'Apartheid' call system filters out poor Barclays clients

[TheFaQQer]

P.S. Has anyone anything bad to share about First Direct? Their customer service always seems to be first class to me. You do get Scottish operators, but you can understand them and whoever you get always seems to be clued up and helpful. Very little in the way of a hard sell before you end the call too.

Some years back, someone paid money into my FD savings account. I never looked at the account, but over the year there was about £1400 paid in - I guess because they had set up the wrong direct debit. The child benefit goes into that account too, and when my family give me any money, it goes into that account. Periodically, I'd look at the balance on the summary page, and then move the balance to pay off a chunk of mortgage.

One night, FD rang me to say that someone had been paying the money in by mistake, and they wanted it back. I denied all knowledge of it, but agreed to repay the money over the same time period. They agreed.

Couple of hours later, someone different rang and told me that this wasn't good enough, they would take the £1400 immediately from my mortgage account because I should have known that there was money in there that wasn't mine, and it was my responsibility to check every payment in and out of all accounts, and if there was anything I wasn't sure of, I should ask them to check the transaction. After half an hour of arguing (I kept saying it was the responsibility of the person making the transaction and / or the person who was meant to be receiving the money to check they got it, rather than a random stranger), they basically said that they would take the money the next working day, so I had chance to make sure there was money there to pay the bill (this was now about 9pm Friday night).

So, not too good there.

I wrote a really sarcastic, stroppy letter about the situation and asked them to check EVERY transaction on ALL my accounts and let me know where the money had come from, where it had gone to, and why - their operator had said they would check any transactions I want to question, so I was questioning all of them. I told them I was distinctly unimpressed that they would ring at 9pm on a Friday night and demand £1400 with no working days to find the money.

Monday morning, they rang me to apologise, they had read the letter and listened to both conversations, and would I be happy with the original repayment plan to repay it over the course of the year.

So, good customer service all round really - I'd recommend them to anyone, having been with them for 7 years now.

[Troll]

P.S. Has anyone anything bad to share about First Direct? Their customer service always seems to be first class to me. You do get Scottish operators, but you can understand them and whoever you get always seems to be clued up and helpful. Very little in the way of a hard sell before you end the call too.

I was actually customer 14 to sign up to FD way back when ...the only problem is their Scottish operators IMHO

[Clippy]

P.S. Has anyone anything bad to share about First Direct? Their customer service always seems to be first class to me. You do get Scottish operators, but you can understand them and whoever you get always seems to be clued up and helpful. Very little in the way of a hard sell before you end the call too.

Another fan of First Direct.

Moved back to them a few years ago after about 20 years with Abbey/Santander where the service got progressively worse every year.

As you mention, nowadays, it's not just having to deal with overseas call centres but downright dumb staff in branches who haven't got a clue.

[minestrone]

I wish lloyds would do the same.

[conned tractor]

So, once they've got your money, they get the cheaper Indian bods to 'look after' you once you've signed up.

Try discussing a car accident with them!

More Than do this. T0ssers!

Been there. Have been known to hang up and try another operator because of strong accents which I couldn't understand.

The other one was 'free' travel insurance through my bank. I needed to clarify that they were OK with an existing condition and couldn't understand what they were saying so 'risked' it.

[worzelGummidge]

P.S. Has anyone anything bad to share about First Direct? Their customer service always seems to be first class to me. You do get Scottish operators, but you can understand them and whoever you get always seems to be clued up and helpful. Very little in the way of a hard sell before you end the call too.

Agreed. Cater Allen are better though but out of the "normal" banks First Direct are great.

[Sockpuppet]

Good, no point wasting money on the riff-raff ......... cmon we are contractors, we are hardly likely to fall into the poor man group.

Is that like the blue man group but with hobos?

[TimberWolf]

P.S. Has anyone anything bad to share about First Direct? Their customer service always seems to be first class to me. You do get Scottish operators, but you can understand them and whoever you get always seems to be clued up and helpful. Very little in the way of a hard sell before you end the call too.

[TimberWolf]

I must be on their poor (service) list. I recently attempted to open a foreign currency account with them and got passed to India. I couldn't work out what the guy reading the script was saying, but I did glean enough to work out that I could arrange to open one at a branch. I declined whatever it was he then tried to sell me and the customer satisfaction survey. I'd wasted enough time already.

But the service didn't get any better at a local branch, the woman was out of her depth and couldn't find the relevant form, and didn't even know if it existed, so I gave up. I use my Barclays account less and less these days.

[Clippy]

Not exactly news or restricted to banks.

Noticed how, for example, insurance sales teams are UK based and their back office is based in India?

So, once they've got your money, they get the cheaper Indian bods to 'look after' you once you've signed up.

Try discussing a car accident with them!

More Than do this. T0ssers!

[Moscow Mule]

And in other shock news, banks are found to like making a profit...

[Durbs]

Sounds fair enough to me. Good business model.

Apartheid, noun. The official system of segregation or discrimination on racial grounds formerly in force in South Africa.

Don't see the connection to Apartheid though (or is it clever enough to detect accents too?).

[NeverBeenNorthOfTheM25]

Good, no point wasting money on the riff-raff ......... cmon we are contractors, we are hardly likely to fall into the poor man group.

[AtW]

Thousands of struggling bank customers will be connected to Indian call centres while more affluent account holders will get one in Britain.

A new banking phone system will identify those with low credit approvals and put them through to India.

Those who have considerable savings or a credit limit that allows them to borrow around £500 from the bank or buy its products will be connected to a British operator.

Bosses hope the new line will filter out their customers who do not have the money to buy the bank's products so their British staff will potentially be able to sell to every caller.

Barclays is testing the system and call centre staff have been briefed that it will start on April 1.

One Barclays sales executive said: 'Before we've had people ringing up who have been overdrawn, so we haven't been able to sell them anything.'

Critics say the bank is only interested in people with cash and not the genuine concerns of millions who have queries about the state of their finances. (AtW's comment: no comment)

Eddy Weatherill of the Independent Banking Advisory Service said: 'This is an apartheid system and certainly preferential to their wealthier customers.

'This is not intended to give the best advice, but a chance to make more money.'

Barclays was one of the few banks to not borrow from public funds during the banking crisis last year.

A spokesman said: 'Customers will speak to different teams in different locations depending upon the nature of their query.'

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...r-clients.html