Sloppy and slow (Tesco Personal Finance)

Member Name: smeke

Product:	Tesco Personal Finance
Date:	12/08/09 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Decentish APR

Disadvantages: Slow, inaccurate documentation, staff telling lies

I applied online - the form is detailed and fairly time-consuming, but fair enough, credit is hard to come by these days. The "initial approval" came a full week later; it was a request for a month's bank statements and a contract to sign. My account number had been entered incorrectly on this; I amended the form and returned it.. Then the waiting started. After a week, Tesco were claiming they had not received the documents. Various excuses, including ridiculous claims of "a post strike", "problems in the post room" etc. At Day 10, they confirmed receipt, then informed me the forms "go into a pile", and it would be another undefined number of days before the "sanctioning team" looked at them. Turned out to be five days. So - twenty days before applying and having the loan finally approved. The funds were issued on that same day - to the wrong account. Another five days later, I received a copy of the finalised contract, still with the wrong account number. Called, was told the Customer Care Team would look into the matter urgently and call back. Waited all day, no reply.. Called the next morning, to be told "they hadn't marked it urgent", so no one looked at it. Eventually, got passed to very helpful lady in the complaints department, who arranged a same-day CHAPS transfer of my loan. In total, it took nearly a month between applying online and receiving the loan. Reviews on other sites suggest clerical errors and long delays are common.

Summary: Look elsewhere first