Abbey loses the plot on customer service (Abbey National)

Member Name: sunshine-smile

Product:	Abbey National
Date:	15/03/09 (188 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plenty of branches, lots of products

Disadvantages: Service has deteriorated since Santander takeover

I am very disappointed with the Abbey, and see from other reviews on this site that other customers feel likewise. I have been an Abbey customer for about 25 years. First I just had a basic savings account, then when they changed from a building society into a bank I moved my current account to them too. I was quite loyal to Abbey as I never had any problems with them, but I have noticed since they became part of Santander that customer service has gone right down. In the last 3 months I have had 3 different problems. None of the problems was really a major thing on its own, but it just seems a coincidence that these little issues keep cropping up lately. To tell you briefly about the 3 things I experienced-

1. I had 2 direct debits which I wanted to cancel. I phoned the number for enquiries. To be fair, the guy on the phone was polite and took a whole load of details from me for security reasons. After all this he told me the computer system was down and he could not cancel the direct debits. He asked me to phone again later which I did. Again, same problem. Went through all my security details but the staff could not access my account due to computer hiccup. I left it a few days and eventually did manage to get the DDs cancelled, but it seemed a lot of hassle for a simple thing. If this had been one isolated problem I'd have just forgotten it, but a month after that I had another cause to waste my time with Abbey.

2. On this occasion I went to the bank to pay in a cheque. The woman at the counter said they had a new credit card coming out, was I interested? As it happened my present credit card was coming up to the end of its interest free period so I was looking around for a good deal. Told the woman which card I had and asked if I could do a balance transfer from that card. She said yes and I would get 9 months interest free on the transfer. This sounded promising so I agreed for the woman to make me an appointment to see the adviser who deals with applications. Turned up for my appointment, waited 10 minutes over the time I was due to go in as the branch was very busy, then the adviser said she cannot make a balance transfer from my particular credit card. Said I could still take out the new credit card and pay my existing card off but it would be classed as a purchase rather than a balance transfer. therefore I would only get 3 months interest free. I knew I could get a better deal than that, so I refused. I was very annoyed that I had wasted time on going to that appointment. I think the counter staff are under pressure to push new products and clearly they do not know the details of what they are being asked to sell.

3. A new ATM card arrived in the post. As I now only have a current account with Abbey I just assumed the card was for that. When I next went to the ATM I tried that card to get cash but my PIN was refused. I enquired at the branch as to why this might be. They told me a new PIN is automatically sent out with new cards, but after 10 days I had still not received a PIN. I tried on numerous occasions to deal with this over the phone, but the options on the automated system have changed. Now you have to put in a 16 digit code. I tried entering the code from my card, but it was not accepted and so I could not get through to speak to anybody. When I could next get to the branch I told them what had happened. They checked the card and it showed up that it was not attached to my current account, but to a savings account which I had already cancelled some months before. They should not have sent me this card at all. I was really mad about this as once more I had wasted time and effort to try and sort this out.

I have been with Abbey a long time and am reluctant to change my current account, but I am really unhappy with the fact that I cannot now phone up to deal with any issues. I think this is a very poor service. I think too that they are trying to push people into banking over the internet because it saves them money. I do not want to do internet banking. I want to speak to someone in my branch who knows what they are talking about. If I cannot visit my branch I want to be able to speak to someone over the phone. Abbey will be losing a lot of customers if they do not sort out their issues of customer service.

Summary: Considering changing my bank after 25 years.