Barclays complaints procedure......????

[tomtom221]

recently myself and my partner were in Poland and used our Barclays debit card to purchase flights back online.

 

The bank then blocked the card,

 

when the automated machine at the airport went to validate the card it wasn't valid,

 

I have then spent a considerable time on that day trying to contact Barclays who constantly couldn't understand me

and kept putting me from person to person,

 

upon asking to be put through to my branch in Northern Ireland, I was told that Northern Ireland was a separate country and not part of the UK,

 

when I said my local branch they told me no branches in Northern Ireland existed,

 

having spent a considerable amount of time arguing they finally gave me a number to branch that "didn't exist".

 

The branch informed me that the card was blocked and that I needed to call the fraud team to unlock the card,

 

I rang them straight away to be placed on hold for close to 45 mins and the phone being cut off on 3 separate occasions.

 

finally that day I rang the branch again, and they weren't able to lift the block themselves, and told me to try again tomorrow.

 

As were denied check-in, and with no access to money from our debit card,

we asked if they would increase our credit card,

to which they said that wasn't possible from a non-UK number.

 

we were left in Poland with no access to funds and very little money on us,

we continued in vien for the next couple days to no avail, and

 

finally concerned we had no way of paying a mounting hotel bill, my partner who is Polish,

was compelled to take a loan for us to get home,

 

in between this I contacted the complaints team, and gave them my Polish number to call and liase with me to resolve the matter,

to which they spent 5 days trying to ring a UK number!!!

 

I personally ended up in hospital with stress from all the drama, and having made a total of 11.5 hours worth of phone calls to Barclays from a Polish phone,

contacted the branch again who said that we were to keep all the receipts from everything and bring them back

and that Barclays would put us back in the position we would have been in had this not happened.

 

This was also confirmed by the complaints team, and

 

finally when we got home was told to head to my branch and take all evidence of everything with me to show the catalogue of catastrophes, and

 

firstly they tell us the complaints handler they have assigned us is on annual leave, and no one knows when he's back,

 

when we asked to speak to a manager, were told Managers' aren't here to talk to customers.

 

From the branch appraisal of the situation we were out of pocket by 5117.49 including the loan and over 500.00 on phone calls.

 

Finally it was upgraded to Level 2 in complaints and she was very helpful and listened to me

and told me that they would get things sorted out as quick as possible.

 

I explained that obviously we have bills to pay now and are so out of pocket I had to sell my Ipad,

she agreed she understood the urgency and would take steps to resolve with me asap,

 

finally today they ring back and tell me after the complaint has been in for over 4 weeks that as a gesture of goodwill

we would like to credit your account with 300.00.

 

I argued and said after everything that had happened this was unacceptable,

and threatened to speak to the legal team, then she went on hold, and said well we could do 600.00.

 

I then asked was this the final response to which I was told that it was a gesture of goodwill, and that in actual fact nothing had been investigated at all.

 

After the offer of 600 I telephoned through to our local branch, who told me "they weren't surprised" as Barclays hate admitting they're wrong,

and that I would have a long fight on my hands to my money back from them.

 

And that owing to the amount we were down I should ask to be moved to Level 3 complaints for a decision,

I upon recieving a further call from complaints told them I wished it escalated to Level 3, she asked me why?

I asked the question after everything that had happened, would you accept 600.00?? she said no..

.Then I was asked what was the minimum I would accept.....

 

We have banked with Barclays for a while, I feel totally abused by this "bank" it's dishonest practices and treating customers like dirts

is unacceptable in todays unstable banking world.

 

Would love some advice.

 

T

[tomtom221]

For those wondering if anything else could have been done, upon finding that I could not get to unblock my card, my partner rang to place a temporary overdraft on our account to get us home to which he was told "we don't lend to foreigners" this coming from an Indian call centre, also that when they asked me security questions they couldn't understand Virgin Mobile!!!

[maroondevo52]

Hello and Welcome T,

 

Sorry to read about your dealings with Barclays.

 

I'll see if I can get site team member Slick132 to have a look at your thread as he's best clued up on them, don't think he's on-line at the moment but I'll ask him to have a look when he's on.

 

Regards,

 

Scott.

[slick132]

Hi Tomtom and welcome to CAG

 

First off, you haven't said WHY the card was blocked when you were in Poland. If there was a valid reason for this, the bank may not be liable for anything.

 

On the other hand, if the card was blocked for no reason, or the bank failed to reasonably allow you to resume use of the card, they may be liable to some extent.

 

If you haven't yet done so, you need to make a formal written complaint. Contact at branch level is a waste of your time as staff there have virtually no discretion to act alone these days .

 

Set everything out chronologically in a dated list of events. Keep it as brief as poss and avoid unnecessary detail. You can send this with a letter to the bank.

 

You should seek to reclaim all out-of-pocket expenses incurred as a result of the bank's actions, if you feel they were responsible.

 

Use the London HQ address - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?208-Email-or-contact-details-for-Barclays

 

Let us know a little more detail first and then we can advise better.

 

[tomtom221]

Thank you for your comments regarding this situation, I should make things clear, before we went away to Poland, I informed Barclays in person at Branch Level, that we would be in Poland and that if there were any problems they could contact us on the such number, which they updated to the system.

 

The card on the 23rd June 2014 was blocked as they suspected unusual transactions, to which we contacted them from that date including branch, customer serivce and fraud team, and the bar wasn't lifted until the 30th June 2014, however after this date on subsequent phone calls no one realised that the bar was lifted, until the 14th July!!

 

Even after spending hours on the phone they told me the card was still blocked and that i risked having it sucked in to an ATM if I tried to use it.

 

We have since discovered a little known fact from Barclays that once a marker has been placed on the account, if they don't get a response from you within 7 days, the block automatically drops off, and the card becomes active again.

[slick132]

Hi TT,

 

Thanks for the further info. It is hugely important that you told the branch about your trip abroad, so that they should have been aware of the card being used for significant transactions overseas.

 

If any of this was done in writing by letter or email, better still although I assume you may simply have informed branch staff verbally. If that's the case, it would still be useful if you recognised or remembered WHO you told.

 

Otherwise, I suggest you do as I said above - prepare a summary showing date of relevant events, showing date and brief details.

 

This should be sent with a covering letter headed FORMAL COMPLAINT to Barclays London HQ using "signed for" delivery.

 

Avoid any further phone calls or talking to the branch and keep everything in writing only.

 

[AWC]

So sorry to hear of your troubles with Barclays Bank.

 

I too am having issues with them at the moment, and their attitude is utterly disgusting!