LloydsTsb loyalty? what's that?

[Martin Willmott]

I joined Lloyds in december 1996 with my small business, throughout the past 16 years service has been varied, it was better when I was chucking loads of money into the account.

 

 

Recently due to the recession my business has suffered quite badly and at times has gone slightly overdrawn, but it always recovered, ok I had a few charges here and there but that was expected until recently when I was surprised to see a cheque I'd issued put the account 1p overdrawn, Lloyds bounced the check and charged me £70.00, considering this harsh and excessive I called the business managers (that's a joke title, it has to be) anyway I was not the happiest of bunnies at the time and my mood was made worse by the negative and unyielding attitude of the guy I was connected to. In fact I got so annoyed I hung up.

 

Two days later I had a text from sky saying they'd been informed by Lloyds that the direct debit had been cancelled, I had an email from O2 saying the same, at this point I logged onto the account, where I found all (approx 35) direct debits had been cancelled leaving just a standing order to my accountant, thinking this must be a system error I called Lloyds to be told it is very strange and they would investigate, later I found Lloyds had done it deliberately.

 

I went to town, withdrew all the cash from the account leaving loose change in there, I closed the account, signed the paperwork and was told it would take a few days to close, and I would receive a cheque for any balance.

 

I immediately opened a new account elsewhere. I have a loan with Lloyds and about a week after closing the account I was still getting daily texts (mini statements) I thought this was strange as the account was supposed to be closed,

 

 

I found the "Closed" business account went overdrawn! I called Lloyds to question this, they said it's the loan repayments, I said the account is supposed to be closed and I offered to pay by standing order, this they refused, they said they will continue to keep the business account open despite my signing the papers to close it, and they will continue to take the loan payments from it, so obviously they'll be adding unauthorized overdraft charges too!

 

I have written a letter of complaint to Lloyds and kept a copy, stating I have no desire to bank with them, I will not be paying any money into the business account I'd closed and repeated my offer to pay the loan installments by standing order. I have kept a copy of this letter which I sent recorded delivery.

 

I have also contacted the ombudsman who said I do have cause to complain. The thing is I asked Lloyds for an overdraft facility several times, they refused, the just kept on bouncing and charging.

 

Cancelling all my direct debits without any notice has caused a serious number of problems including my daughter's car insurance got cancelled. It was 3 days after they cancelled all the direct debits I received a letter from them saying they were going to do this and I should contact them.

 

The service over recent years from Lloyds has got worse, I could never get hold of the business managers, they would never return calls, the call centres outside the uk were worse than useless and I'm glad to be out of the clutches of this nasty bank, well almost, I still have to get them to close the business account!

 

My question is this, can Lloyds keep that business account open against my wishes? can they refuse the loan payments via an alternative route from my new bank, can they impose charges when they put the account into overdraft by taking the loan payments out when they know I closed that account, and offered to pay the loan installments from my new bank via standing order, (I wouldn't trust them with a direct debit) Oh and I see they don't bounce the loan repayments!

 

If they paid me I would not bank with them ever again, it's a matter of principle, they are an awful bank, oh and just to top it off I've started 4 ppi claims against them.

Edited August 31, 2012 by citizenB
formattiang

[BankFodder]

No they can't control the way that you make the loan repayments.

Furthermore I think that by not notifying you of the cancellation of the DDs, they are acting unfairly.

£70 for a bounced cheque charge is much more extortionate than even their usual piece of robbery. Why have they charged you that much?

This really is the kind of thing which should be handled by a county court claim under BCOBS ratyher that the FOS - but for some reason most people are shy of going the BCOBs route

[Martin Willmott]

Ha, would you believe it, my engineering work which has been carried by my other business for 3 years has just landed loads of work! Lloyds loss hahaha:whoo:

[deb4tlj]

Email their CEO with all the details. Make sure somebody's head rolls!

 

[email protected]

 

Edit; don't know why it's showing a space after the "k" but it's still "clickable".

[Martin Willmott]

I'm going to let them keep digging a big hole for themselves, then take em to court

[Martin Willmott]

A new development, this morning I received the usual daily text from lloyds, remember I signed to close the account on about 15th August while it was in credit, they refused to close it, they've taken money out on 28th august for what I thought was the loan but now there is a doubt over that, it may be operating charges for the business account, not sure, anyway, that was £53.72 under the heading "PAY" whatever that means! so this morning's text, 28th Aug PAY £53.72

10th Sept CHG £70, 10th Sept CHG £40 Bal £163.45 O/D What's going on? As far as I'm concerned I closed that account and now lloyds are deliberately holding it open and running it into debt, I have spent or drawn nothing on it, the card was returned to Lloyds and the cheque books destroyed, why are they doing this? Do they think for some strange reason that I'm actually going to pay their ridiculous charges?

Edited September 11, 2012 by Martin Willmott

[Martin Willmott]

deb4tlj thanks for that, my posts from above have been cut & pasted into an email and sent.

[Martin Willmott]

Dear Mr Willmott

 

Thank you for your e-mail correspondence addressed to Mr Horta-Osório.

 

In order for us to fully investigate the issues you have raised, could I ask you please to provide me with details of the business account you refer to (either the sort code and account number, or alternatively the full business name and postal code).

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Regards.

 

 

Julie Hegarty | Commercial MD Office | LBG Commercial

 

Replied with details

[Martin Willmott]

Many thanks for providing this information.

I will now ensure the issues you have raised are looked into. We will respond to you in this regard as soon as possible.

Regards.

Julie Hegarty | Commercial MD Office | LBG Commercial

[Martin Willmott]

12th September remember this account is inactive and as far as I'm concerned closed.

 

text this morning reads:

 

A/C**** Bal 331.02 DR at 05:07 12sep

ENTRIES

12 sep PAY 167.57

10 sep CHG 40.00

10 sep CHG 70.00

28 aug PAY 53.72

 

Does this make any sense to anyone? please ensure you have read the entire post before answering this, thanks.

I've just called Lloyds and they say PAY simply means it's been done in branch, trouble is, no-one will put me through to the branch or answer questions about this "PAY" All I get is a jobsworth at the call centre.

Edited September 12, 2012 by Martin Willmott

[Martin Willmott]

Just found out what this all means, I closed the account about 15th august but lloyds refused to close it, 28th aug PAY is charges for business account, 10 sep £70 CHG & £40 CHG are charges for not paying the charges on the closed account, 12th Sept PAY £167.57 is the Lloyds loan, the one they refused to accept from my new bank, so next ther'll be charges on that too soon! it's a bit like getting taxed on tax and then getting taxed on taxed tax or something! basically Lloyds are currently trying to rip me off by making life impossible and charging me for it!

[Martin Willmott]

13th Sep

A/C Bal 163.45 DR

12 Sep DEP 167.57 CR (Er Hello! what's this? change of mind or bounced it so they can add more charges?)

12 Sep PAY 167.57 DR

10 Sep CHG 40.00 DR

10 Sep CHG 70.00 DR

28 Aug PAY 53.72 DR

 

To remind everyone, I signed to close this account when it was in credit but Lloyds are refusing to close it!

[Martin Willmott]

All charges are to be reimbursed, a service account will be set up to pay the loan, the business account will be closed and I received a sort of half arsed attempt at an apology for the way I was treated.

[Martin Willmott]

It now seems the business account has not been closed, charges were added today! I called and spent a considerable chunk of my life on hold while they looked into it, then I got the charges refunded, and closed the business account! OMG! they are about as sharp as a marshmallow, why oh why do we trust these people with our money?, let's see what happens next!

[Martin Willmott]

Well here we are 2 days later, business account STILL OPEN, and another service charge not cancelled, the dozy woman said she sorted it whilst I was on the phone, it would now appear she was probably filing her nails whilst dishing out bull!

 

Today's correspondence with Lloyds CEO's office.

 

From: Martin willmott [mailto:[email protected]]

Sent: 05 October 2012 09:34

To: Commercial MD Office - Customer Relations

Subject: Re: Request for further information

 

 

 

Hi, Unfortunately this saga is dragging on, not only have they failed to convert the dead business account to a servicing account for the loan as agreed, they are still charging me on this account, I called and they said they would refund the charges immediately and sort the account, 2 days later and nothing has been done, Now this matter has been going on for some time, the whole saga has proved very expensive and stressful to me and I've now had enough! at this stage I am embarking on an anti Lloydstsb campaign and will not only expect a full apology, I expect the account type to be amended, charges returned and compensation for my time, expense and stress!

 

Martin

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Commercial MD Office - Customer Relations

To: Martin willmott

Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 12:28 PM

Subject: 2665-12: Mr Martin Willmott

 

 

 

Dear Mr Willmott

It is disappointing to hear you are still experiencing problems with your business account. Please be assured that I have requested the appropriate relationship manager to make contact with you shortly.

If you do not hear by Tuesday 9th October, please let my colleague Julie Hegarty or myself know.

Many thanks for your patience,

Samantha Larsen | Commercial MD Office | LBG Commercial

 

Telephone: 0117 923 3302| Network: 7 801 3302 [email protected]

 

 

Disappointed doesn't come close, because of your business manager's shoot now and ask questions later attitude, several bad things happened, one of which was my daughter's car insurance got cancelled costing me the equivalent of 3 months policy costs, that's about £300.00 I'm not sure whether you are aware but your business manager cancelled all my direct debits with absolutely no prior notice, 2 days later I started getting messages from creditors and after that a letter from Lloyds saying the direct debits had been cancelled, I've had to pay for office staff to do extra hours to sort this mess out too!

 

I was offered no help prior to being effectively ejected from Lloyds after 16 years a loyal customer, I was not asked why I was having a few cash flow problems of late, there was no contact whatsoever. On the few occasions I called Lloyds I was told there was no one available but when they are they'll call, Huh! No call! My cash flow issues were a temporary glitch in business which is now resolved and both my businesses are doing well, pity I'm now with another bank. I would prefer not to deal with the useless excuses for business or relationship managers but rather to deal with your office directly at this stage. Martin

 

 

 

 

Edited October 5, 2012 by Martin Willmott

[Systemerror]

Have you made a formal complaint?

 

You do not have to service your loan from a LLoyds account.

 

I had an almost identical situation where we paid a loan off early and the numpties thought we had stopped paying the loan payments and started placing charges on an account that we had asked to be closed a year earlier. This triggered their collections department to start telephone harassing us and we now find ourselves with the inconvenience of taking them to court. We will win and they will have to compensate but that's another story.

 

What I learned was:

 

1) Do not speak to them on the phone unless you are recording the call. They are institutionally disfunctional and will lie to you and say one thing and do another.

2) Every time they make a mistake, make a formal complaint and insist on a seperate complaint reference number.

3) Check your credit reference report....Noddle is good.

4) Bypass FOS and go straight for a civil claim using BCOBS....put them on the back foot....they will probably make a "commercial decision" to settle your issues quickly.

 

I am pretty certain that if you do this, you will have your problems sorted pronto.....

[Systemerror]

Disappointed doesn't come close, because of your business manager's shoot now and ask questions later attitude, several bad things happened, one of which was my daughter's car insurance got cancelled costing me the equivalent of 3 months policy costs, that's about £300.00 I'm not sure whether you are aware but your business manager cancelled all my direct debits with absolutely no prior notice, 2 days later I started getting messages from creditors and after that a letter from Lloyds saying the direct debits had been cancelled, I've had to pay for office staff to do extra hours to sort this mess out too!

 

I was offered no help prior to being effectively ejected from Lloyds after 16 years a loyal customer, I was not asked why I was having a few cash flow problems of late, there was no contact whatsoever. On the few occasions I called Lloyds I was told there was no one available but when they are they'll call, Huh! No call! My cash flow issues were a temporary glitch in business which is now resolved and both my businesses are doing well, pity I'm now with another bank. I would prefer not to deal with the useless excuses for business or relationship managers but rather to deal with your office directly at this stage. Martin

 

 

I used to do my business banking with Lloyds. In the early days I had a super business manager. He used to come to dinner - knew us personally and was always very interested in us and our business. If we needed anything he would get it sorted.

 

Later on, they moved our account to business managers somewhere a long way away, Birmingham I think, who were only interested in selling us crappy financial products. One day after weeks of them not arranging an urgently needed euro account for us, I asked my "Business Manager" what he thought I did for a living and the reply was, "I'm sorry, I don't hold that kind of information and i don't need it either to manage your account!!!!"

 

And they wonder why the credit crunch happened??

 

We now business bank elsewhere where the service is infinitely better than Lloyds.

 

I would say to anyone who has their own business, who works hard to make it work, who is proud of what they have built...don't let Lloyds anywhere near it. They will do their best to screw it up!

[Martin Willmott]

Well no-one called, useless twerps, however they did return the charge they took, after a week, no contact, no apology, no reply to my email either, really getting naffed off with Lloydstsb, ignorant, lazy greedy self serving disloyal excuse for a bank!