Lloyds TSB : SAR - Incomplete disclosure. Data going back 16 years!

[Lottysabber]

This case does not involve a debt issue. I'll be as brief as possible but might therefore miss something crucial out - so bear with me as its a bit complicated.

 

V. Long story short. Several years ago the OH and I suffered an attempt at ID theft made by a caller posing as someone from LTSB. Fortunately we sussed it before too much damage was done and as part of the wash-up it was agreed with the branch that they would delete all numbers for us so we wouldn't need to be worried about any further call because it couldn't be from them. No probs, or so we thought.

 

Wrong - of course - because within months we started to receive calls again - this time plainly genuine from the bank - and had to go back to them to remind them of the deal. More promises it wouldn't happen again but within a couple of months off we went once more. This time profuse apologies - even shown the screen at the branch showing no numbers - and absolute promises there would no further problem. Needless to say they failed again and the pattern repeated a couple of times before we gave up wasting our time.

 

Wind forward to late 2009 when the arrangements for entering additional payees to the Internet banking listings changed and needed to be confirmed by phone. Details entered in and when the call screen came up it offered two telephone numbers that could be rung neither of which were ours.

 

Alarm bells ring and we make a hasty trip to the branch the following day. They are absolutely insistent that they have no numbers - certainly not the ones we'd seen on line and even show us the account screen in the branch. Sure enough nothing is there. Its suggested that we'd imagined things etc etc. and we leave with no answers but a check later revealed that Phonebank had got the same number and a personal mobile number we had never provided to the bank but had used to make Phonebank transactions.

 

Back at the branch a couple of days later we are assured that they don't understand where the numbers have come from - as they do not have them at the branch - and that they've been deleted. A check with Phonebank reveals that the numbers have gone. We complain, asking for an explanation as to how the situation has come about and await a reply.

 

Needless to say just a short while later an attempt to use Internet Banking throws up one of the same mysterious numbers (although the mobile number has disappeared and never shows again) and so this time we make a screengrab and head back to the branch again. They offer complete denials that they have any numbers and turn down the screengrab as "it might have been Photoshopped". We make a further complaint and are told this one will have to go to head office.

 

We then start to suffer other problems with inconsistent decisions from the branch - things are turned down on particular grounds but others - to which the same grounds apply - are agreed to and a chance visit to a branch in a different town sees us leaving with the very thing we had asked for at our home branch agreed to without question and some bemusement from staff there that our branch had not agreed to them in the first place.

 

We make another complaint seeking an explanation.

 

So, now three complaints running.

 

Getting v. worried at Christmas we make a SAR specifically requesting a full disclosure from all departments and details of all complaints - hoping to scoop up details of the numerous complaints we'd made about misuse of telephone numbers. We stop using Internet Banking (IB).

 

The OH finally recognises the mysterious number that had come up on the Internet Banking screen as an old works number - but he'd left that company 16 years before and had had no contact with them since.

 

A month later and we get a box full of documents and it takes us several months to work through it - no telephone numbers anywhere to be seen and no details of any complaints anywhere other than the ones we'd made in late 2009. LTSB reply to our complaints - lots of apologies, can't understand inconsistent approach, and an absolute assurance that they hold no numbers whatsoever. Hope we can mend the bridges etc etc.

 

OH is working away and a serious family illness intervenes and this all gets parked until the tail end of last year. Then OH tries to use IB again only to find the old works number showing again and a call to Phonebank reveals the same number with them. back to the branch and complain again only this time we call Phonebank using speakerphone in the bank. Branch staff hear the number and the mood changes from "these idiots are at it again" to a degree of panic.

 

Yet another complaint made and despite the fact that the HO complaints dept seem unable to grasp the slightly complicated complaint it is finally admitted that they do hold the mysterious number in their "Group Database" (not on our account profile) but it had now, we're told, been deleted so no need to worry. No further explanation as to its origins or why they were holding it or why it just kept reappearing is offered nor why it had not been disclosed in the SAR - although this had all been requested. They also deny that Phonebank captures incoming telephone numbers.

 

We're far from happy but are at the point where we just don't know where to go next. Suggestions? Or do we just put it down to experience?