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“Santander ..... mired in a catalogue of inefficiency!”

written by on 06/05/2018

Having been a customer of Santander in its previous incarnations of Abbey National, then Abbey and now Santander for 32 YEARS and a 'Select' customer for 4 YEARS, I feel as if a personal crusade has been waged against me in 2018. It started with my resurrecting my 123 Credit Card activity since, for 4 months, I had taken advantage of a free credit period card with another provider. No problem in their accepting the restarted charges to my card. However, they had thoughtfully cancelled my Full Amount Direct Debit in the interim, despite my accounts and my card still being 'live' on their systems so, in January 2018, I ran into excess charges for interest and late payment. Despite a refund of charges, a £25 'apology' and the promise that this would not - could not! - occur again, the same chain of events continued into February 2018, again with charges refunded and with a further £25 in compensation. Their operator suggested that I delete my existing Full Amount Direct Debit online, wait 48 hours, during which their systems would 'refresh' twice, and that I set up a new Full Amount Direct Debit at that time, a Sunday, which I did. In fairness, she called me on Sunday afternoon to check that I had set up the new Full Payment Direct Debit, which I had. When I went online again next morning, the new Direct Debit had vanished! A week or so of back and forth conversations for something I should have easily been able to set up myself found resolution. 'Select' helpline had checked over my records since November 2017 and gave me £120 in compensation. Normal service had been resumed at last! In late April 2018, as is my usual procedure, I went online to double check that all was in order for the usual upcoming Direct Debits that would hit my account on May 01, 2018. Without any advance warning of any kind, I was met with the onscreen message that - 'Your log in details are no longer valid' and that I had 3 options to reset them - visit a branch - at 12:30am???, 'call our 24/7 helpline' - which closed at 21:00! - or reset them online. Clearly, the last option was my best chance f getting online again! WRONG! Clicking that option produced the message - 'Your new log in details will be sent to you in two separate mailings in 4/5 days'. So, without any warning of any kind, I was booted offline for what finally be 6 DAYS! 'Select' helpline advised me at 07:30 that there was nothing they could do to reset my log in details online but that I could call into a branch to manage my account or call them to check progress on transactions. The first part of my new log in details arrived 5 DAYS later, the second part next day! Responding to a secure message of complaint, their 'Select' operator called me yesterday again apologised, yet again. I was very polite to her since, in reality, she is only a front for the sheer incompetence and ineptitude that appears to have gripped Santander so DON'T shoot the messenger! Yet another £50 in compensation so £200 in just a few months, ALL of which could have been easily avoided. Apparently, had I been on the 'new' Santander platform - who knew?? - I could have rest my log in details myself! When asked why the new 'improved security' platform had not been rolled out to all Santander customers in general and perhaps their 'Select' customers in particular, it was still being assessed and tested. An offer to send out details was declined when she revealed that installation of the new software was a 'no way back' procedure and that, once installed, my existing software version would cease to work 10 days later! My suggestion that a 14-day, then 7-day, then 48 hour ADVANCE online warning that your log in details had to be changed or they would no longer be valid would be 'fed up' to research and development for consideration. Her response summed up my own view of Santander - fed up! I am now researching other current account facilities since I have totally lost confidence in Santander. A return to First Direct, which I left in 2007 to concentrate my finances on Santander's then market-leading 3% interest up to £20,000, now 1.5%, looks likely. I will probably maintain my Santander account as back up due to First Direct's somewhat limited paying-in facilities but not for the day to management of my finances. All good things must end and, in Santander's case, that time has come. It's been emotional ......!