Noticeable Oddities of the Day:

Okay… I need to vent…

I’m getting utterly frustrated with Barclays bank… There seems to be such a difference between a current account and a business account in the way you get treated by Barclays. I have both and I have encountered nothing but frustrations over the last couple of months with the business account. As some of you know it’s really tough to open a bank account in the UK, most people don’t succeed in getting one if you don’t have a regular income, read steady job. I was extremely lucky when I applied for one, the woman that helped me out that day spent two hours to set up an account for me which was pretty amazing and I’m grateful for this, she was the most friendliest person in my tiny expat world at the time.

I also needed a business account so my accountant arranged a meeting at his office with one of his contacts who works for Barclays. All went well for a long time until November last year when the bank was supposed to notify me about certain things and they failed to do this. Because of the mistakes the bank made on their end I can’t solve the issues that have escalated since November. They keep charging me for a service I never asked for. I’ve been on the phone many times but the list of mistakes gets longer because of the total incompetence of the local business banking manager Mrs ABC and her ‘dedicated support team’.

Mrs ABC was supposed to call me -so I was told many times- but I really start to think she is just some imaginary brain fart because I haven’t heard from her over the last couple of months even though the helpdesk left notes on her computer. Yesterday was just another one of those days where I tried again, so did the ex (he works for Barclays) since he had a day off but we didn’t succeed. It seems the business end of Barclays doesn’t care about their clients at all, bad practice in my opinion. They all seem to have major attitude on the phone, are arrogant, not willing to help you out, accuse you of lying [I was told I never made the phone calls and never sent the recorded letter] and have an ego bigger than the London Eye.

I tried to arrange stuff at the local branch but the helpful guy couldn’t help me with the business account, he called some people and passed the phone on to me after a while. Again I had a very unsatisfying conversation with one of their people, she was manipulative and arrogant, I passed the phone on to the ex at some point who wasn’t as polite as I was, he told her things were outrageous, he even got her to admit that they did received my letter although earlier it was denied when I asked her. He managed to get the name of the manager of the imaginary Mrs ABC so I can write him and hopefully he’ll do something about the utter lack of service. And just to find some kind of justice I’ll send a letter about this issue to the Ombudsman.

I’ve closed the account or at least they promised me this time to close it, they failed the first time when I sent the recorded letter. I’ll have to see if it will be done, I don’t trust them any more. I still had to pay fees as a result of their mistakes but I’ll fight that once the account is closed, then I’d like to take my business to another bank, I want this sorted and I expect service. I miss the never failing service of the Dutch Postbank at times like these. No wonder there’s a credit crunch in the UK… I’m not surprised at all, if banks fail to treat their clients with respect: after all it is my! money and that of others that keeps them in business. Such arrogance…

In the current situation I feel I might be even better off keeping it all in a sock under the mattress, at least it will save me all the aggro… *now breathe, let go and be Zesty again*