“Terrible customer service.
They blocked access to my account after months of use.
If I didn’t have another account I’d be in real financial difficulties right now.
This is awful banking. Please go elsewhere.”
“My partner has been trying to add me as
an additional card holder on his credit card. The level of sheer incompetence is astonishing. We have made so many phone calls we have lost count. When you ring they say it has to be done in branch. When you go into the branch, which we have now done FIVE times, they say it can't be done in branch, we have to ring. So we ring.......
We lodged a formal complaint which was investigated and resulted in the branch manager basically calling us liars about visiting the branch. After looking at the CCTV camera we were quite clearly seen in branch that day paying in a cheque and handing over a driving licence which the camera shows being photo copied.
To this day we have had no apology, no explanation and still no card! They have however given us £75 compensation which is not what we wanted but seems to be how they resolve issues.
Their ambivalence is breathtaking.
Today we have had a letter from the Head of Complaints saying that the situation is now resolved, I assume because we accepted the £75, but as we still have no additional card even that information is incorrect.
They clearly have no coherent processes in place and their staff are not trained sufficiently to be able to advise customers.
We are now going elsewhere.”
“I can’t help but feel personally victimised by Santander, I’ve been a customer with themselves for 20+ years but over the last 3 months, they’ve held my wages from me. They say this is for ongoing security checks but surely they don’t need to do security checks on 3 consecutive months of my salary going into my back account as it has done for the last 3 years that I’ve been with my current employer. This has left me overdrawn, relying on credit cards and generally in hardship. Two complaints have already been logged but they’re continuing to do it. Legal advice is being sought and also looking into changing banks as a result of this.”
“I’d give 0 stars if possible
Terrible company, opened an account and was sent pin, card etc but was then told account wasn’t officially opened as had been flagged for security. Fast forward a few weeks and had to order new card, told 3-5 working days but hadn’t received 7 days later, ordered a second card which then turned up, however was only sent PIN number for first card and not second. Then proceeded to make payments from my account which ended up blocking me, which would of been fine as only up to 48hr wait but was also locked out of account during this time so couldn’t access anything. After speaking to customer service was told nothing could be done, until I requested to make a complaint and suddenly it could all magically be sorted
Oh and if you wish to speak to customer service, expect a 60 minute wait time on hold while a automated message tells you “we are sorry you’re waiting, please wait and we’ll put you through to someone as soon as we can” every 30 seconds”
“Abysmal service. Opened an account only to have it blocked for a supposed "security issue", except that no-one could find out what the issue was, and they had sent me my cards and pins so I don't see how it makes sense that they would send out personal info if there was a security issue with my account. I was expected to provide a whole lot more documentation in addition to the documents I had already provided, which I did not have access to provide. Shocking customer service and was told my account would "probably be closed" and there was "nothing they could do". Went to HSBC instead and they had my account up and running within the hour including depositing a cheque for me. Still with HSBC, no complaints, excellent in-branch service.”
“I’d put 0 star if possible.
A staff and I couldn’t agree on the fee over the phone, and after talking for awhile, the staff hang up on me without sorting out the problem. Very unprofessional!”
“Appalling waiting time on the phone. Appalling on line chat. Very difficult to contact if you have an issue. I been waiting on the phone to cancel a credit account for 40+ minutes and still waiting.”
“For 3 months my buyer has been arranging a mortgage with this company and the valuation completed in June. For the last 6 weeks we have been promised a decision. Every week and every day rolls by and never changes. Apparently it was escalated to fast track with a decision to be made in 5 days and 4 hours!!! Yes very specific but still 2 weeks later no change. Our upper chain are good to exchange and we are now at risk of us loosing our house. Peoples emotions and wellbeing are being strained because of this appalling service.”
“Avoid avoid...whole management team needs to be changed specially mortgage departments. We have been told that we can get that amount of mortgage at the beginning and go and find the property. We found the property and then took it out from marker as been told by mortgage advisor. After few weeks they have changed the amounts for 4 times different numbers. The worst bank ever and took 2 month and disappointed. At the end we done with barclays only took 1 week. Management teams are so unprofessional and no customer service. They are not responsible even for their own mistake. Please avoid this bank as they just drag you. I wish I could rate them minus. Don't trust them.”
“I rate santander as minus 10! What I don't understand is how come FCA regulators not investigating santander's conduct???? they don't have written process on how to change a joint account to a sole account. Also they treat their customers like a "Shit". I needed to change my joint account (with my daughter) to sole account. when I asked them for the process, they informed to complete a form and take it to the local branch to sort out the change. However, when I took the signed application form from both account holders, they told me to make an appointment, which will take 2 weeks. When I refused to wait because they failed to inform the right process in the first place. They then made up a rule to provide both joint account holder original identity to their branch. They failed to show me the rule in written documentations they hold, instead showed me their privacy notice under GDPR, which was condescending and wrong on so many level. If a branch manager don't have a clue where to find the process and making it up she went along, HOW COULD ANYONE TRUST THEM WITH THEIR MONEY????And they refused to change my account to sole account when they took copies of my identification on 9 Aug and my daughter provided her passport to Kensington High Street branch, who took copy of her passport for the file, when she picked up the application to withdraw her name from the joint account.
On 9 Aug, bracknell branch manager harassed, dismissed, shouted and discriminated me for full hour and refused to accept my application on the basis that my daughter has to go to her local santander branch to show her original identification again, so they can take a copy and fax a copy to bracknell branch. Only then they will consider changing my account to sole account. ONE THING IS PUZZLING ME, I OPENED MY ACCOUNT ONLINE WITHOUT GOING TO ANY SANTANDER BRANCH TO PROVIDE IDENTIFICATION OR ANY OTHER PROOF. MY ACCOUNT WAS ACCEPTED ONLINE. HOWEVER, TO CHANGE MY ACCOUNT TO SOLE ACCOUNT MY DAUGHTER HAS TO GO TO A BRANCH TWICE AND SO DO I. THIS IS A HARASSMENT TO MY DAUGHTER AS WELL, WHO IS DOCTOR IN LONDON HOSPITAL. I wonder if they will ask us both to stand on our heads and walk before santander, FCA, FSCA and Prudential regulation committee before they can let me change my bank account and access my money. This bank is worse than dictatorship and it doesn't sounds right to DISCRIMINATE a customer and making it impossible to change my account.”
“If there's option for zero star 🌟 I will not give it to you because you don't deserve it absolutely useless unprofessional and they do not help with anything the worst bank worst customer Service ever”
“I wish I could give them less than one star because the customer service has been horrible. Someone stole the foreign currency cheque in my name that I mailed and cashed it out. Several weeks of back and fourth haven't gotten the problem resolved at all. About £300 down the drain because Santander couldn't care less. Will be switching to another bank as soon as possible!”
“joined here from another bank and learned it was a huge mistake... long lines...long waits...must sit with a banker to do anything... fees and costs for everything....charges on top of charges and zero interest....... leaving now”
“They made me take a personal loan in order to apply for a mortgage. Then they said my property hadn't risen in value in the past 2 years when every other property in the area rose 10 percent. i lost 700 dollars. suddenly after many low ball offers to buy the property suddenly came in. This is really corupt.”
“I have never met such levels of incompetence.
The customer "Services" team are unable to give any information other than "It's with our admin team" and I'm regularly on hold for circa 2.5-3hrs at a time.
Faxes were sent to my legal team with no other methodology for communication provided. My legal team respond with a fax to be told 4 days later "Sorry. We don't accept faxes. Documents need to be emailed over". My legal team email respond immediately to be told "It will now be 15 days before we're able to look at this".
IF YOU NEED A MORTGAGE YOU'D BE BETTER SEEING HONEST JOHN AND BORROW FROM HIM!
The whole debacle has taken 9 weeks so far with 4 seperate mortgage offers being sent out each being wrong. How can they send a wrong offer out 4 times?
The first was referred back because the offer had the wrong address listed. Not simply the wrong house number or street address. No! The wrong address ffs!!!
The second was referred because the underwriter entered the wrong loan amount
The third was referred due special considerations being imposed that had already been authorised
The fourth was referred AGAIN because an incorrect amount was shown on the offer
Incredible!
Genuinely. Regardless of how good your credit rating is, how good the offer "seems" to be from Santander, save yourself a monumental amount of grief and under NO circumstances borrow money from Santander!”
“I'm purchasing a new house but am self-employed with a perfect credit track record for myself and the business. Santander have been swinging me along over the past 7 weeks asking for more and more information, including accountants reports which cost me £££'s. Supplied everything they requested, only to be told at the very last minute they were not going to offer a mortgage because of COVID and my business being affected. They could have said this more than a month ago, that they simply didn't have the appetite for businesses affected by COVID. There was no need to ask for the accountants report which purely verified the figures I had given were the truth. This has left me in a very difficult situation having never had any money problems in the past. Really appalling behaviour. They have dragged their feet and had all the information to make this decision a long time ago. Very very poor bank, absolutely disgusted at the cost they've put me to and continually stringing me along.”
