Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Useless Barclays
I've had a bank account with Barclays all my life, but I think I'm going to have to close it. They are just completely useless.
1) My debit card runs out at the end of May '08. They sent me out a new card at the beginning of April. Without checking to see if I received it, they cancelled my old card with no warning at the end of April, 1 month early.
2) The first time I phoned them, not yet realising my card had expired, on the 4th of May, I was told there was no reason why I couldn't withdraw funds from my account and to wait until after the bank holiday then try again.
3) Tried again on both Monday the 5th and Tuesday the 6th. No joy. Went through the rigmarole of withdrawing funds manually and then phoned up again. This was when we discovered my card had been expired. So they cancelled the first card I never received, and sent out another, which would take four to five working days to get here.
4) Not having received it in the post AGAIN this morning I phoned them up. They cancelled the second card, but can do nothing other than send out a THIRD card to my home address. The very definition of idiocy being to do the same thing and expect different results. I checked, they've got the right mailing address so it's not a repeat of what happened with Egg a few years ago where the address for all correspondence was correct but there was a seperate address for where to send the card to and that hadn't been updated. Barclays will not deliver it to me at work. They WILL NOT deliver it to my nearest branch so I can pick it up from there.
5) So, the letter of complaint will be drafted. If I don't receive the THIRD card (and four to five working days means having to wait until next Tuesday) then I shall move to another bank that hopefully won't be a shower of arseholes.
6) Also, I must say how useful it is that they've closed most of their branches on the Saturday. Withdrawing money manually is difficult enough if you don't have a driving license, but I'm going to have to take money out today for the weekend because I don't have time to spare to queue at the titchy branch near to where I work tomorrow or Friday during work hours to get money out then. It's the lack of time I have this week that's stopping me from switching my account right now.
1) My debit card runs out at the end of May '08. They sent me out a new card at the beginning of April. Without checking to see if I received it, they cancelled my old card with no warning at the end of April, 1 month early.
2) The first time I phoned them, not yet realising my card had expired, on the 4th of May, I was told there was no reason why I couldn't withdraw funds from my account and to wait until after the bank holiday then try again.
3) Tried again on both Monday the 5th and Tuesday the 6th. No joy. Went through the rigmarole of withdrawing funds manually and then phoned up again. This was when we discovered my card had been expired. So they cancelled the first card I never received, and sent out another, which would take four to five working days to get here.
4) Not having received it in the post AGAIN this morning I phoned them up. They cancelled the second card, but can do nothing other than send out a THIRD card to my home address. The very definition of idiocy being to do the same thing and expect different results. I checked, they've got the right mailing address so it's not a repeat of what happened with Egg a few years ago where the address for all correspondence was correct but there was a seperate address for where to send the card to and that hadn't been updated. Barclays will not deliver it to me at work. They WILL NOT deliver it to my nearest branch so I can pick it up from there.
5) So, the letter of complaint will be drafted. If I don't receive the THIRD card (and four to five working days means having to wait until next Tuesday) then I shall move to another bank that hopefully won't be a shower of arseholes.
6) Also, I must say how useful it is that they've closed most of their branches on the Saturday. Withdrawing money manually is difficult enough if you don't have a driving license, but I'm going to have to take money out today for the weekend because I don't have time to spare to queue at the titchy branch near to where I work tomorrow or Friday during work hours to get money out then. It's the lack of time I have this week that's stopping me from switching my account right now.
Labels: banks, Barclays Bank
Friday, February 02, 2007
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to scrap plans to allow the banks to share bank account details with others, without getting permission from individual account holders first.
The Government proposes to allow the banks to share details of 33 million bank accounts with others, without the need for the banks to get the permission of individual account holders first. We believe this to be fundamentally wrong, and breaches the privacy of consumers. It goes against the common law principles of banking confidentiality, data protection laws, and article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
The Government proposes to allow the banks to share details of 33 million bank accounts with others, without the need for the banks to get the permission of individual account holders first. We believe this to be fundamentally wrong, and breaches the privacy of consumers. It goes against the common law principles of banking confidentiality, data protection laws, and article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
