I have held an MBNA Platinum Plus Visa card for about three years. During this time they have bombarded my letterbox with junk mail for loans, payment protection insurance, credit card cheques, free gifts when you introduce a friend, etc, etc.

I never took much interest in their junk mail, and stuck it all straight in my bin, until one day they sent me an offer that looked too good to refuse.

I still have the leaflet on my noticeboard, and I quote:

"Free Sekonda Gents Watch with an RRP of £29.99.... Your free gift for recommending a friend to MBNA."

Very good, I thought. So using the enclosed form I recommended the MBNA Visa card to my friend, who applied for and received the card.

Then I waited for my watch. And waited. And waited.

After the customary 28 days, I phoned their call centre to ask about my watch. "Oh, haven't you got it yet?" said the lady, "ok, leave it with me and I'll make sure you get it very soon."

Two weeks later. Still no watch. I phoned MBNA again. "Haven't you had it yet? Oh dear. Sorry. We'll get it sent out immediately."

Two weeks later. Still no watch. I phoned MBNA again. "It says on our computer that we'll be sending it tomorrow."

I had now been waiting for over two months. I wrote two MBNA to ask for the promised watch. Three weeks later, they wrote back with a standard computer-generated apology. At the end of the letter it said:

"You should have your watch by the end of May."

MAY ???

But I recommended a friend in December, and the leaflet says the gift should arrive within 28 days, not five flipping months!

Maybe I should put my next MBNA Visa card bill in a drawer, and make them wait five months for my payment.

In the end I decided it would be easier for my friend and I to cut in half our MBNA Platinum Plus cards, and send them back
to MBNA with a note telling them where they can stick them.

MBNA depend upon their customers to be reliable and prompt when making repayments. This is what keeps them in business.

What a shame they can't return that simple courtesy.