Complaint ref: 100bkctc
Account reference: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Settlement payment paid 12/12/09)
Saturday 12th December 2009
To Whom it May Concern:
I am writing to complain regarding an on going complaint I have had with your bank.
I opened a Career Development Loan with you in August 2008 and started my repayments via a standing order that had been set up with my bank, Natwest, on 7th August 2009. However, two months after this date I received a letter from your debt collection department claiming I was in arrears. I immediately called your Career Development Loan department to explain that two instalments of £181 had left my account on 7th August and 7th September and I had checked with my bank that there had been no problems with those payments.
Numerous phone calls at great expense to myself, followed, with no progress being made. Your bank continued to treat me as a customer who was in arrears and refused to offer me any advice on how to deal with the situation. It was not until I called Natwest’s customer service department that I was told the correct procedure was to request traces on the payment from both banks. I informed both Natwest and Barclays bank of this: Natwest obligingly traced the payments and Barclay’s refused to trace the payments until Natwest had completed their investigation, I was told in a phone call.
Natwest’s customer service department, also helpfully suggested I check with Barclay’s bank that the account reference that they had received from Barclay’s when setting up the standing order was correct. It was not, so Natwest amended my standing order and you received all subsequent payments from 7th October 2009.
Then Natwest, having completed their investigation, tried to get in contact with Barclays to inform them they could assist with their investigation to trace the missing payments, now they had identified the problem which had affected my standing order. However, several weeks after they had first attempted to contact Barclays I was contacted by Natwest saying that you had failed to get back to them following numerous phone calls and letters regarding the situation. I contacted Barclays to question why calls and letters had not been acknowledged, and was told that your bank would not discuss individual cases on the phone with other banks, even regarding missing payment investigations, and that letters needed to be addressed to Barclays missing payments department to receive acknowledgement.
It was at this stage I decided to lodge a formal complaint with your customer relations department. It is simply unacceptable to behave uncompromisingly uncooperatively with both your customers and other banks who have already spent, by this point, two months trying to resolve a problem. Particularly a problem related to your bank loosing £362 of a customer’s money. This situation was caused through absolutely not fault of my own.
However, I have not yet received a response from your complaint department regarding complaint reference 100bkctc.
Natwest then sent their third letter to your missing payments department and my account was accredited on the 18th October 2009, nearly three months after the dispute originally started.
Since then I have reached a settlement figure with your bank, and paid this by cheque into one of your branches on 12th December 2009.
However, I do not feel that this dispute is resolved. At no stage have I received any form of apology or compensation from your bank. I am therefore requesting information regarding the amount of interest added to my account between 7th August and 18th October, and for you to reimburse me this amount, as it is an expense your incompetent customer service has incurred.
In the course of these proceedings I have been required to take two full days of work to attempt to resolve this situation, therefore I am also requesting you reimburse me £xxx to cover 16 hours of lost earnings at £xx.xx an hour.
If you do not respond to this letter of complaint in the next 28 days, I will be forced to pursue legal action against you in the small claims court and contact the financial ombudsman in an attempt to resolve this complaint.
Yours truly,
Hannah Flynn
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
They are utterly unbelievable. I am about to start a complaints procedure with them, I applied in august for my CDL and am still waiting with over £70 of calls to them and their completely incompetent service. If anyone one reads this and might think of applying for a CDL. go co-op, i’ve no idea what they’re like but they cant possibley be worse than barclays. They have no contact centre in the UK whatsoever and the only place you can call is not allowed to phone you. Now i am in a situation of not even being able to buy a ticket to go home for christmas, or buy any christmas presents let alone food or rent. totally ruined my year so far and obliterated christmas.
Hi Jo… I am in the exact same situation as you. I applied for my CDL in July and after two months of sending documents I was accepted and that i would receive my money in September. 21st September came – no money. I was told there was a backlog and that i would receive my money in 20 -2 5 days. 4 weeks later… no money. I was told it’ll be two more weeks. two weeks later… no money. I was then told it’ll DEFINITELY be in my account in one week and you’ve guessed it… no money. I asked for the manager who said my loan application had expired… in October and that i had to reapply. I have since gone through hell and back to get my documents and ID back to them only to be told yesterday that my loan had be… REFUSED!
Luckily my landlord is involved with the financial industry and has contacts with the head of Barclays so this is going straight to the top.
My advice is complain, complain, complain. Don’t take their excuses. They are in the wrong and you need someone with an authoritative sounding voice to put pressure on them. Speak to the manager. If you’re not happy tell them to put you through to someone senior. Ask to be put through to the head of Barclays. Just keep on at them. Don’t get off the phone until it is sorted. Lodge a complaint with the financial ombudsman service (i have) and get your loan. Hell… threaten to speak to the newspapers (if my loan isn’t sorted soon i am)… just don’t give up!
Good Luck!
Unfortunately Co-op is no better, the have messed me around just as much as Barclays seems to have done with you. Their crowning glory was sending my bank card, pin and cheque book to an address I hadn’t lived at for 3 months despite me telling them not to weekly. What utter jokes they all are.
Easily the worst bank in the UK.In the event of a depositors death they hang on to their money as though it was their own inventing all sorts of rules and regulations to do so.They treat their customers with contempt when they’re alive so I suppose it should be no suprise they still do so when they’re dead.
And i wonder why i closed my account with them years ago!! You’re right about them hanging onto deceased relatives money – blooming liars too – this has been goping on for months – keep changing the rules – have even lied to me on the phone! I will be contacting the ombudsman about them!