Great Products, Terrible Service... (Northern Rock)

Member Name: divingdave

Product:	Northern Rock
Date:	23/06/04 (532 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Product Features

Disadvantages: Terrible customer service, No accountability for numerous errors, Provided misleading information

We applied for a 2 year discounted fully-flexible Northern Rock mortgage as it was the most competitive deal around for us. On paper it had all the features we were looking for but in reality the customer service (or lack of it) caused us lots of stress, a expensive telephone bill and almost lost us the house we were trying to buy.

First of, Northern Rock lost our first mortgage application - something which only came to light some 11 weeks later when we were getting ready to exchange. They admitted losing it and said they would re-issue another offer and get it sent to our solicitors. A week later it still hadn't arrived, so after a few phone calls we had a "promise" from them that they would issue the offer that day and courier it to our solicitor for the next day, before midday. The next day the offer didn't arrive. Some more phone calls, and they said it would now be couriered tomorrow. Again it didn't arrive. Some more phone calls and we were then told "Sorry, we don't courier mortgage offers, and whoever said that didn't have the authority to".

Excuses, excuses, excuses...

We got there in the end with a few hours to spare before the vendors were going to put the house back on the market because of all the hold-ups. Some 3 weeks after we completed another problem has just emerged and again it is their fault - but don't get me started!

In conclusion - great competitive product but it comes with some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced.

Summary: