Abbey: Take a well earned break
I received a bulk mailing from Abbey this week. 'Abbey: Take a well earned break' was the strapline. The copy that followed told me I was a valued customer of the bank and really should be grateful that I had the opportunity to apply for an Abbey credit card.
A few weeks ago I received a similar letter. It congratulated me on being a valued customer. The reward was a loan of up to £15000, just waiting for me to say yes. Well, I didn't say yes and I didn't say no either. I wasn't in two minds. I was out of my mind - with rage.
My boyfriend and I took out a joint account with Abbey National in 1987. They hadn't wasted millions of pounds of valued customers' money on a rebranding at that time. All went well for a few years. My boyfriend and I got married and Abbey National prospered. The bank then started charging us obscene amounts for going a few pence overdrawn. We only went overdrawn because Abbey National changed their statement rules.
It was also increasingly difficult for us to find a local Abbey National branch. We had to travel for miles to hand over our money for them to charge us for 'looking after it.' No Air Miles, just greedy smiles. If they wanted to stop being National in order to become 'local' they could have just provided their valued customers with maps.
In 2003 we took a well earned break and moved to Barclays. Despite all the adverse publicity about them and the Whistleblower programme on the BBC this week, we've been satisfied with the Barclays service so far.
We did not close the Abbey National account. We expected to hear from them - at least to question why all of our monthly transactions (and there were many) had stopped going through the account. They didn't contact us. They weren't listening (or were TSB the 'listening bank?') Even the new Abbey computer did not notice.
After sixteen years of being a 'valued customer' we heard nothing. Until they decided they could just walk back into our lives again, unannounced and unwelcomed. If I drop a best friend, one of whom I've relied on for sixteen years, I'd expect the friend to at least want to know why or do something about it. The Abbey meaning of interest in their customers is purely gaining interest off of their customers. No surprises there. No Abbey endings either.
A few weeks ago I received a similar letter. It congratulated me on being a valued customer. The reward was a loan of up to £15000, just waiting for me to say yes. Well, I didn't say yes and I didn't say no either. I wasn't in two minds. I was out of my mind - with rage.
My boyfriend and I took out a joint account with Abbey National in 1987. They hadn't wasted millions of pounds of valued customers' money on a rebranding at that time. All went well for a few years. My boyfriend and I got married and Abbey National prospered. The bank then started charging us obscene amounts for going a few pence overdrawn. We only went overdrawn because Abbey National changed their statement rules.
It was also increasingly difficult for us to find a local Abbey National branch. We had to travel for miles to hand over our money for them to charge us for 'looking after it.' No Air Miles, just greedy smiles. If they wanted to stop being National in order to become 'local' they could have just provided their valued customers with maps.
In 2003 we took a well earned break and moved to Barclays. Despite all the adverse publicity about them and the Whistleblower programme on the BBC this week, we've been satisfied with the Barclays service so far.
We did not close the Abbey National account. We expected to hear from them - at least to question why all of our monthly transactions (and there were many) had stopped going through the account. They didn't contact us. They weren't listening (or were TSB the 'listening bank?') Even the new Abbey computer did not notice.
After sixteen years of being a 'valued customer' we heard nothing. Until they decided they could just walk back into our lives again, unannounced and unwelcomed. If I drop a best friend, one of whom I've relied on for sixteen years, I'd expect the friend to at least want to know why or do something about it. The Abbey meaning of interest in their customers is purely gaining interest off of their customers. No surprises there. No Abbey endings either.
Labels: Abbey, Abbey National, bank, banking, Barclays
posted by Fencreative at 7:18 AM
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