available then you can, dont discuss it here at the counter everyone can hear. He turns around and says well we aint going to help you anyway as you cant canx it so no point discussing it, if you got a problem or complaint then take it up with them on this number goodbye. :o

So i piped up can we have a room in private please to discuss it privately he said no nothing to discuss. :@ so i said can i talk to someone in private please about my account? he said is it to do with what she just mentioned? i said no. He said can i have your account number i said no not giving it you over the counter i will in a private room dont want everyone to hear my buisness. Well can i take your name please? No i have said i wish to discuss my personal issues with someone in private like your signs say so i will go and sit over here and wait for someone to see me thankyou.

3 mins later and the Mr Nice Paul comes out takes us through and he helped us with soo much info that we needed and what actions to take and how to go about things.

 

Sorry for the rant there lol but just goes to show two sides of a coin in One bank. One person really helpfull and the other who try and give the bankstaff a bad reputation with their attitude.

 

On another note though he did tell us and i saw how every person who owns a bank account has a sliding scale number for their account which ranges from 0 to 9. This all boils down to how you operate your account how many times you use your O/D, how many days through the month you have money in your account and so on which will determine what number you get. This is how they actually decide on what they can offer you and what rate your apr will be on loans and so forth. I bet Mr Miserable Paul wouldn't sit down with any of the customers there and talk and try to be as helpful as possible. I felt like saying to him we need your info and insight on a certain website called CAG but didnt know how well that would of gone down lol.

[pugsley]

Abbey's Indian call centre is the worst, it cost me money due to them not understanding what I was trying to tell them, I left Abbey for a year and have gone back recently but will probably start using my natwest acount, I hope their call centres are in this country.

 

The staff in the Abbey near me have been nice though

[lisamellor]

pugsly try this number for abbey 08457654321 it is based in glasgow and they are very helpfull.

[pugsley]

thanks I will try that out.

[cariad mo brwydrwr]

Well if we're ranting about bank staff - its a bit of a long story.....

 

Back in 2001 I was a student but had taken time out of my course to have my daughter. I had a student account with Barclays with an overdraft. I was on Income Support during this 'time out'. Due to a mess up with my income support that I was unaware of, I was basically spending money that wasn't going into my account (back in the days when I never checked my balance) and amounting charges etc etc. I was due to go back to uni when my daughter was 6 months old. The day my student loan went into my account Barclays withdrew my overdraft facility. The overdraft was paid off with the loan, leaving me £3.70 in credit... effectively leaving me with £3.70 to pay my rent, bills, uni fees, nursery costs, feed and clothe myself and my baby for the whole term. Anyway.... so I called and called Barclays, begging them to give me my overdraft back. I spoke to the same man a few times who had absolutely no sympathy with me at all. He didn't give a damn that I was completely penniless, there was nothing he could or would do to re-instate my overdraft facility. I was crying down the phone to him, barely able to speak and he was just a cold hearted jobsworth who couldn't care less about my situation. As far as they were concerned it was my fault for not keeping an eye on my balance and racking up the charges. I could not be treated as an individual and my personal circumstances could not be taken into account. When I asked him what I was supposed to do for money, he said he didn't know, there was nothing they could do about it and it was none of their concern any more. He told me to get off the phone and stop phoning. This was one of the lowest points in my whole life, and Barclays staff couldn't have been more horrible to me in every possible way. I have to say I hate them with a passion. They also put a default marker on my credit report to add insult in injury. Maybe their hands were tied by corporate policies or whatever... but on a personal level I never came accross one person with a heart.

[Guest NATTIE]

I hate queueing and have no patience so one day I queued for what seemed like a year and finally came to pay the MOT at the post office to realise that I had brought last years insurance certificate. What a wally!!

[Olly300]

One thing that shocks me is that banks don't consider that if their service is really bad particularly to people in credit they will just change banks.

 

I had a student account at Natwest and everytime I wanted to ask them something it seemed that I had to be referred to the branch manager who had to interogate me. For example asking them whether it was possible for them to send me my statements to my term time address instead of my home address 200 miles away got me an interogration. Obviously I was acting fraudulently by just wanted to keep a close eye on my money. (Internet banking didn't exist at the time.) So when I wanted an overdraft and wanted to extend well within the limits for undergraduate students I was given hell. The staff were also miserable but with a manager like that I was not surprise.

 

In the end I just changed banks. The counter clerk was so shockedwhen I gave them back my cheque book.

 

I did then find out that Natwest were giving this treatment to lots of students I knew and it resulted in 75% of them changing banks.

 

As I knew people who still banked with them I found out a year later that Natwest conducted a survey of all the students who still banked with them and the reply they got was that the staff were very miserable.

 

I then popped into a branch with someone I know who still banks with them and noticed all the staff where trying to appear cheerful. It was funny because a bad manager is one of the reasons staff are miserable.

 

My latest incident was last week in the branch of the Nationwide. A polite counter clerk wasn't sure he could action the transaction I wanted so he got the manager over. Now I had been told in the Call Centre previously that I could do the transaction, which was to move money between accounts in a branch as I couldn't do it online.

 

The manager decided that I had to interogated, which I decided I was not going to play a part in. I was in a public place with a queue forming behind me and had private reasons for not wanting to discuss this out in the open. Basically I told her I was not going to discuss the matter as I had already discussed it with the Call Centre. So she decided to state that she couldn't do the transaction.

 

A trip home and a quick phone call revealed that she could do the transaction.

 

Her response when I returned was to attempt to interogate me again and basically call me a liar over talking to the Call Centre but she must have cottoned on that I had ask for her name in our first meeting for a reason so she decided to look into the issue. While doing so she stated very loudly she would deal with the issue to prevent me for "escalating the matter". This she did but in the rudest manner possible.

 

I have noticed that I never recognise any of the staff in that branch unlike other branches I have used it the past.

 

Anyway I was in the process of changing banks for another reason but I have now written a formal complaint about her attitude and the fact she gave me misleading and incorrect information to Head Office. The letter is worse then it sounds here because it makes it clear that her asking me for private information in a public place breaches their equality policies.

[indebtstudent]

Could you tell me a little more about this olly? Via PM if you prefer, I work for Nationwide and I can't tell from the info given what you were wanting to do. I may be able to give you a better idea of what caused the confusion for the call centre don't always give correct info.

 

I totally agree about bad managers, I have first hand experience of this.

[Olly300]

I have spoken to someone at Member Services at Nationwide and my complaint about the Branch Manager has been referred to the Area Manager.

 

The Call Centre did give me the correct info as when I went back into the branch the transaction was done with no problems.

 

I explained to the person I spoke to at Member Services I was going to move my current account and now I'm definitely moving it because of the Branch Manager's attitude. I have no problems having savings accounts with Nationwide as the counter staff are always polite plus I know with saving accounts you never have to deal with a Branch Manager.

 

BTW I was given £25 for my trouble.

[yourbank]

Again i reposted the positive thread and here is the negative thread. I was a young whipper snapper as Nattie a few years ago who started a thread and realised you needed a balance. Have things got worse in the last two years?

[Mrs_Ryan]

Im afraid, YB, that when it comes to NatWest things arent going to change. I switched to Alliance and Leicester last year because my major complaint with NatWest was that they were useless.

 

I have lost count of the times i had bad customer service from them, I think what is most sticking in my head was a couple of occasions, one was when someone in 'customer services' told me i should stop dragging my problem over different branches, and that it was my own stupid fault (ACCOUNT LATER NOTED AS BANK ERROR - IT WAS) and another sour-faced madam who, unless you had loads of money, used to look at you like you were something the cat had dragged in.

But my absolute 100% favourite was when I had got a new well paid job after being on benefit and they refused to allow me to withdraw my rent money as my wages were a suspicious transaction!!!!!! Dear me.

On the up side, I had my account for 2 years, Step account then upgraded to Advantage Gold, then Current Plus. I had NINETEEN charges in those two years, every last one of them refunded due to BANK ERROR, ADMITTED EVERY TIME!

So I suppose it aint all bad

But A&L are guilty as well - lets not forget the muppets who a) told me I could have a £350 overdraft then i was told the next day I couldnt;

b) told me the sole reason I couldnt have an overdraft - I kid you not - was because my account was used 'excessively' for 'non-essential items!'

You couldnt make it up