I am very disillusioned with Barclays Bank and am currently having a problem with their online banking (which must have serious security problems) and their apparent inability to help me. It is the case that I travel a lot and am therefore not able to get to a bank very often, once a month max.
On 24Nov06 I tried to set up a new payment online. Having gone through the correct procedures I kept getting a failure message so I called the Bank. I was told that they had added a “new facility” that stopped me setting up new payments online to people I had not paid before. I made it very clear that I was not amused at being told that a ‘new facility’ was added that takes away functionality. A very interesting use of the English language.
They said that with a 5 digit telephone banking number, which I did not know, they could help. I said that this was unbelievable considering that to do online banking I already needed 4 pieces of information: my surname, my unique 8 digit number, a 5 digit pass number and to be able to quote two random letters from my secret word.
To solve this problem I was told that I must go into a bank and get a member of the bank staff to set up the payment and save the payment details so that I could then use them online in the future. The fact that I was out of the country and would not be able to do this for at least a month was, “none of their concern”.
So on 28Dec06 I finally got to an open bank and it took two (yes two) 'Personal Bankers' 15 minutes to realize that they did not know how to do this. They said that they could make a payment but could not save the details. Their work-around was to set up a standing order with a single payment. This way, they said, it would be possible to save the details. I told them that I did not want a standing order I wanted a one-off payment with the details saved.
Needless to say I had to accept their only offer.
Yes, you guessed it, when I used Barclays online banking I could see the standing order payment had been made but there were no details saved. So I am now stuck, again. Service? What service?
I have now made two email complaints via the Barclays Bank web site, one on 24Nov06 and the other on 8Jan07. Both have not been answered. It is also interesting to note that neither complaint was given a tracking number, either on the complaint page of the website or in the automated email response. Yes, I do have dated proof that I complained. I assume that this lack of a tracking number is their way of facilitating the loss of awkward complaints.
It should be noted that the automated email response says: "We aim to respond to emails received before 5pm on the same day. Otherwise we'll contact you before noon the next day."
Am I the only one who thinks that Barclays Bank has a serious security problem and that their online banking and help desk suck? Any comments...
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