Bad Customer Service - Avoid! (Alliance & Leicester)

Member Name: gingerpest12

Product:	Alliance & Leicester
Date:	18/05/09 (71 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interest Free Overdraft Facility

Disadvantages: Only last 1 year, then charged. Poor customer service. Switching service doesn't always work

I signed up for an Alliance and Leicester account last year, tempted by their interest free overdraft and brilliant switching service - meant to make transfering all your direct debits and standing orders easy and pain free! What a joke!!
When I filled out the forms with my dd's and so's, I had to put the dates I wanted the payments to come out. I opted for the last day of the month as I get paid the last Friday of the month - which can be any date. This way, I ensured my wage was always in before anything came out.
A few days after I sent the forms back I received a call from Alliance and Leicester to confirm all the details, it was February.
It was confirmed to me that this month the payments would all come out on the 28th (the last day of the month, as requested).
All was well until 3 months later when the last Friday of the month was the 30th - should not be a problem? Everything set up for the last day of the month? No! Apparantly, it had actually been set up for the 28th of every month.
Not a problem, I thought, I'll call customer services, explain the situation and once they realised their mistake (they had a form from me with my request on) they would refund the ridiculous £50 I had been charged for the dd & so bouncing.
Again, No!
Not only would the "Customer Service" rep I spoke to not look into it properly for me (just kept talking over me and repeating that once the high court had ruled on whether charges were fair or not - completely irrelevant to what I was describing), but was actually rude and arrogant - I have never had to deal with somebody with such a bad attitude, I was gobsmacked.
I asked for her name.....apparantly it is not "policy" to give out their name, I asked to speak to a manager and she REFUSED, actually told me if I wanted to speak to a manager I would have to call back and go through someone else!
So I did.
I had to go through the whole thing again, with somebody else who was friendlier, but not overly helpful, and was told a manager would call me back that afternoon.
I waited, but nothing.
4 days later I received a letter from A&L to say my complaint had been logged and once the High Court had made a ruling I would be contacted re: the charges - totally missing the point!
I "switched" everything back to my old account (all by myself!) and waived goodbye to A&L.
All in all, I would say do not trust the switching service (I kick myself that I didn't check myself), but mainly beware if you do have a problem as even when it is their error the do not listen, are unhelpful and certainly in the case of the first advisor I spoke to, pretty rude!
It may seem tempting to switch for the interest free overdraft, but I would go with a bank that offers good service - the interest free overdraft doesn't last for ever and then you'll be stuck with a bank that invests more on enticing customers in than keeping them happy once they're there.

Summary: I would not use them again