Abbey Administrative Errors Leave Customers Fuming
A number of errors have left customers at the Abbey waiting months for debit cards and card statements after problems that began as long ago as late 2006 have not yet been fully resolved. Families have been left without access to online accounts, and in some circumstances data has been sent to wrong addresses following failure to update customer records. The inconvenience cause has left customers frustrated and many are threatening to abandon the bank, despite having been customers for many years.
Even families who have received a card have had to wait a further two weeks for logon details to enable to access their account online. These problems have followed complaints from customers in the summer that the Abbey is not paying out many thousands of pounds for accounts of deceased customers to relatives, owing to administrative errors. The bank has told some customers that this is due to complications arising from its merger with the Spanish Santander group which bought Abbey in 2004. The integration of operations is still not complete. An Abbey spokesperson denied that the merger was causing problems, but did admit that there had been delays in sending out bank cards in August. The reasons given were floods and a postal strike affecting the Tewkesbury site.
One loyal customer, happy with ten years of service, has been left frustrated by the bank's efforts to update his address details in the last year. He has moved three times in the last year, but kept the bank informed of his movements at all times, yet his Abbey post has continually been sent to the wrong address. The customer has lost his patience with the bank and has decided to close his account with Abbey.
Another customer, from Aberdeenshire, has been left with a round-trip journey of 100 miles to take money out as her bank card has failed to arrive since July. Through the fault of the bank she cannot use the bank's online service and has still not received her card. She has been unimpressed by Abbey's efforts, with two cards sent to an old address, followed by the PIN code. Lucky for her a trustworthy neighbour found them and forwarded them on.
Abbey's systems have been called a disgrace by some customers. One waited over a month for his bank card, only to be told that he would have to re-apply for online banking as his previous application had expired, and that would take two more weeks. Two weeks later he has still not received this, and has to travel five miles to his nearest branch to check the status of his account. This customer has been with Abbey for 17 years, but is fuming and is considering abandoning the bank. The situation, he said, was ridiculous, and every re-application was time wasted.
Another customer, a carer in central Scotland, has finally received her card in the post, having been told on many occasions over the past few weeks that the card had been posted to her when in reality it had not been.
Published on October 12, 2007
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