who to complain to about a bank/building society

[Thunderchild]

Is there a body I can make a complaint to about a bank/building society.

For the second time Nationwide have go myself and my father mixed up although all we have in common is a surname. I moved out of my dad's 8 months ago, but when I rang them up to cancel my home insurance and went through lots of security questions to ensure it really was me they were talking to only to find that they cancelled my dad's insurance instead. They have already made a mistake with our addresses on our account despite precise instructions and decided that my dad and my sister are Mr and Mrss xxxxxx.

It's time for a formal complaint to an external body. not only do they give very little interest whilst demanding a lot back they seem to make repeat mistakes which as it is is unacceptable.

[jb190281]

Have a look here

http://www.financial-...nsumer/complaints.htm

[bednobs]

have you used up Nationwides own complaints facility? External bodies will not be interested till local resolution has been saught

[Thunderchild]

bednobs, i will be making a formal complaint to them, however i wanted it to the logged as an issue with this organisation externally as well.

I used to think very highly of them, but their attitude is p*ssing me off now, they do nothing but remind us that "we're a building society - not a bank (sneer)" well sorry but I have accounts with a bank too and they have not made such stupid mistakes

[jules77]

As bednobs says, you have to make a formal complaint to the financial institution first, before going to the Ombudsman. 'If' you are not satisifed with their response, then go to the Ombudsman to complain. At the end of the day, all you will get is an apology unless you have suffered any financial loss.

[granny grump]

You must exhaust the Nationwide's internal complaints procedure and receive what is their 'final' response giving you the option to refer the matter to the Ombudsman (FOS). Even if they make you an offer of compensatrion you do not have to accept it and can refer the complaint, Be realistic if they do make you an offer that is reasonable FOS may not increase it but it will still be open to you. FOS are experiencing backlogs at the moment so you may not get a quick response.

You do not have to accept Fos' ruling and can take your concerns further to the small claims court for instance but if you have suffered 'stress & inconveneince' and not suffered any financial loss then any compensation may be nominal.

It costs nothing for you to go to FOS but it will cost Nationwide £500.00 whatever the outcome. Hope that this helps

[Thunderchild]

Well I wrote them a complaint through the e-banking system and went to town on them (without swearing). I got an apologetic call later offering to pay my last instalment of insurance for me and to give me £75. I accepted but I will move my accounts and services away from them as I'm not happy with their repeat errors.

The made it sound like it was an error on the part of the person I spoke to but I doubt it, if she logged into my details which she indeed did as I confirmed all of the correct information then it would be impossible to access my dads stuff, either information was wrong in-putted in the first place or their system is not working as iot should which is a bigger issue than a one time mistake by one customer service assistant. Either way they know they messed up big time.

Like you say the independent bodies are probably to busy to deal with it and really I'm not after money (although I won't say no to what's offered) just that they know what they did and that it will cost them a customer

[granny grump]

If you accccept the offer to pay your last instalment and the £75 then the complaint will be considered as 'resolved' and the option to refer the matter to the Ombudsman will not be avaialble. You either accept the offer or you continue with the complaint - you can,t do both. Moving your acccounts is your right and may give them the message you feel that they need

[Thunderchild]

Yea I know, I thought I might as well take the money as really all the banks and other financial institutions are being crapped all over at the moment so taking it further would not do much I have not forgotten my dad's attempt with Lloyds and a case of fraud (by bank staff).

They obviously realized that I was very annoyed and that they had made a serious error and I think the making it sound like "operator error" (not that they actually explicitly said it was) was a cover-up of a bigger issue with their system or the initial setup of my "stuff" (as a QC inspector i see this happen at work often). Yes i will be moving my services and monies away from them, the services because they are useless and the monies because the interest is crap and on top of that they are incompetent, I'd rather make 2.9% than 0.5% and really can't see the justification in poor interest, they are not even one of the bailed out institutions.

And presumably yes they got the message or will get it when i move