Poor bank service for long-time customer
Dick Barton contacted us with a story which reflects very badly on one of the State’s biggest banks. His story starts a month ago when his father was dying in England. He needed to make regular phone calls there so he fired up his Skype account. However, his Bank of Ireland card refused to let him buy credit.
“Suddenly, after a year of buying credit with them my mother’s maiden name was not correct,” he writes. He called the card service line “but could not make head nor tail of their questions”. He wrote to the bank’s customer service manager asking for help mentioning the approaching death of his father. A week on and his mother’s maiden name was still “wrong” and his letter had gone unanswered. His local branch were unable to help. So he called the bank’s main number again and got through to somebody. “I patiently explained the problem all over again and he asked me loads of ‘security’ questions. He refused to help me because I did not know my mother’s maiden name.” Our reader points out that the person at the other end of the phone “knew perfectly well who I was after the first barrage of questions and that we all knew that there was a problem with my mother’s maiden name and that the problem was at his end.
Finally we got the problem sorted out with me nearly in tears thinking at the same time about something as simple as phoning my dying father. It turned out that some idiot had entered my mother’s name totally wrongly – only two letters right out of five. Our reader asked why this had not shown up before and was told the bank did not check such details – although the system changed in July. He wrote a letter of complaint after which “the bank called and tried to blame Skype and said that it was all my fault because my letters were not clear – a lie and an insult. My father is dead now so it doesn’t matter so much any more to me. Customers of 20 years standing obviously don’t matter at all to the Bank of Ireland”.
Saga of missing Tesco Clubcard points
Deirdre Cahalane was in a Tesco in Rathfarnham, Dublin, at the end of May when it dawned on her that she had not received Tesco Clubcard vouchers for some time. “I made enquires in the store and was advised that I had 23,432 points (approximately €250) which indicated that I had not received vouchers for a significant time,” she writes.
She contacted the Tesco helpline and was told that the vouchers, which had been issued, had been returned to Tesco by An Post because she was not known at the address. “I was amazed as I have lived at my address since 1991, and had hitherto always received my vouchers from them.” The address was checked and it was incorrect. “The operator who I spoke to assured me that the address would be changed, vouchers would be re-issued in August and apologies were offered,” she says.
In August she still had not received any vouchers, so she contacted the helpline and discovered that the address had not been changed on the computer system. She was told it would be changed and the vouchers would be reissued. Weeks passed and still no joy so she called againand was promised that they would be reissued. Another week passed and still no vouchers, so she contacted the helpline again and was assured that the vouchers had been re-issued to her correct address.
“I insisted that in this saga I had not received any. I was told that there was an error and that the vouchers had not been sent. Apologies were offered, she guaranteed me that they would be re-issued on September 6th.
On September 21st she had still got no vouchers so she contacted the helpline and was told the vouchers should be with her by September 24th. Three days after that date she still had no vouchers and contacted the helpline again and was told the vouchers had been issued in August. The person did not know of the most recent calls and said her vouchers had been issued to the correct address.
“He believed the problem was An Post, not Tesco’s system or mailing list. I stressed that other than my Tesco experience, I had not encountered any delivery difficulties with An Post. He could help me no more other than to say that he would have them re-issued in November, and to call back if I did not receive them. I am now owed approximately €270 by Tesco. Could you please help as I no longer have any confidence in the helpline system, which is anonymous, fragmented, costly and utterly useless.”
A Tesco spokesman said that the company was looking into the reasons why our reader did not receive her vouchers and apologised for the inconvenience caused. He said the company made contact with her last Friday and would ensure she receives all her vouchers as soon as possible.
