Just had a frustrating time at a certain well known High Street Bank (no names Halifax) who completely ****** up what should have been the most simple transaction. The counter staff made more mistakes moving money between 2 different accounts than I would have thought possible. The first counter staff person paid the money into the wrong account, despite having it written down in front of her, then tried to reverse it and crashed her terminal. SHe had to call for a supervisor who was baffled how she had crashed her terminal and the screen had locked up, and had to ring some services centre number to see how she could get back out of my account and in again. This took 15 minutes.......after her terminal was back on she then proceeded to get very flustered, seemed to have no idea what keys to press, and told me that she had had no training to move money between accounts and would have to call the supervisor (again) I waited a further 10 minutes as the supervisor was trying to sort out another mess at the other end of the service windows, where a very upset lady was complaining that her online ISA account had been deleted and the staff seemed unable to explain the errors.

Back to me, after swiping my card and double checking the account numbers, she then proceeded to press a selection of options which brought my main account to a status of "closed", whereby she apologized and said she had accidently closed my account and had to re-activate it again. This time the Manager had to be summoned, who spent 30 minutes trying to work out how the counter staff had managed to close my account instead of moving funds from one account to another.

After 65 minutes I was given a brief " Sorry about that" from the Manager, and a pathetic "we are short staffed at the moment but your account will be running normally once it works its way through the system again".......

When I tried my cashcard in the hole in the wall later, the card was eaten and I was advised to contact my branch, which I did, who informed me that my account appeared to have been closed due to a staff error. Now trying to sort it out........service, what service...

Sounds like you need to change banks or get some sort of compensation for inconvenience caused. Some people think banks have you over a barrel; in my experience they really don't. If a bank can't get it right - switch! There are plenty of good financial institutions waiting to "serve" you: Nationwide are excellent!

Originally posted by goldenfleece
Just had a frustrating time at a certain well known High Street Bank (no names Halifax) who completely ****** up what should have been the most simple transaction. The counter staff made more mistakes moving money between 2 different accounts than I would have thought possible. The first counter staff person paid the money into the wrong account, despite having it written down in front of her, then tried to reverse it and crashed her terminal. SHe had to call for a supervisor who was baffled how she had crashed her terminal and the screen had locked up, and had to ring some services centre number to see how she could get back out of my account and in again. This took 15 minutes.......after her terminal was back on she then proceeded to get very flustered, seemed to have no idea what keys to press, and told me that she had had no training to move money between accounts and would have to call the supervisor (again) I waited a further 10 minutes as the supervisor was trying to sort out another mess at the other end of the service windows, where a very upset lady was complaining that her online ISA account had been deleted and the staff seemed unable to explain the errors.

Back to me, after swiping my card and double checking the account numbers, she then proceeded to press a selection of options which brought my main account to a status of "closed", whereby she apologized and said she had accidently closed my account and had to re-activate it again. This time the Manager had to be summoned, who spent 30 minutes trying to work out how the counter staff had managed to close my account instead of moving funds from one account to another.

After 65 minutes I was given a brief " Sorry about that" from the Manager, and a pathetic "we are short staffed at the moment but your account will be running normally once it works its way through the system again".......

When I tried my cashcard in the hole in the wall later, the card was eaten and I was advised to contact my branch, which I did, who informed me that my account appeared to have been closed due to a staff error. Now trying to sort it out........service, what service... I worked in a call centre for a major financial institution.

Every day I had to balance the fact that the callers on the other end of the line had a rabid desire to speak to their branches as they were under the delusion that the staff there were super-efficient financial experts who had left MENSA because they felt under-stimulated by the company they were keeping, against the reality that the branch staff were the source of 99.999% of the mistakes and errors that cropped up on the customers accounts.

And what did the branch staff do when they messed up?

Either phoned the call centre and begged for advice or just blamed the whole thing on the call centre staff and disavowed all knowledge.

Originally posted by goldenfleece
Just had a frustrating time at a certain well known High Street Bank (no names Halifax)....

Eeek. I just opened an ISA with them this lunchtime. I hope they don't lose mine.

Anyway, my advice is to cut and paste what you have just told us into a letter to the branch manager including a paragraph explaining what compensation you would like to receive. Tidy it up and send it of to them. If you don't get a satisfactory response from them, then move to a different bank.

I have to say, I got an ISA last Friday from the Halifax, and they seemed ok to me. Maybe you got lumbered with the "bank" idiot !!

Why not join Abbey National on Fargate?

If the staff screw up there you might get offered a coffee and a muffin while they sort it out.

The ineffectiveness of bank now means I do most banking over the internet. It works well for me in terms of transferring money and paying bills.

Originally posted by psyn
The ineffectiveness of bank now means I do most banking over the internet. It works well for me in terms of transferring money and paying bills.

I have also had mixed fortunes with the Halifax. Their agency at Crystal Peaks is the most understaffed, inefficent office I have ever been in and the customer service skills of the counter staff are horrendous. Once, I even waited to speak to the manager who told me absolutely nothing ("We are short staffed, and I will sort it") - My response "YOU SHOULD GET YOURSELF ON THE COUNTER". He didn't!

Anyway, their online banking is very good (after you have gone through a lengthy process to set it up)...and I always use that now. Transferring money is easy on this...

Their IF Company has also been good - I have an internet account with them.

I used to work in a call centre for a major high street bank, and you would not believe how stupid some people are on the inside of banking (well its actually not that hard).
I know not everyone is like that but there was one department which was repeatedly making mistakes, on one occasion i had to call through to sort out a problem for a customer, the advisor i was speaking to seemed to know so little about her department i asked her if i had actually called through to the correct place or if it was just a random call box in the street picked up by an innocent passer by!

After spending 2 weeks on the continent, I am glad to be back in efficient Britian (not a joke).

French banks open from 0930 to 1200 then 1330 to 1700 which is pretty lame. they also have ONE counter open (without them security glass we have here: dodgy) and it takes 1( minutes to get a chèque in...

Honnestly, we're good here !

My other half banks with Halifax and he can not stand them but just can not be bothered to change.

I on the other hand have always banked with HSBC and never had a problem.But then again their branches tend to be automated nowadays so it does away with incompetent bank staff! Its a good bank for online banking etc, as long as you do not want a face to face chat with someone.

OH NO! I've been looking for a Halifax in Sheffield all week . . . but now I dont think I want to know :gag:

Originally posted by unners
My other half banks with Halifax and he can not stand them but just can not be bothered to change.


I have the same problem, I hate them but it's too much hassle to change. The biggest complaint I have is how long it takes them to clear a cheque, 4,5,6 even 7 days, it's like being in the middle ages.

I nearly got my mortgage from them but they only told me half the options they had available, I eventaually got one from the Yorkshire, when I told them what I had got they said "Oh, we do that kind of mortgage too", when I asked why they didn't tell me they did it they said "we didn't think you would be interested". All the ones they showed me would have takes 25 years to pay back and made them more money.

p.s. Some of the staff are very nice at the Surrey Street branch and do the best they can.

HALIFAX.....the big Cock-up of a Bank!!!!

Thanks very much to the Halifax Bank for apparently giving me £3,000. As you know from the top of this thread, I went into my local branch to transfer some funds across to an ISA before the end of the tax year, and the staff managed not only to move money from the wrong account, but also to CLOSE my current account in the process by mistake!! This is still not entirely sorted, and the cash machine ate my cashcard thinking my account had been deleted (which it had), and to which the Bank apologized and stated my account had now been re-opened. This morning my replacement cashcard had NOT been ordered as I was advised, as the account was still closed due to a staff error.

More? Here goes......When I checked my ISA balance online I was pleasantly surprised to see a balance of £6000 in it, which is very odd as I only moved the maximum of 3K into it (for any 1 tax year) yesterday. I checked my savings accouns and only 3K had in fact been moved. The other 3000 was a mysterious gift from the Halifax.

I called customer services and they were delighted to tell me my ISA was in credit at 6k, and that a new cashcard was on its way to me, and that my accidentally closed current account was now open, and amazingly with all the correct balance still preserved!!! I asked them to confirm the balance of my savings, and they did, demonstrating I only moved 3K to my ISA, and that the other 3K in it had appeared out of thin air. I asked them to DOUBLE CHECK, being an honest sort of a guy, and they did, confirming I had 6K in my ISA and had had only moved 3K from my other account. They failed to grasp that 3K had apparently appeared out of nowhere!!!!

Somewhere somebodies Halifax ISA or Savings account is going to be 3K short.......but that is perfectly in order according to customer services. Unless their computer just invented 3K from thin air??

Draw it out and spend it.

Originally posted by nick2
Draw it out and spend it.

TEMPTED....after all it is all their fault and not mine....

DON'T spend it - draw it out and put it in a savings account somewhere.

They're perfectly entitled to ask for it back, even after a long delay.

[mbatey]

Originally posted by mbatey
DON'T spend it - draw it out and put it in a savings account somewhere.

They're perfectly entitled to ask for it back, even after a long delay.

[mbatey]

Than you just deny any knowledge, "what 6k, I only transfered 3, everyone knows you can only put 3k in a year".

Yes they are entitled to it back, but at the moment they are not wanting it as they say it is mine..just been on the phone to them again....they cant seem to work out the fact it has not come from my savings account....they ran a check and once again told me it was perfectly in order!!!! What more can I do accept withdraw it and hand it over the counter to them as a free gift from me!!!

I think none of them can do any basic maths at all down there and no staff have had any training on their money terminals. Presumably the computer system must reveal the error somewhere...unless it was programmed by the counter staff!!!!


I have a new marketing slogan for the Halifax in Sheffield...
HURRY HURRY HURRY...OPEN A HALIFAX ISA AND GET FREE CASH!
YES.....FREE CASH.INVEST 3K WITH US IN OUR ISA PLAN AND WE GIVE YOU ANOTHER 3K ABSOLUTELY AND TOTALLLY FREE. LIMITED OFFER UNTIL ALL THE MONEY IN EVERYONE ELSES ACCOUNTS RUNS OUT. GET YOUR FREE CASH NOW AT THE HALIFAX....THE BANK THAT LIKES TO GIVE YOU FREE MONEY AND DENY ALL KNOWLEDGE OF EVER DOING SO.

I think you should take it out and put it in a high intrest account until they ask for it back, you can keep the interest surely ?

seems like a good idea to me! :clap:

all i can say is the halifax are as stupid and as annoying as that guy who is on the ads is!

ive always bank with natwest and had no problems with them and my fella banks with Lloyds TSB and has had no problems either.

:rant: Halifax :rant:

I'm with HSBC and they drive me nuts.

If I try to bank in person I have to do it on my lunchbreak. Sadly though HSBC have failed to take into account the working (and money earning) percentange of the population, so they are invariably short-staffed between 12 noon and 2pm. A simple trip to the bank can take hours.

Alternatively I can use telephone banking and speak to someone in the Far East who has very little grasp of the English language, is totally unable to perform simple transactions, and who insists on being called 'John' or 'Dave' and engaging me in conversation about the British weather.

(Yes love, it is still obvious that you're speaking for Bangalore, not Birmingham.)

And as for internet banking... WTF?????

And as for internet banking... WTF????? [/B]

Dont go there!!!! The minute you log in with your forgettable user number and more forgettable security passwords and codes, etc, and start to think about what you want to do you get logged out automatically for taking more than 2 seconds to choose an option!!!!! hate it......Nat West gives you FIVE MINUTES before they log you out, certain other banks give you far less time and always the ones where you have to log in with multiple passwords and security checks.....


I last spoke to a real Sheffield based Bank Manager (not including Branch "supervisors" who dont have a clue) about 5 years ago.....they have all been replaced by customer service operatives on those horrible phone systems where you have to choose from 20 options after listening to long and boring lists of what you want to do...and then when you get there they play Barry Manilow records at you for 40 minutes!!!!

I've been with First Direct for many years (almost since they opened) - transferred from HSBC. OK, it's the same bank - but the different brand seems to bring a different state of mind.

The nice people on the phone are in either Leeds or Glasgow (have a bit of difficulty understanding the latter, but you don't get the satellite delay like you do on calls to Bombay/Mumbai).

The internet banking system seems to work too!

And if you need a branch to go in to, you can always borrow an HSBC branch!

Can I have my £25 now please, First Direct? :D

Originally posted by MrHelicopter
Can I have my £25 now please, First Direct? :D

Is that the going rate for a fresh soul these days ?

Originally posted by nick2
Is that the going rate for a fresh soul these days ?

Needs must in these desperate times! :)