Brae. A gay woman's tale!

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Smarmy Customer Service

Have you ever been in the position where you can’t quite believe what you are hearing as an excuse from some idiot on the other end of the phone.   No matter what you say or how often you point out that the error is THEIR fault that they try to switch things around?   Well it happened to me today.  I am not happy (which is probably a huge understatement!).  

Just after Christmas I set up an online savings account with Halifax/Bank of Scotland.  Even though I had a current account with BOS I received a letter asking me to send ID to the head office or to pop into a branch.   Since I pass a branch on a daily basis on my way to work I decided that it would be safer to just pop in with it.  Oh how wrong I was!

Ever since I have watched both my accounts online and my savings account still says “details to be provided”.  So I rang them today to ask why it still said this after I had gone into the Lochgelly branch with my passport, birth certificate, proof of address AND the letter I had received from Halifax/Bank of Scotland.

It seems that they have “lost” my details – no notation of it on the computer (even though I was standing there when the girl entered all the information.   They also do not keep copies of ID, which considering how tight the FSA are I find hard to believe and have they never heard of a scanner? Seemingly (so Mr Smarm says) everything is done by fax .. (worrying!)

Mr Smarm also told me that this however was not a great problem, they would be happy for me to continue putting money into my savings account.  I just would not be able to take it out… errrr .. right OK .. I will give you money and not expect to get it back.   There was no apology, just a smarmy smart answer that basically had me shouting down the phone.

The result is that I have now cancelled my savings account, I also now intend to cancel my current account with Halifax/Bank of Scotland.   I know it will cause me hassle .. and I know that it will seem that I am cutting off my nose to spite my face.   However, from my point of view I just do not trust them now, how dare they whitewash over the fact that THEY have made a huge mistake and how dare they think that by trying to be smarmy I would forgive them.   I want to put my money into a bank that has at least half decent procedures in place that I TRUST!

This is a bank for goodness sake, not a dry cleaners who may have misplaced a shirt .. do they really not realise how important it is for customers to trust them!   I fear not.   So Halifax/Bank of Scotland .. goodbye .. I would say it has been nice .. but I would be lying.

Any recommendations for a good bank for current and savings accounts greatly appreciated!