Nationwide Building Society equals poor customer service
By tomser22
Fri, 11/07/2008 - 18:47
I am so glad of this opportunity to warn all moneywise users TO STEER CLEAR OF NATIONWIDE BUILDING SOCIETY!!
I have been with the society for many years however since they merged with Portman the customer service has been non existant!
I attempted to transfer an ISA into Nationwide in March 2008 and still am waiting for my money to be made available in my account! I have received confirmation in April that the money was with them but they have still not funded my account with my money!
I have visited branches, rung call centres, spoken to managers, written to Nationwide and now written to Daily Mail as they were running a story on the poor service offered on ISA transfers.
After Nationwide branches have been unable to help, call centres have promised call back and they have never materialised and even managers who apologised for the poor level of service and agreed they did have my funds in May - and assured me of a call back have all failed me.
I would like to know what other companies are permitted to retain customers money in their accounts and not process it after 4 months have elapsed. Any other company you would be taking them to the small claims court - but what hope have you got with this financial services!
I have today received another communication from nationwide confirming they have my monies but advising I need to fill out an application form to transfer the funds. You might think this is a good step forward, but as I have already completed 2 application forms and provided these to Nationwide already, I feel it is just another delaying tactic to try and make it look like they are actually doing something!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take my advise and stay well clear of Nationwide. The queues out of the doors of branches is a clear sign of the poor level of service provided, and if my experience is anything to go by, probably better to keep your money under the mattress.
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Comments
You are not alone - and its not only the Nationwide who cannot seem to get their act together with ISA transfers. I have had a battle with Bradford and Bingley, which started in April and is still continuing. I applied to transfer my ISA out and they made a complete hash of it.
I will not bore you with the details, but the saga involves disappearing transfer forms, non arrival of funds,and non communication between two banks blaming each other for the mess, my money having disappeared into cyber-space.
I have spent hours on the phone at my expense trying to sort this out, and it is still ongoing.
In the meantime I have not had access to my money for over a month.
I should say the exact opposite. Excellent service from Nationwide since 1985. Local branch has queues because it's popular. Staff at branch greet members (it is a society) by name because they know them. My two children who started saving with Nationwide at pre-school age are happy Nationwide members in their 20s. Very satisfied with Flexaccount for many years and with the Nationwide credit card, especially for use on foreign holidays. I couldn't disagree more with the two posts above.
Older Not Wiser!
As a long term Nationwide saver I too am concerned at recent changes. The e-savings account used to have a reasonably high interest rate but recently I discovered that the rate has slumped over the past year and these reductions have not been publicised by Nationwide.
My local branch office in York used to have high quality customer service staff, but again over the past few months these have been replaced by younger inexperienced staff who can only refer you to the published leaflets.
The Company appears to be " dumbing down" even though they have attracted many new customers. Once one could phone the Branch and speak to the manager but now its the inevitable call center who answers.This does not inspire confidence!
My post was only concerned with the aspect of ISA transfers. I too have a Flexaccount with Nationwide and have no complaints with regard to this, as you say it is one of the best cards to use abroad.
My local branch always has a queue, but this is because there are only two desks open! They do seem to be much more efficient than Abbey, my alternative bank which always has a queue twice as long and less staff.
The delays in ISA transfers seem to be a problem across the board, there should be some regulation on the maximum time it can take. My main gripe is with Bradford and Bingley, who have messed up my ISA transfer big time. Even now, three months after I first applied for a transfer, they have not sorted it out, after numerous phone calls on my part. I would have thought that with their current problems, they would be eager to hang onto their customers.
I opened a savings and current account with nationwide 14 months ago, and they have driven me nuts with mistakes ever since..... but, i also have active accounts with Natwest, Bank of scotland and savings accounts with 5 others, they are all as bad as each othe The UK banking sector is poor in terms of how it performs no matter what bank you are with when you need them to do anything away from normal day to day transactions, but its till better than most other parts of the world, we pay next to nothing for what we get, other parts of the world you pay for everything you do, i have been looking at opening accounts oversea's for a while and cant find better than the UK. Nationwide really messed me about last month, but they put it right, when they said they would fix it i did not believe they would, but they did. When NatWest made the same mistake, twice over 1 year, they failed to fix it or componsate me for the considerable problems it caused, so Nationwide gets a reluctant thumbs up from me.
well, I have now had a letter asking me to complete an application form for an ISA for this tax year. As it was an ISA transfer from a few years ago I have had to contact them again and advise them how to do their job!
I have now given them 10 days to sort it out or I am going to the ombudsman. How can they receive my money in April and still not know how to apply to an existing ISA 3 months later.
I have this week contacted Nationwide again - and they DO require a application form even though they already have the transfer form - (2 copies as the first was lost and has now been found!)
The application form refers to opening an account in 2008/2009 tax year (which is not what I wish to do). It seems I will have to complete this form which is not even worded correctly for an ISA transfer from an account pre this tax year. However I think if I continue to dispute it I will never see my money again!
Sending application form Monday so I will let you know if they can get my money to my account within 6 months from when this saga started in the last tax year!
I said in my last posting that my gripe was with Bradford and Bingley, now I can feel the beginning of a seething gripe with Nationwide, who I had hoped would prove more efficient.
They have still not opened my new ISA account, despite a cheque having been sent out to them in the middle of July. Why do they hang onto cheques? It's just as well I don't need access to the money at the moment.
I did have a letter from Nationwide in July, stating they had a backlog of ISA applications and had put "extra resources in place" - I dont think so, this is merely an appeasement to try and keep me sweet, along with probably thousands of other frustrated customers.
I did enquire at my local branch and they fobbed me off with some excuse, they were no help whatsoever.
I do think the banks and large building societies are all as bad as each other, small local building societies seem to offer a more efficient service, and also their interest rates are often better. Many of these, unfortunately, have been bought out by the big sharks.