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."