Dunfermline Building Society (DBS) members and customers have been betrayed by Nationwide. We were told that the branch culture would continue. There are still branches and the staff there are excellent. The problem is that services are being centralised. Go to the branch and you cannot find out the balance of your mortgage. You are supplied with a contact centre number. The contact centre will tell you they are a branch - bad enough they are centralising services but trying to describe a contact centre as a virtual branch is insulting the intelligence of their members and customers. The latest centralisation project is a PR disaster. Previously DBS fronted and administered a branded home insurance product from AXA. We got a letter telling us this was changing. The insurance is now being handled by a 3rd party contact centre on behalf of AXA. You can no longer speak to DBS about their branded insurance. You can't even speak to AXA about insurance you hold with them. Instead you have to contact a BPO called Direct Group. When you contact the organisations to find out more the fun really begins. DBS are blaming AXA, accusing them of taking the insurance business from them. AXA have a different story to tell - they are alleging that they were approached by DBS as they no longer had software to administer the insurance products - what have they been using for the last few years? The bottom line is that neither customers or members of the society were involved in discussions regarding the change in company administering the service. All our insurance details were simply handed to a 3rd party BPO without any consent from us. They contacted us to let us know that they need our consent for direct debit details to be passed across to the 3rd party BPO after already sending our personal information without our consent. I have asked questions of DBS, AXA and Direct Group. No explanation has been provided. Credit to AXA they are actually admitting the process has failed and are investigating it further. DBS and Direct Group are affectively ignoring the issue. DBS has gone from being a great company to do business with. Knowledgeable branch staff who could manage enquiries. They now hide behind a contact centre and treat their customers with the utter contempt that you expect from a bank.

They are what I'd describe as a ' local ' building society with staff who do not speak with plums in their mouth nor do they give you financial doublespeak if you ask a question. Strengths are undoubtedly local offices staffed by approachable people
Weaknesses lie in physical surrounding - they need a lick of paint.