The "Spanish Bank"

[clanpowell]

Fuming today of the service or lack of it we got from Santander. We tried to buy Euros on Thursday night on the internet through the orange supermarket. We were told that the transaction cancelled with no explanation. The supermarket were told that the bank declined the transaction. However for some reason Santander took the money out of our account and are "holding it" until the supermarket tell them they don't want the money. But it was the bank who wouldn't let them have it in the first place. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Spent all morning on the phone with the computer says no girl trying to explain that it is THEM who wouldn't give the money out for some unknown and as yet unexplained reason. No one else has seen or touched the money other than the bank. It's not the first time we've had issues like this with them either. The bit that's really annoying is that they talk to you like it's your fault. Oh I'm sorry did I try to use MY money that I ALLOWED you to look after. I think they forget that when your current account, when in balance which ours always is, is full of your money, not theirs so when I want to do something with it in my timeframe I should be able to do it with no problems.

[battybird]

Had a bad experience with same bank and posted it on "small things that annoy you". You have my sympathy, after several months I finally managed to transfer to another bank who get great reveiws for customer service and actually really deserve them. AND they paid me £100 for joining! Vote with your feet...not that they seem to notice

[oldjerry]

They may have assets all over the place,but given the state of the Spanish economy and the current machinations of the euro,I'd probably dump my dough somewhere else anyhow.(if I had any).

[chickenchargrill]

Won't bore you with the details why, but I hate them with a passion. Tell them you're taking your business elsewhere.

Edit: stupid phone.

[dustydave]

A lot of people are pulling their money out of Santander at the moment. I think that they are having a few liquidity issues.

[Pumpkin&Piglet]

We're in the process of closing our Santander account. I have found most banks to be awful (as a business and based on the poeple working on them!) but Santander has been the worst I think

[Green Aura]

I'm not in anyway defending the bank itself but have a small thought for the staff.

My cousin worked for Alliance and Leicester and so, of course, became a Santander employee. She said working conditions changed immeasurably, not only their own working terms and conditions but every element of their job became regimented with check lists etc. Absolutely no room for dealing with individual cases as she had before, so if you don't tick every box no chance of a mortgage/loan etc.

It would appear their computerised systems are similarly structured and I'm guessing the people you can actually talk to are reading off the same lists.

[prison break fan]

My daughter and I had problems with them yesterday. we went to a fairly large branch which we often use and asked if we could pre pay a credit card. To keep it simple, we are having a new bathroom, want to pay for it on the credit card, but are also going away for 2 weeks and are a bit worried we will go over our limit.We want to put a thousand on the card just in case. I know this used to be possible,( my brother in law was a bank manager) but didn't know about now, neither did anyone at the branch, including the manager! No one was willing to make a phone call to find out, we had to do that ourselves! We have our mortgage with them, current accounts savings accounts and 2 credit cards, but not for much longer!! We also were with Alliance and Leicester and should not have just allowed ourselves to be transferred. pbf.

[battybird]

That was exactly the problem with our acccount, we just accepted the transfer to Santander. I have every sympathy with Alliance & Leicester employees, I had a conversation with a former worker who had left as she hated the ethos and systems of Santander. Hope Pbf and P&P have a better experience when the account is transferred...took Santander 12 weeks to send details of Direct debits etc to the new bank, causing no end of problems.

[prison break fan]

That was exactly the problem with our acccount, we just accepted the transfer to Santander. I have every sympathy with Alliance & Leicester employees, I had a conversation with a former worker who had left as she hated the ethos and systems of Santander. Hope Pbf and P&P have a better experience when the account is transferred...took Santander 12 weeks to send details of Direct debits etc to the new bank, causing no end of problems.

Sounds ghastly! and quite scary! pbf.