Terrible customer service

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Nationwide Building Society
★★☆☆☆
1.8
21.0% of users recommend this
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Guest's review of Nationwide Building Society

“Terrible customer service”

★☆☆☆☆

written by on 13/04/2018

Application open a Flex account
I have been a long time customer of the Nationwide Building society, and have from time to time considered moving my accounts when I have had problems but have always shied away from this feeling that the hassle involved was not worth the bother.
We visited our Southport branch by appointment today to open two current accounts, one for my husband using me as the 'friend referrer' and another current account for our joint savings.
We had made the appointment a couple of weeks ago in branch and the only appointment we could get within a reasonable timescale was a conference call with a bank employee at another location.
We arrived early today and quickly realised that they had got my husband's name wrong, first mistake.
Just after the appointed time we sat before a screen and the process of opening the accounts began, within minutes we felt that this way of opening an account was not the best experience in the world made more complicated by the fact that the person dealing with us was not English and there were communication problems given that the persons first language was not English.
The process for opening the account was long and intense, my husband wanted a simple uncomplicated account with no overdraft into which his monthly salary would be paid and standing orders/direct debits paid out. About 30 minutes into the process having answered all of the questions we were advised that my husband's application was approved and details of his current bank and his account numbers etc were provided for the switch to take place.
Five minutes later the bank representative advised that the application could not be approved until head office had made a decision- no explanation for this sudden change was offered and my husband was told that he would be informed in about five days as to whether the Nationwide would approve his application!!
My husband has always had stable employment and is currently a senior executive with a multi national company and receives a substantial salary for his job which is paid directly into his bank account.
We have a mortgage which is fully paid in 22 month, there has never been any arrears on the mortgage.
He holds a bank card and credit cards, his credit card is paid off in full each month.
He has never been overdrawn at his current bank, despite all of this and his being a model potential customer the Nationwide treated him like a petty criminal who had intentions to defraud the bank.
The length of time taken to conduct this farce meant the we ran out of time to open the joint account so left feeling frustrated and insulted by the attitude of the Nationwide organisation.
As a direct result my husband decided not to continue with his application and I will now move my own accounts in protest, in fact I will move them to the bank my husband is currently with - how is that or irony.
Whilst we appreciate the need for financial organisations to operate in accordance with government requirements and there are clear procedures the Nationwide goes way beyond what is considered necessary by most financial institutions, they clearly feel that acceptance of an application to open an account is a privilege which they exercise and as such their procedures are designed to actively discourage people.
We suspect that the reason for this back pedalling was because the bank did not think they could make any money from my husband given the account he chose and his request not to have an overdraft facility.
Our advice is to avoid the organisation and find a bank/building society which is glad to accept new customers and puts their interests first.
The Nationwide is a disgrace and does not deserve to prosper I look forward to the day when their poor business practice brings about their downfall.
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  • Customer Service

  • Telephone Banking

  • Internet Banking

  • Local Branch

  • Cash Point Facility

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