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.