I have stumbled across this website, primarily to vent my frustration in having to deal with a bank who obviously have no concern for their customers.
I rang the customer service line over 4 weeks ago to arrange an appointment at my local branch to pick up £3500 in cash from my ISA. The customer manager assured me he had sent a fax to have the money ready after 48 hours. When i arrived at the branch the appointment had not been made and i was forced to wait and then the collection was given to me in £10 notes. thats fine, not a huge problem. I hav'nt dealt with my bank much, my expectations are fairly low, the fact is i got it and was happy. The cashier at the desk confirmed back to me that i wanted this amount taken from my ISA. I also found it strange that i was told on the customer service line that i would need two forms of ID and proof of address, which i had ready and yet was not asked for any of these, even when prompted she said it was OK.
I arrived home from work that evening and tried to make a top up on my mobile phone only to discover i had insufficient funds. The cashier had taken £3500 from my current account instead of my ISA and put me £2500 over my agreed overdraft limit! It amazes me how this girl was able to obtain authorisation to be able to do such a thing.
That night i called barclays customer service again to complain and request the the money be transferred into my current account. I am a very easy-going person and it takes alot to get me angry however after being told that they could not do this as i had to call the savings and investments team, although they were only open between 9 and 5, my patience began to fail me. At this point i asked them if they would be able to organise me a call back to be able to do this, as i do not have a land line i should not be expected to call a premium rate number due to an error made on their part. I was put on hold and subsequently hung up on. After calling back again to speak to someone else i was assured that no charges would be made on my account and that unfortunately i had no choice but to call this other number myself and that all they could do was lodge a complaint.
The next day i successfully managed to transfer the funds myself by calling the savings and investments team. Later i realised i had been charged for going overdrawn confirming that Barclays have done absolutely nothing to satisfy my request besides sending me one letter assuring me that i would recieve a reply to my complaint before a certain date and then a second letter extending this time by another month.
I have since received a letter from a customer relations case manager stating that they hope thay have answered all of my concerns (with no mention to the charges that gave incurred, reminded to them in a complaint by email also!) and that "in order to prevent this from reoccurring please insure that all of your transaction details are confirmed to you before they are processed." I can't help thinking that surely having had the cashier ask me "so you want this from your ISA then" should be enough confirmation for anyone and in order for it not to re-occur then surely i should expect more from a complaint resolution letter than what I CAN DO!
As i have not received these charges back yet i will be speaking to customer non-services again on Monday to attempt to resolve this matter.
I would advise anyone to stay away from barclays. I understand that the lack in real competition between banks and the hassle that can result in trying to change banks has resulted in them not having to even attempt to satisfy customers needs however this will not be stopping me from leaving them, i plan to do so immediatley after obtaining my charges back... which probably will not be anytime soon.
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