And again

Abbey'd better calm down, or they'll get a nosebleed...

I've had another letter from the complaints department, with a different reference number and different person signing it.

This one is about the bank charges I'd asked them to remove when I telephoned on June 13th (although it then goes on to refer to "your letter", but doesn't say which one. I don't think it's the Missing Letter I referred to in the last post, as no other considerations are mentioned.) Note the charges I was asking about at the time were applied during May and June this year, and refunded by the branch manager on June 21st.

According to the letter, they don't agree that the fees should be cancelled. Their reason is that during their investigation:

"I noticed that you have previously incurred fees for making payments from your account when there wasn't enough money to cover them. On that occasion we took the view that it was a one-off situation and that you might not have realised that these fees would be charged. We cancelled the fees, totalling £225, between May and June 2007."

Right. So despite me GOING ON AND ON about my husband's late pay and it being too late to cancel direct debits etc, they still think "I might not have realised". Plus, if they aren't going to refund fees because fees in May and June were refunded, WHAT SODDING FEES DO THEY THINK I'M ON ABOUT??? We had no other charges applied to the account during that time. Our Branch Manager refunded the fees as a gesture of goodwill because we had experienced so many problems.

I haven't phoned them yet, but I'm not going to give the person writing this particular letter the time of day. I'm sick of having so many reference numbers in spite of telling them "this is part of an ongoing complaint".

ARGH

Blimey...

I've actually got a real letter from Abbey.

I'll not copy the whole thing here for obvious reasons, but it answers a few questions and leaves a lot more unanswered.

One of the things that sticks out is that my original problem should not have been referred to the Card Fraud Department, but "Visa Disputes". I kept referring to Card Fraud because that's who I was told would be dealing with it, both during my original phone call on April 30th and when I went to the branch on May 4th. During several conversations with people in various departments, I described the situation that I believed to be fraudulent, and nobody bothered to correct me and mention Visa Disputes. One person in the Complaints department even decided to take all the details again, "just in case Card Fraud hadn't got it in the first place". Interestingly, on May 31st, I telephoned the Visa Disputes number to see if they could help, because I couldn't get through to Card Fraud and was getting anxious about how long it was taking, but they told me "if Card Fraud are dealing with it, you'll have to wait for them". I know they probably wouldn't get fully involved if they thought it was already being dealt with, but they weren't even remotely interested.

The letter I have received today does state that there are notes on my account following my call on April 30th requesting a letter be sent to ask my husband to cancel his card before our replacement cards could be issued. This was never done. She has no explaination as to why they didn't re-order the cards on 4th May either.

She "shares my disappointment" about the service I got when I telephoned phonebank on May 11th, and says my "comments will be passed on so that additional training can be carried out." Part of that call was about the bank charges, and my "Complaint Handler" has addressed that by saying she's included a copy of Abbey's T&C's and "Key Features and Price List" and says she cannot agree to any further fees being waived. This is irritating - I'm not making any issue about the legality of bank charges, just the way in which my requests were handled. Plus, if she'd bothered to check, she would see that all the charges I was referring to were refunded by the branch manager on June 21st anyway.

She has, however, arranged for £100 "to acknowledge our errors and the inconvenience you have experienced" to be credited to our account. Woo. There is no mention of the cost of the telephone calls I was told would be refunded, and £100 barely covers our losses (time off work etc). Aside from anything, £100 is pathetic. A couple of months ago, Abbey had problems sending out new debit cards and seemed to offer every excuse under the sun. People who complained were offered £100-£150 compensation, however one customer contacted the BBC's "Working Lunch" programme, and was given £250. It seems compensation sums are arbitrary, and dependent on how loud you're willing to shout.

I need to telephone the "Complaint Handler" (she includes her phone no. and extension because she is unaware whether Visa Disputes have resolved the original issue - they haven't). The letter does not mention or address any points from my second letter which I gave to the branch manager on June 21st, asking him to forward it on to the Complaints Department. The majority of the points raised were to do with problems I'd experienced with the telephone system and with phonebank, not issues that the branch manager could have dealt with - however I acknowledge my letter could have gone missing anywhere along the line. For all I know, despite my specific requests, it's being treated as a separate complaint.

Whatever the situation, it seems that this could be the beginning of another slog. It's taken five months to get any kind of proper response from them - and half the issues are still not resolved.

Another Letter

I hadn't really thought about Shabbey over the last couple of weeks - I had my weekend away, and it was fantastic, although it would have been nicer not worrying whether it would even happen thanks to this banking fiasco...

On Saturday (July 21st) we got another letter.

Dear Mr xxx

As you know, we are currently looking into your complaint and it has now been eight weeks since you first contacted Abbey.

I am sorry for the delay while we continue to look into your complaint. Although we have made progress, we want to make sure we fully understand the problem before writing and we are unable to give you a full response just now.

If you do not want to wait any longer, you can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service now, without waiting for our response. I am enclosing a booklet that tells you what you need to do. I do hope you will give us the opportunity to complete our work and we will continue to look into your complaint unless the Ombudsman Service advise they are taking it over.

[FOS contact details given]

We will write to you again when we have finished our review and if you remain unhappy you will still have the right to contact the Ombudsman.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Harris
Head of Complaints

How lovely, I now have their permission to contact the FOS.

This letter is insulting. A few weeks ago, when I telephoned the complaints department, I was told that my complaint would be allocated to a "complaint handler". I was given the impression that an individual person would be dealing with it. I have never been told who that person is, or have received any contact directly from them. Every letter has been the bog-standard drivel, sent second class post. Plus they still have the audacity to address the letter to my husband, and don't even acknowledge me - depsite it being me who has written every letter and made every phone call. I mentioned this to the bank manager last time it happened, and he apologised.

I have been a bit preoccupied with Life since the meeting with the branch manager, but shall send my complaint on to the FOS some time this week.

I shall, of course, keep you informed.

Incidentally, there is still no word on the money that was taken from my account. Nothing. It has been eleven weeks and four days since the fraud forms were faxed to the Card Fraud department.

For Your Amusement

Meeting with the Manager

My husband and I met with the bank manager at 4pm yesterday.

I don't know what I was expecting, bank managers are usually scary people - but he was okay. He started by apologising, but appreciated that apologies were wearing thin. To cut a long story short, he told me that the complaints department held authority over him, so if they were dealing with it then there was little else that could be done. He had already had a look at the account, and phoned some people to see what the situation was, but could tell me nothing further.

I gave him letter #2, and he asked what my primary concerns were. I said firstly, the £200 that was taken from the account and the fact that it's almost seven weeks since I submitted the forms. He told me that "some fraud claims are taking up to eight weeks" - which would have been fine, except I'd been told "seven to ten days". I pointed out that a lot of this could have been avoided if the bank had been honest.

Secondly, I mentioned the charges, and how obtuse phonebank had been despite knowing it was part of a complaint. I said something like "I can't believe that nobody in this company has the power to stop or refund those charges". I explained again why I felt that we should not have had to pay the charges, and he looked at our account on the computer. In the end, he agreed to refund the charges from May (£95) and to either stop or refund the charges that are due out this weekend (£80), so that's something. He is also going to ring the Complaints Department to try and expedite my complaint.

So, where do I go from here? Well, if I follow Abbey's complaints procedure, I need to give them a further four weeks before I contact the Ombudsman. I think that's too long. I have been messed about so much by this company, I have lost any faith I had in them. We shall be opening an account elsewhere. Given that the manager is going to try and speed it up, I have decided to give them two weeks, which I think is more than enough.

In the meantime, if anything happens, I shall let you know.

That's nice of them

Got another letter from the complaints department.

"Dear Mr xxxx

As you know, we are currently investigating your complaint that you raised with Abbey four weeks ago. I am sorry for the delay you are experienceing and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued patience.

Our research is taking longer than expected because we want to make sure a full investigation is done. If we are unable to complete our investigation beforehand, we will write to you again in four weeks time to let you know how we are getting on.

I am sorry that it is taking longer than originally thought and would like to reassure you that your complaint is very important to us."

Well that's nice. My husband's only involvement in this is that he is the joint account holder. I've made all the calls, signed all the letters. They can't even get both account holders names on the letter. (They managed to on the letter I got four weeks ago, so I can't understand why not this time?)

Ding, Ding - Round 2

I have an appointment with my local branch manager tomorrow at 4pm. The same one who rang me three weeks ago.

Wish me luck...

Letter #2

I received another letter this morning. Sent second class post again.

"Thank you for your phone call and I am sorry that you have been so unhappy that you have felt you must contact us to complain.

As we discussed on the phone, your complaint will be allocated to a Complaints Handler for a full investigation and I have enclosed our Complaints leaflet, which explains our procedure for doing this..."

Hold on - this seems incredibly familiar... Of course. Aside from mentioning the telephone, it is exactly the same letter as the previous one. What was the point? How many copies of the Complaints leaflet do I need? Which phone call are they referring to anyway? Frustratingly, this new letter has a different reference number on it. I now have three. One from the response to my original letter, one for dealing purely with the bank charges, and now a new one pertaining to the phone call they mention.

My second complaint letter will have to be edited to include all three of them. This is incredibly annoying, because it means that I'll probably have to explain the whole damn thing every time I need to call.

Upping the Ante

Friday 15th June marked exactly six weeks since Abbey received my fraud claim form. Happy Anniversary.

On Thursday, I'd found out about someone who'd had a very similar experience, and was so hacked off he'd started a website about it. I don't know if anything's been resolved because it's not been updated for a couple of weeks, but still, he was talking about a fraud claim taking twelve weeks so far. It scared me. I decided that I needed to be more forceful.

The plan was to wait until the post had been on Friday (always the optimist) then telephone the Complaints Department, and demand that they find out what was going on with my fraud claim, and let me know. I would tell them again about how it would ruin my trip at the end of the month, and if I didn't have the money for that, I'd contact the Financial Ombudsman Service, the Office of Fair Trading, Watchdog and a nice lady from the Guardian called Anna Tims - and I'd throw in a comment about legal action for good measure.

Abbey however are determined to break the spirit of the poor sods who dare to complain.

I called around 9:30am and was on hold for about 15 minutes before I got through. The lady announced herself as they usually do, and I launched into my story, with liberally added comments about legal action and the press. At the end of it, I felt shaky again. I was on the attack, and utterly scared of losing. There was a pause.

"Hello?"

"Hello!" I answered her, expecting something else. Nothing came, aside from more "hello"s. "Can you hear me?" I asked. She obviously couldn't. Wearily, I hung up.

I tried again. This time, after being on hold another 15 minutes, I said as soon as I'd got through - "hello, I just want to make sure you can hear me before I start - this is the second attempt to call you today, the first time I spent twenty minutes on the phone only for the other person not to even hear me." She assured me she could hear me. Again, I started to tell the whole sorry story, with added veiled threats. I used phrases like "utterly disgusting" and "frankly shambolic". She listened, got my details, then said, "I just need to put you on hold while I bring myself up to date with your file." I thanked her, and waited. And waited.

Ten minutes later I was still listening to that irritatingly chirpy music, and thinking to myself "oh well, the file is big and rather complex..."

Then, the line went dead.

I almost flung the phone - instead I cried a bit. I knew I had to try again. I did, and eventually got through. She could hear me, and I angrily explained what had happened that morning, saying "I do not want you to put me on hold under any circumstances, as there is obviously some kind of fault with the telephone system." I was in no mood to be nice or make allowances. Sod it. This was the last straw. I told her the problem, and said something like "six weeks is more than enough time for Abbey to get this money refunded to me. "

She started to explain that the Card Fraud department was very busy. I said that wasn't good enough, and that I'd been told they were busy on April 30th - surely Abbey could have done something about it? She then said that since Abbey had been bought out recently, a lot of departments were relocating and there were a lot of changes happening. The Card Fraud department was moving part of its operation to Madrid, and she said there were "bound to be teething problems". This was fresh information, but still I was not happy. Frankly, it is not my concern that a department is moving. My concern is with the £200 that was taken fradulently from my account. I suggested that these "teething problems" were causing customers to suffer, and stressed again about my going away. "I've been planning this for seven months" I told her. "If I don't get this money back, the trip is cancelled and everything will be utterly ruined." I was close to tears.

She told me that she would send an urgent email to the Card Fraud department (this must be the third time the Complaints Dept have done this). She said she would stress about the holiday, and said something about me losing a deposit and the holiday being cancelled. I'd never mentioned any deposit, but I went along with it. I couldn't be bothered to argue at that point. She said that there was no point in her trying to get through to them on the phone, and that they use the same number as customers do, so she'd just be on hold or get the engaged tone if she tried. She told me that they would contact me directly, but couldn't give me even an idea of when that would be. She said if she heard anything in the meantime, she would telephone me.

That was it. Most of the morning spent on the phone again, only to get the same old crap. Later that afternoon, I had the idea of doing this blog. The plan is to forward it to anyone who will listen. Abbey have cost me money and caused untold stress, and I have had enough.

In Which Abbey are Sorry Again

As soon as I'd hung up I took a few deep breaths and dialled the number for the Complaints Department again. I was shaking with anger. I was on hold to them for about ten minutes before the call was answered. "Abbey Complaints, R--- speaking, sorry to keep you waiting"

"That's okay, it's given me chance to calm down..."

This lady was incredibly helpful - as far as she could be. For the first time that day, someone was actually bothering to properly explain the procedure for recovering bank charges. I'm not sure if it's to do with the sudden glut of people reclaiming charges, but it seems that even if you are querying charges that are about to be applied, you have to "fill out a claim form". It seems like procedure for procedure's sake. I cannot believe that nobody in that company has the power to stop the £80 coming out of the account on June 24th.

While she put me on hold to check my file, I thought about the previous call. I had been under the impression that Phonebank had some kind of new power to waive charges. I had been transferred to that department and I had been categorically told that "Phonebank could help me". The man I'd spoken to didn't know that. He didn't have any such power, and looking back, it is obvious that I looked like any other customer bitching about charges. He had a script, and I'm guessing would get into trouble for not adhering to it. Unfortunately, from my viewpoint, he was being unhelpful and obtuse. I should never have been told to ring Phonebank.

Yet again, the apologies flowed like Niagara, but sadly I felt like "sorry" was just a meaningless word. As the saying goes, 'actions speak louder than words', and yet again I was being told that nothing could be done. I was upset, and spewed forth the whole story, saying I was going away at the end of the month, and I may have to cancel if this isn't sorted out. I said that Abbey had received my fraud claim almost six weeks ago, and the way it was being dealt with was ridiculous. The lady said she would "chase it up". Again.

I'd been drafting another complaint letter, and in it I queried the whole "chase it up" thing:

"I am fed up of staff in the Complaints Department telling me they will 'chase up' the fraud claim. I have no idea what that entails, and although staff have been very pleasant, I still feel as though I am being fobbed off. A member of staff faxing or emailing the Card Fraud department does not guarantee that the message will be received and dealt with, nor does it inform the Complaints Department of the current situation so they can in turn relay that to the customer. This is, in my opinion, a very poor way for a bank to conduct its customer service, and given my previous experience of Abbey not doing things as promised, I regret I have very little confidence in what I am being told."

Sums it up, really.

Why I hate Phonebank #2

Maybe it's just me being gullible, but Abbey seem to have a knack of placating me when I start getting cross. I waited a week, and telephoned the complaints department again on 13th June.

Again, I stressed my concern that I hadn't heard anything, and that I was going away at the end of the month and had been counting on this money coming back to me before then. The lady I was speaking to said she would "chase it up for me". What the hell does that mean?

I also asked about bank charges. As well as the charges that I'd complained about on 11th May, I'd since received a statement that showed a further £80 worth of charges relating to the same time period. I cried when I saw that - another lot of money that I couldn't afford over something that I had no control over. All of this impacting on my (7 months in the planning) trip at the end of June.

The lady listened to me explaining how these charges would impact on our finances, and said that she could not deal with them but could transfer me to someone else who "would be able to sort out waiving the charges for you". The implication was clear - the people I would be speaking to had the power to prevent these charges from coming out of the account.

I was transferred to someone who did not give their name, and mumbled throughout the conversation. Yet again I had to explain the situation and confirm details for security. This person told me I would have to "file a claim" and that she could not remove the charges herself. I told her I wasn't happy with this, and that the implication from the staff member who transferred me was that something would be done immediately. This woman then asked if I wanted to be transferred to the Bank Charges department - which is who I thought I'd been speaking to. I asked "what department is this?" and she replied, "the Complaints Department".
I was transferred again, and again explained the story. I was exasperated. I used to work for a large insurance company, and if I'd ever needed to transfer someone, I'd wait til I got through, introduce the client and their problem, and say "security checks have been done". The new person would be able to say, "hello Mrs X, my name is [whatever], [transferring person] has explained the problem, this is what I can do". Unfortunately, Abbey don't seem to think that getting a customer to repeat themselves several times during a call is a problem at all.

This third time, after I'd explained my story, the lady I was speaking to said, "unfortunately the computer system is down, I cannot check your account details, but if you call back in an hour, we'll be able to help"

I asked if there was a direct number, because I'd already been passed around that morning. She said, "just ring the same number as before" - as if she knew exactly which number I'd called. She started to read the number out. The bog-standard number for Phonebank. I stopped her.

"you mean phonebank can deal with this?" I asked, "because when I phoned a month ago, I was told to contact the complaints department". Her response was that yes, they could deal with the charges, and she said something about procedure having been changed recently.

At 1pm, I called back. I was on hold for six minutes - the call was answered (I could hear office noise in the background) I said "hello" a couple of times, then suddenly, the call was terminated. I dialled again.

This time I got through after several minutes on hold. The call bore amazing similarities to the one on May 11th. Yet another person who said "you're speaking to..." but mumbled their name so I couldn't write it down. Once again, I found myself telling the story. By this time, I'd stopped being the pleasant person who'd been asking really nicely and hoping that they'd take pity on my situation. I was more curt. I was fed up. I was tired.

Security questions over, the man started reading from his script. "Unfortunately, there is nothing Abbey can do at this time, it is your responsibility to have funds in the account to avoid charges"

That was it. "Don't you DARE you patronise me!" I said. I told him I had been advised to ring phonebank and that whoever I spoke to would be able to take the charges off the account. He started to say, "Let me explain how bank charges work..." I couldn't believe it. "I would like to speak to your supervisor" I said.

He did not respond, and started talking about customer responsibility and this not being Abbey's fault. I repeated - "I want to speak to your supervisor." He ignored me. So, I refused to enter into any other dialogue with him, only repeating "I want to speak to your supervisor". Eventually, sounding quite flustered, he said "my supervisor cannot do anything, so there's no point." Once he was actually refusing to let me speak to a supervisor, I knew there was little point in continuing. Angry, I told him, "I have a note of your name, you won't help me, so I shall refer back to the complaints department. Goodbye."

Sorry Seems to be the Easiest Word

I was thinking that if I had just 10p for every time someone from Abbey has apologised to me, I wouldn't be bothered with getting this money back.

By Thursday June 7th, I'd decided to bypass the Card Fraud department completely. I had neither the time or energy to spend on trying to get through to them. So, I called the Complaints Department directly.

The lady I spoke to apologised and said that the Card Fraud department were very busy. (What, really?) She took details of the fraudulent activity again, and said she'd fax it through to them. She asked if I knew who the company was, and I replied that I did, but had not authorised the payments. Then she said, "Don't take this the wrong way, and I don't want you to get upset, but do you not check your statements?"

As I tried to explain to her (believe me, I've been cross with myself about not checking them closer so many times) she interrupted me, and said something about how I didn't have to explain and she wasn't accusing me of anything. What???

She said she would fax the fraud claim over to the Fraud Department, and that I would hear something "very soon". I can understand that it is hard in these circumstances to tell customers exactly how long they can expect to wait, but when I pressed her she said that she'd dealt with a similar claim a few days earlier, and the Card Fraud department were dealing with claims"from the beginning of May". My claim went in on 4th May.

Technically, I could hear from them any day now...

Holding on...

I had expected the letter, and had expected that they would want time to investigate, so for a moment at least, things calmed down.

As time wore on, I started getting more nervous about not having heard from the Card Fraud people. Not even a standard letter saying, "we've received your claim and are dealing with it". Problem was, the branch staff on May 4th had said "pfft!" when I mentioned the 48 hours I'd been told, and said "give it ten days or so, you should hear something by then". It was well over ten days, and I'd been banking on getting the money before I was due to go away at the end of June.

On Friday 1st June, I spent most of the afternoon on hold to the Card Fraud department. Had I known what was to come, I wouldn't have grumbled about the 20 and 30 minutes on hold, and would have clung on for dear life. Monday I was out all day, and Tuesday I found that being on hold was a luxury - now all I was getting was the engaged tone.

Now I was really worried. On Wednesday 6th June, I literally sat with the phone to my ear all day. Dial number - engaged tone - hang up - redial - engaged tone - hang up - redial... ad infinitum. I broke for lunch, but that was it. I estimate that I tried between 50 and 60 times to get through.

Just after 4pm, my heart leapt as I got a dial tone, followed by the usual "we are sorry to keep you waiting, please continue to hold and an advisor will be with you shortly" message. This time I was determined to hold for as long as it took.

Being on hold to Abbey's Card Fraud department is unpleasant. No music is played, and every 20 seconds or so the recorded message is repeated. It wouldn't be so bad - but the recording is so horrible, with loud background static and screeching that make the message itself barely audible.

My arm was aching, my head was aching, I needed to go to the loo - but I continued to hold. Then - shortly after 5pm, I got a ringing tone. It made me jump, I was up and alert, ready to tackle the Card Fraud department. Not so fast, missy.

"We are sorry, this office is now closed. Our opening hours are..."

Bastards.

First Contact

On Monday 21st, two things happened. Firstly, our new debit cards arrived (hooray! It had taken 22 days for a new card to be issued, 16 days for my husband). Secondly, I got a phone call from the branch manager.

He sounds like a nice guy. I've always thought of bank managers to be big and scary, not be people who apologise unreservedly on behalf of their company. He said that I would get a letter from the complaints department, and a full investigation would be carried out, but in the meantime, he wanted me to know that if I had any more problems, I was always welcome to contact him at the branch. He even gave me the branch's direct phone number, and said to ring if I needed any help. He apologised profusely, and said things like "there's no excuse for what has happened".

I know it was a courtesy call, but it was certainly appreciated.

Letter #1

On 18th May, I handed in two letters at my local branch detailing my complaint - one to Abbey's head office, and one for the attention of the branch manager, as part of the problem had occurred within the branch. As well as explaining what had happened, I expressed my disappointment and anger over events that I felt could have been handled so much better. I explained the impact on our banking - for example, once my card was cancelled, I no longer had access to online banking, could no longer make online purchases (a couple of things I get regularly, so this was very inconvenient) and we had to go into the branch to do the simplest of banking tasks. After my experiences on 11th May, I refused to use Phonebank, no longer trusting them to do what was asked.

I received a standard reply to this letter on May 30th (that was sent second class post)

"Thank you for contacting us and I am sorry that you have been so unhappy that you felt you must complain.

One of my team will be responsible for investigating your complaint and I have enclosed our Complaints leaflet, which explains our procedure for doing this. High quality customer service is of great importance to us at Abbey and we will do everything we can to resolve your complaint in a timely and satisfactory manner.

I know it is important to you that we resolve your complaint quickly, but we want to do a thorough investigation and sometimes this can take time. If we have not contacted you before then, we will write to you in four weeks to let you know what is happening.

Although I do not know what the outcome will be, I do hope that we will be able to find a solution that you are happy with.

Yours sincerely,

(printed signature)

Richard Harris
Head of Complaints"

Wot, no Card?

On Tuesday 15th May my husband took time off work again to go to the bank. It's worth pointing out the rigmarole of simple transactions when you don't have your debit card.

Firstly, you can only do this during branch opening hours. Unless you can pre-empt all your banking needs on a Saturday morning, you have to take time off work to do this.
Second, you need to bring a statement, something with your address on, and something like a passport or drivers licence.
Third, you need to wait in the queue, get an odd look off the staff member behind the counter, and wearily explain to them why you don't have your debit card.

That particular day marked the 7th working day since our cards had been ordered. As such, while at the counter, I mentioned it. The girl looked at the computer screen for a little while, then said, "excuse me a moment, I just need to check on another computer..."

When she returned, she said "I don't know how to tell you this - your cards weren't ordered on the 5th..."

I felt sorry for her more than anything. During the course of the conversation I'd already told her what had happened before, and asked about where to send a complaint letter. To her credit, she was incredibly embarrassed. There wasn't a lot we could say - I knew it wasn't her fault, and shouting wouldn't help. Aside from anything, I was just about speechless.

She told us the cards had been ordered now, that her "administrator" (I assume some kind of supervisor) had checked it, and they were definitely ordered. I wasn't being entirely ironic when I said, "are you sure?"

Afterwards, we tried to dissect what had happened. Maybe they'd forgotten, or gone off sick or something. I did not know. However, one thing struck me - the guy I'd spoken to on Friday 11th May told me categorically that the cards had been ordered on May 5th. He told me this after I'd explained about going into the branch on the 4th, and what had been said there. So he lied.

Why I hate Phonebank

On Friday 11th May, I telephoned Phonebank for two reasons. Firstly, to check on the status of the new cards, and secondly to query bank charges that had been applied because of the mess with my husband's late pay. I explained briefly what had happened, and said that I was concerned because the cards had been ordered on May 5th and I hadn't heard anything. I said that as a result, I hadn't had access to my bank account for over a week.

He asked me the expected security questions, one of which was "what is a recent transaction on your account?"

"I don't know" I said, "I haven't had access to my account for a week."

"Any transaction will do, such as a debit card payment or direct debit..."

This repeated a couple of times. "Look" I said, "I have my most recent statement here, there was a direct debit..."

"No" he said, "It has to be something more recent, from this month"

I really don't know how many times I said "I've not had access to my account for a week" but I eventually asked "is there nothing else you can ask me?" He seemed interested only in that one question. Only when I asked to speak to a supervisor did he ask "what branch was the account opened at?"

He told me that my debit card had been ordered on May 5th, and I should get it within seven days. I said "thank you" and he replied "thank you for calling Abbey" - without bothering to find out if there was anything else I wanted. He seemed to be in a hurry, and although I know call centre operators have call targets, speed shouldn't be the only consideration.

When I explained about the bank charges (total of £145) and asked if they could waive them in light of it a) not being our fault and b) not having had any problems with the account for ages, he told me he could only take off £50. I said that because of my husband's pay problems, we still couldn't afford that, but his response was simply to tell me to contact the complaints department. He asked if I wanted their phone number, I said "no thank you - I already have a complaints leaflet with all that information on it." He went quiet for a second then said "would you like the number?" as if he hadn't even undestood me.

As he could not remove more than £50 worth of charges, and was not able to indicate whether the complaints department would be able to help in time (as the charges were due to come off the account on May 20th) I asked if he would confirm whether these charges coming off would not result in any further charges, as I was fairly certain that there would not be the funds to cover them. The man merely said "is there anything else I can help you with?"

At this point in the conversation, I had lost confidence in anything he said. The call was so ridiculously and obviously scripted that I half expected him to say "computer says no" like the character on "Little Britain".

I know a lot of people complain about foreign call centres. The problems are numerous - communication being the obvious one - but I feel sometimes that the massive cultural difference has an effect too. This guy was convinced that I could magic money out of nowhere to cover these bank charges, despite having my full current account and savings account details in front of him. Looking back, I'm not even sure he understood what I was saying, and subsequent conversations with Phonebank have convinced me that the call taker must have scripts for everything. If what the customer is saying doesn't fit the script, they pick the nearest thing. (Please, if I'm wrong, or if anyone can enlighten me as to how it works, let me know.)

The call ended, and I decided to draft a complaint about events so far.

Branch Shenanigans

On the afternoon of Friday May 4th, my husband took time off work so we could go into the local branch and fill out the fraud form.

The first thing we got was a funny look - we shouldn't have been told to come into the branch, but to persevere with the busy Fraud Department phone number. I stressed that we'd taken time off especially to do this, so the staff decided to help. There was a bit of a furore over finding an actual form - phrases like "we haven't used them for years" were bandied about, then "it's a good job [staff member] hoards things!"

Meanwhile, I mentioned that I hadn't received my new debit card yet. The lady checked on the computer system and decided that it could be to do with it being a joint account. She felt fairly certain that both mine and my husband's cards would have to be cancelled* - in spite of me knowing for a certainty that it was my card that was used fradulently. She spent about 20 minutes phoning Card Services and checking with other staff members, before she said, "right, both cards are cancelled, and the new ones will be ordered tomorrow".

All this was done at the front of the branch, and presently we were ushered to a desk to sort out the fraud form. It took about half an hour, forms were filled in and signed, copies of statements with the relevant transactions were printed, and we were told that they would be "faxed off straight away".

We came away from the bank feeling happier that this was being dealt with.

*the "both cards need to be cancelled" thing is utterly wrong - a friend who also has a joint account at Abbey lost her card, and Abbey cancelled it and issued a new one without even blinking...

The First Call

My husband was having problems with his pay at work - it was going to be late. I scoured our bank statements, wondering how we could cut back and manage, when I noticed a debit card payment that looked strange.

"D'you know what this is?" I asked. My husband shook his head and said, "no". Then I remembered. I'd made a one off payment to the company last year, they'd obviously kept my card details (without my knowledge or permission) and had decided to continue debiting money each month. I was livid. The company in question (you don't need to know the details) was difficult to deal with, so I phoned the bank. This was Monday 30th April.

The girl I spoke to was friendly and pleasant, and said they could cancel my card immediately, as it seemed these debits were happening at the beginning of the month. She said she would issue a new card "straight away" and I would get it "in a few days". I asked about getting the money back that had been taken fraudulently.

She told me that I could ring the Card Fraud number, but they were very busy, and it would probably be quicker if I went into the branch and filled out a fraud form for them to fax through. She said it was busy enough that people were being "taken off the phones to deal with the faxes from branches". She told me that once the Fraud Department had received this, I should have my money "within 48 hours".

Oh how wrong can you get...

Intro

On April 30th 2007, I noticed some fraudulent activity on my Abbey debit card. Of course, I contacted them immediately - little did I know my problems had only just started.

This blog is partly to document what has happened (and is still happening) for my records, and partly so I can bitch about it to the world.