A plus for call centres, a minus for branch staff (RBS Royal Bank Of Scotland)

Member Name: eleanorofnaboo

Product:	RBS Royal Bank Of Scotland
Date:	31/05/02 (1719 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: nice call centre, good website (never mentioned it in op!)

Disadvantages: dippy branch staff

I don't have my regular accounts with this bank but I do have my mortgage with them (when you are poor and a first time buyer you don't always get a lot of choice!!). My friend has all her banking with them (after being persuaded to move her accounts to their when she took out her mortgage "you get cheaper mortgages with our such and such account you know") and she is constantly being hassled at the counter to take out new credit cards, change her existing ISA, take out a loan..... blah blah blah.

Three years ago we purchased our first mortgage and our lawyer set us up with Royal Bank since they were the only ones in town who gave "100%plus" mortgages.

The meeting with the advisor went well and he was really helpful (he was also a friend of my Dad's so that helped!!) and did what he could for us. Even although we knew what type of mortgage we wanted, we had to see their financial advisor anyway. No problem, we thought, just a few minutes while he made sure we knew what we were doing.

At that time, there was quite a lot of press about how bad endowment mortgages were and how so many people were having so much trouble etc etc (I am sure you remember it well yourself!). Well, enter Alan, the financial advisor, who proceeds to tell us that an endowment option was most definitely our best option! Erm, no thanks Alan we will stick with the old fashioned repayment type if you don't mind. (Just for info, a friend of mine got her mortgage a couple of months later and was persuaded to take endowment by them too - she pays at least £30 a month more than me on the same size mortage!!). Made me wonder what type of company we were dealing with here.

Three years have passed and the fixed term is now up on our mortgage. Time to rethink and see if we can get a better deal elsewhere. Popped into the branch to ask them if I can set up an appointment to see what happens now and what better deals they can o
ffer. No problem they say - you can speak to someone who will tell you all you need to know. We pick a time and day. "We'll send you a confirmation letter" - still waiting for that one and the appointment was two weeks ago! I phoned that morning to confirm the time but the girl couldn't find me on the system so "just come in a 2pm anyway, it will be fine".

So, I take time off work and go along to the branch. Appointment has been double booked - since I don't have any normal accounts there I don't show up on the computer and everyone keeps getting confused - IT IS NOT DIFFICULT....... WRITE MY NAME IN THE APPOINTMENTS BOOK!!!!

Anyway, I sit for about twenty minutes while nice customer infront of me gets his mortgage sorted (or whatever business he had). My turn pulls up and no "sorry to keep you waiting" but I'll let that slide. I sit down, tell him all about why I am there and the response I get is "you will have to call the Mortgage Centre, we only deal with first time buyers here" - aarrrgghhh! He told me that there was a mortgage going about that was fixed about 2% under that base rate and that I might like to try that, but he couldn't give me any info or anything. He offered to let me use their phone though which was nice, although in the same breath he tried to persude me that moving all my banking to Royal Bank would be beneficial to me. No thanks mate.

I opted to phone from the comfort of my own home. Spoke to a really nice guy there who was really helpful.. I thought it was just be some dopey call centre person who had trouble even finding me on the computer but no, he was very knowledgeable about mortgages and about the options open to me. I mentioned the one that the branch had told me about and he explained it all. Seems that taking that one would save me £40 a month - which is quite a lot on money really isn't it. He promised to send out the infor
mation and forms to sign straight away and sure enough they arrived within two days. I sent them back and phoned to see when that would be applicable from (you know how it is, usually it is the month after the month they receive the signed paperwork) and was told that it started immediately. I was quite impressed at how quick they implement the changes.

So to cut the long and now boring story short, use their call centres rather than their branches as much as you can if my experiences with their staff are anything to go by.

Helpful and efficient (call centre staff) versus easily confused and very pushy (branch staff).

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