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.