Life's NOT complicated enough (Abbey National)

Member Name: Big Blue

Product:	Abbey National
Date:	03/09/01 (289 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Always been straightforward

Disadvantages: Slightly out of the ordinary requests

Having telephoned the nice people at the Abbey National telephone banking call center to confirm the date on which my monthly statement was produced I sat back, relaxed, lit my pipe (metaphorically speaking of course) and looked forward to receiving the aforementioned document. Ordinarily such mundane matters don't get me overly excited but as this was the one piece of paper I required in order to proceed with my first property purchase I am sure that you can forgive me this minor indiscretion.

Now personal organisation (outside of the daily 9 to 5) is not a particular strength of mine - which is why I had to make the call to the Abbey in the first place. But as ‘Life’s complicated enough’ that’s what they are there for isn’t it?

So, having called the telephone banking people, informed them that I needed a statement for my mortgage application (I already had the mortgage approved this was just one of a few formalities between ‘approval in principal’ and the official written offer). So safe in the knowledge that on August 25th the statement would be produced I went out to Germany on a week long business trip knowing that all was progressing nicely back in Blighty.

Imagine my surprise then to return home and find out that it had not appeared. A call to Abbey National revealed that the statement can take between 7 and 10 days to arrive - when I asked why this was not mentioned during my first conversation - especially as they knew it was for a mortgage application - I was greeted with the obligatory "Oh I'm very sorry, de-da, de-da, de-da"

At this stage there was no need to panic and still a few days to play with. A second statement was ordered just in case the worst had happened but alas there was no way to speed up the 7 to 10 day process (apparently).

It is now Sept. 3rd and there is still no sign of either statement. I know we have had a Bank Holiday in
the interim but this is still 9 days after the 25th – have they sent it by carrier pigeon? I know of people that have sent holiday postcards that have arrived in shorter timeframes (no, really I do).

After several increasingly heated telephone calls today I am reliably informed by the highly trained call centre staff that there is no way that they can generate a statement and post it in any other way - it is done remotely and will take, yep you’ve guessed it, 7 to 10 days.

Now call me unreasonable if you will, 7 to 10 days for a statement telling me what is happening with my money, startling service it ain’t. I am aware of all the other ways of getting the information (in a branch, over the web, cash-points, etc.) and to their credit they have faxed over screen dumps of their internal systems but the mortgage company require the original statement – something to do with fraud I am told.

So I am now voting on my feet and leaving the Abbey after probably a 10 year or so relationship. This is the first request I have made for something just a little out of the ordinary and I have been shunted around from one person to another all unable (or unwilling) to help. I remain fixed in my opinion that regardless of their internal systems there will be a number of people within the organisation that have admin rights allowing them to maintain, update, debug their systems etc. Therefore, should they wish to do so they (Abbey National as a whole) could generate pretty much anything that they want to, when they want to. Indeed, if their MD wanted a copy of my bank statement on his desk first thing I think it would be there! Everyone that I have spoken to (and there have been four people today) has been almost completely unwilling to try and assist me in finding someone who is able to help.

So what's the rush I hear you ask - well I have 1000GBP (sorry, European keyboard so no pound symbol) sat on a new build
property and there were 28 days to exchange (part of the T+Cs). This 28 days expires next Monday (the 10th) and I need to sign all the paperwork Saturday morning (the 8th) at my Solicitors. Obviously this means that the mortgage offer must be with the solicitor by close of play on Friday (the 7th) and it is now Monday afternoon with no sign of a bank statement which must then be posted on and the mortgage company will also need some time to process it. Abbey National are fully aware of this and frankly don’t seem in the least bit concerned – the cycnic in me wonders if the situation would be any different if it was their mortgage arm that was in need of the statement?

There are several things that are irritating here. Firstly, had the 7 – 10 day bit been pointed out initially, and given the importance of a mortgage you would like to think it would have been mentioned in passing at the very least, then this situation could have been easily pre-empted. Secondly, the complete lack of assistance offered by front-line staff. Thirdly, the general unwillingness to even attempt to dig a little deeper into their own organisation for a profitable customer who is genuinely about to leave.

A big thumbs down I’m afraid for the Abbey who clearly believe that ‘life is nowhere near complicated enough’. A bank statement in over a week – hardly a difficult (or unreasonable) request, or so I would have thought. In what year did we have the technology to put man on the moon?

I shall be reactivating that old NatWest student account I think – I wonder if they still do those crazy overdraft deals???

STOP PRESS - I was just about to submit this when the phone rang. It's now 4pm on the 3rd - Customer Services have generated a manual statement for me and it will be in the 1st class post this evening. So two hours then, not 7 - 10 days. Why did this need to be so painful?

Sorry NatWest
, maybe some other time.


UPDATE - Sept. 5th. Needless to say there were still no statements in the post yesterday (the 4th). Another couple of calls yesterday evening amounted to nothing as it was outside of business hours. However, the last person I spoke to agreed that the situation was unacceptable and promised that I would be called first thing today. I was called (and by someone from their own home as they work evenings!) Fortunately, both statements arrived this morning and have been sent to Intelligent Finance who will have just over 24hrs to get an official mortgage offer approved - I'll let you know how they get on!

On the bright side the Abbey were going to courier a statement for me today if required and have also offered to compensate me financially. Although a token gesture it was an offer from them and not as a result of any request by me. The frustrating thing is that all this could have been so easily avoided.

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