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10 May 2012
Success, NatWest have listened … to me … a mere customer, and they have overturned their decision to close my account.
So why exactly did NatWest overturn their decision so quickly? My blog posts, my Facebook campaign, my Twitter campaign? Perhaps they all helped, who knows, but probably the most important thing in the swift decision was that I actually knew someone in NatWest. It always helps to know someone!
I knew one of the local business managers, bizarrely not because of my NatWest account but through my local Chamber of Commerce. Thanks Andy, you were fantastic. Andy was willing to "fight my corner" and speak to his Area Director who was able to speak to someone senior enough in NatWest to get beyond the robotically repeated "we are going to close your account". Then a quick run through my absolutely impeccable personal finances produced the almost immediate over turning of the decision and a 4 page "we are sorry" letter from Card Services, £270 in compensation and an end to the whole sorry saga.
"Helpful Banking" Hmmm … without the local guys NatWest you would be in trouble. They are the ones who care about customers, they are the ones who care about your reputation, and they are the ones who offer the "helpful banking". NatWest you should do well to remember that
30 April 2012
What is it with the Liverpool Hilton? The restaurant waiting staff are without doubt the most dozy hotel staff I have ever had the misfortune to come across in a long time. At breakfast most of them looked as though they were going to fall asleep standing up. The exception being the "greeting" orange juice girl who was extremely efficient … at serving orange juice. So what were my main gripes:
- the lack of coffee at breakfast
- the tables laden with dirty plates, and … wait for it …
- the girls who constantly touched their faces/wiped their noses with their hands and then … touched the “business” end of the “clean” spoon, the fork and the knife. Infection control? Hmmm. I was so shocked by this practice that I spoke to the duty manager immediately. However 2 days later they were back to their old habits again. One girl in particular on my last morning constant touched her nose, her hand only leaving her nose alone every few seconds to lethargically lift up the odd dirty plate from the table.
I can accept tables laden with dirty crockery if a restaurant is very busy and all the staff are occupied but it is not acceptable if a group of four staff have time to gossip in a huddle around the entrance till. And then there was the egg station. At breakfast the freshly cooked egg station was unmanned more often than it was manned.
Missing staff at the "egg station" |
I could understand this if enough pre-cooked eggs were available. But no, the whole egg section next to the range was EMPTY. On telling the girl when she eventually turned up that there were no poached or fried eggs available and that several people had gone away disappointed she said to me “well there’s scrambled egg over there” waving her hand to some far flung corner of the room. Not much use if you want a poached egg!
Now the coffee … the lack of coffee at breakfast seriously got to me. What I want at breakfast are several cups of coffee. I don’t want coffee 15 minutes after I sit down and I don’t want to have to get up and walk to where it is “hidden” behind some till at the other side of the room.
My empty Coffee Cup |
Yes … it’s empty again! |
Why does the hotel employ a gormless dozy individual to walk round the tables in a daze asking the odd person or two if they want coffee. Why don’t the staff ask everyone if they want coffee and walk round the room with a purpose and do the job properly. Alternatively a much better idea is to have coffee available for guests to help themselves to, but alas no … not in keeping with Hilton policy for the guests to help themselves. The coffee rationing at breakfast was insane.
Late check out? Yes please, thank you very much. It would be rather interesting to know what happens when a guest asks for and is granted a late check out. Do the Reception staff just blindly say “yes” and then tap, tap, tap the information into thin air ??? Do they share the information with other employees? Not a chance. I had housekeeping trying to chase me out of the room (very politely though!) 2 hours before my check out saying they “hadn’t been told”. Then I had Reception ringing me telling me that it was past the check out time … she also “hadn’t been told”. On actual check out I found out it was on the computer all along. Not much good if you don’t look at it!
And the god-awful noise from the thumping music in reception in the evening had to be heard to be believed. Six bouncers on duty on Friday and Saturday night. I suppose they were needed to keep all the girls and boys under control that the thumping music attracted. I have never before stayed at a hotel that required six burly bouncers on the door in the evening. The difference between the hotel during the sedate "midweek" part of my stay to the insane noise during the "weekend" part of my stay was well … not on the same planet. I couldn’t quite work out why the Trip Advisor reports were either fantastic or terrible. I know why now. If you stay during the week it’s fine. If you stay at weekends it most definitely is not fine!
On a positive note, the beds were exceptionally comfortable and the duvets and pillows unbelievably fab. And the hotel was incredibly convenient for the Albert Dock museums and next door to a John Lewis … shopping and culture heaven. Not much else to commend the Hilton Liverpool One though. The employees I found worthy of very special mention … well there were only a couple … and they were concierge (Bill, Darren and Gerald) … and housekeeping (fantastically polite). And oh nearly forgot Room Service who were helpful, friendly and efficient.
In summary, fab during the week … unless you want coffee at breakfast … And then of course there are the poor infection control practices to contend with. But don’t touch the Liverpool Hilton with a barge pole at the weekend . Not sure it warrants its 5 stars from Scores on the Doors http://www.scoresonthedoors.org.uk/business/hilton-liverpool-merseyside-459504.html
21 April 2012
Dear Stephen Hester, CEO Royal Bank of Scotland Group
In an interview last year you said "We have to serve our customers well, if we don’t do that all the rest is a waste of time." An excellent statement and down to earth common sense. However … unfortunately … some of your colleagues at NatWest Towers haven’t quite grasped this concept yet.
My belief is that customers are NEVER going to be treated well by anonymous number crunching pen pushers working in some backroom office in the deepest darkest corner of the bank. These people are seriously compromised you see. They have no local knowledge and they are only programmed to see their paperwork … and their keyboards … and their computer screens … and their spreadsheets. And the nearest they ever come to a customer is … well they don’t, and that’s the problem. These compromised individuals are making important decisions about customers without actually understanding customers. If they are missing a vital piece of information about a customer they don’t ask, that’s because they aren’t programmed to ask. All they can do is to reject that customer, regardless of whether that customer is a good customer or a bad customer.
That’s why the local branch network is so important. If the local advisors are missing any information about a customer they are programmed to … contact the customer to find out! Yes the customer, who is after all a fairly important link in the chain. I fail to understand why you don’t tell your branches about their local customers even those customers that don’t "belong" to them, those customers who for some unknown reason have an account which is not branch based. Use the local advisors as they should be used which is to contact and interact with ALL bank customers. One thing for sure is that your anonymous number crunching pen pushers who aren’t programmed to contact customers can’t develop business relationships with customers. Local information and local decisions make much more sense to me.
If you continue along the route you are skipping along now … which is to use more and more of these anonymous employees making more and more of these important decisions about customers without actually meeting, understanding or speaking to customers … your customer care department will become overwhelmed with complaints and you might as well double the size of this department with immediate effect. It is a path to certain destruction.
Yours sincerely
A used to be valued customer
19 April 2012
Dear NatWest
You appear to be running a strange new marketing campaign aimed at Small Businesses this week. It’s called the DYC “Dump your Customers” campaign. I doubt if you‘ve run that particular campaign through your Media Department. They might just … say … err … NO not the grandest idea from the clowns in the think tank.
I run an exemplary account. I have no debts. My account has always been paid in full and on time every month. I must be in the top 1% of risk free customers that you will ever have the fortune to come across. And you don’t want me or my business as a customer any more … you don’t want to sell me any products … and you want me to go quietly with a couple of bottles of NatWest “Chateau Neu” that I can choke on.
If you don’t have enough information about me and my business why don’t you just ask? If I have an account that doesn’t fit my particular profile at the moment why don’t you try and sell me another product that does? The local NatWest business advisors at grass root level must be open mouthed in horror at your latest … hmmm … sudden change in strategy that they are unaware of.
Your “goodbye” letter on UNHEADED paper (did no-one notice it was on unheaded paper) informs me that:
“due to the late Direct Debit payment in March, I regret to inform you that we will be unable to continue your Commercial Card facility”
WRONG – your Accounts Department say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with my account … no late payments at all, and I am requested to:
“destroy any cards linked to the … above account”
AS your
“existing card programme will be closed in 60 days”
So I am going to be dumped after running an exemplary account for 8 ½ years. Your curt “dumping” letter is from an individual that no-one at NatWest has ever heard of and which your Fraud Department reported to me last week was an elaborate phishing scam letter. Well everyone’s certainly heard about the famous Luke Walsh and his “Channel Management” division now. I think “Luke” and his team who dreamed up the standard template letter they are sending out to customers on the “DYC” campaign need to go on the “how to type a letter“ training course. Luke is the one you need to dump, not me, he’s the liability. He’s the one who is going to damage your reputation more than anyone. Charm skills zero out of 10. Letter writing skills zero out of 10. Attention to detail zero out of 10.
And then there’s your follow up letter to me from Sanctioning Officer, Allan Robeson – which is UNSIGNED . Attention to detail zero out of 10.
It appears to me you need some serious communication help so here are few ideas … from a “dumped” customer. First of all STEP 1 you need:
- A database of all employees that all employees in NatWest can refer to so when a customer rings you can immediately refer to the list and say … yes … he’s a genuine employee
- A database of all divisions/departments that all employees in NatWest can refer to so when a customer rings you can immediately refer to the list and say … yes … that’s a genuine division
- A database of all telephone numbers so that all employees in NatWest can run a particular telephone number through the list and bingo they can report … yes… that’s a genuine NatWest number
STEP 2 , engage your marketing brain before letting your number crunching idiots loose on the customer database.
- Find out more about soon to be “dumped” customers and their business
- Ask the local business advisors to get in touch with soon to be “dumped” customers
- Try and sell soon to be “dumped” customers a different product
STEP 3 , run major campaigns like the “DYC” campaign through your Media Department. It’s no good your Media Department spending millions on TV adverts and then letting the number crunching idiots loose on customers to foul things up!
The damage to my reputation is HUGE. I can now no longer honestly answer “NO” when any future finance company asks if I have ever had a credit card withdrawn or an account closed. I will have to say YES because you failed to communicate with me.
A used to be “valued” customer
17 April 2012
Do you drink? Rather a direct question I thought!
At the close of play Tuesday this is how things stand. One NatWest department wants to give me some free wine and another one wants to close my account. And the person who was helping me yesterday is not in today and no-one is allowed to check her emails. Mostly no-one knows who anyone else is within NatWest. List of employee names? Nothing as simple as that. Normally a stunned silence when you mention a name, followed by some stuttering and shuffling of papers while … thinking up what to say next.
"We are going to give you some wine but we ARE going to close your account"
Appellation NatWest, Chateau Neu |
I opened my first NatWest account in 1973, 40 years ago and since then they have gradually let me down in stages. They have made some spectacular balls ups over the years but this is their best yet. It’s like watching a favourite uncle develop Alzheimer’s, one moment lucid and the next moment illogical. I oscillate between hope and despair.
10 April 2012
I’ve just received a letter from “NatWest” the Commercial Card division, dated 5 April 2012. Well it isn’t really from NatWest of course and I must say it’s an excellent phishing scam. It even had me going for a second or two. Be very careful, don’t get taken in by stuff like this. They appear to have my name, the company name and the last 8 digits of my card number. How do they do it?
Here is the letter, it is very believable!
From:
Commercial Cards
Level 7, Premier Place
2 1/2 Devonshire Square
London
EC2M 4BA
Telephone: 0207 672 8276
Facsimile: 0207 672 5205
www.natwest.com
Dear Mrs …
RE: **** ****0000 0000
I write in reference to your Commercial Card facility mentioned above.
Following a review of the account and due to the late Direct Debit payment in March, I regret to inform you that we will be unable to continue your Commercial Card facility.
Your existing card programme will be closed in 60 days from the date of this letter. Please make the necessary arrangements to settle your outstanding balance in full as detailed in your most recent statement and also any other expenses you may have undertaken on the card since the date of the statement. You are also requested to destroy any cards linked to the above Commercial Card facilty.
Yours sincerely
Luke Walsh
Head of Commerical Banking Channel Management
Commercial Cards
The only problem for the “phishers” is that I run a “Ship-shape and Bristol Fashion” bank account and nothing as untoward as a failed direct debit on my account! Still as I said above it got me going for a second or two. Enough to ring NatWest … just to make sure it wasn’t them. The Fraud Department are very interested in the letter.
My advice … never telephone the number they give you. Always look on a bank statement or online for the right telephone number.
UPDATE 17 April 2012
Well, well, well, it turns out it is NOT an elaborate Phishing scam. Despite the accounts department at NatWest telling me there is absolutely nothing wrong with my account (my account is exemplary!), I have now found out they have no idea what they are talking about and it turns out that another division of NatWest ARE going to close my account. A definite case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Get your act together NatWest!
I wasted hours of my time yesterday afternoon getting to the bottom of it, well trying to get to the bottom of it! They have not heard the last of me yet.
11 February 2012
The Nationwide “Quick Transfer” box in my Internet Banking area destroyed my ISA balance in a second. One second, one expensive mistake.
To transfer money between accounts you can either go to each account and move money OR you can use something called the"Quick Transfer" box – at present on the left hand side of the page. OK it was my mistake – I fully admit that I made a mistake. Using the Quick Transfer box I meant to transfer money from my e-Savings account to my e-Savings Plus account. But instead of selecting e-Savings from the drop down list I selected the e-ISA selection instead (they are so close to each other) and I transferred money out of my ISA account without having any intention of doing so. So puff went my ISA balance into the cloud. Gone in a flash. The money was moved in seconds. Nationwide destroyed my ISA balance by their stupid website coding.
Once money is moved out of an ISA that’s it – it can never go back in. By putting the e-ISA option in the Quick Transfer list Nationwide made it far too easy to do, far too easy to make a mistake, no warning, nothing. No-one in their right mind would transfer ISA money in a second. ISA transfers should be considered thoughtful transfers and certainly not something you could achieve with the click of a button. Shame on you Nationwide.
I’ve spent years building up my ISA balance and to have it destroyed like this in a flash was so disappointing.
So who is really at fault for this?
I think Nationwide are at fault. They should never have put the ISA accounts anywhere near the Quick Transfer box. I think Nationwide should remove this option IMMEDIATELY, and they should make customers go through a warning level. “WARNING you are moving money out of an ISA”. Are you really sure you want to do this?
What were Nationwide thinking of when they made the decision to put ISA accounts in the Quick Transfer box. Stupid decision.
I’m furious with Nationwide, angry with myself for making a mistake and disappointed that my ISA balance has been destroyed. And I’m furious with Nationwide who wanted to close my complaint with haste, saying they would look at the issue but couldn’t guarantee anything. I want compensation Nationwide. You must take your fair share of the blame for this mistake.
UPDATE
16 February 2012
Thanks Nationwide. This terrible mistake has now completely been sorted out by Nationwide. I really appreciate your help with this.
22 January 2012
At last I have fixed a couple of things that have bugged me for ages with my HP Color Laserjet 3800 printer since upgrading from XP to Windows 7. Sometimes you just get lucky early on a Sunday morning, helps not having anyone around me asking for this and that – clear head!
Problem 1
I couldn’t print more than more copy without the error message "unable to store job at printer". My previous fix/solution was to go into the printer properties with every job and uncheck the collate button, how annoying was that! Alternatively if you only wanted 2 copies often the easiest thing to do was to send it to the printer twice.
Solution 1
Open printer properties
Select the Device Settings tab
Change the Installable Options – at first they were greyed out but after selecting the “General” tab then “change Properties” (bottom left), bingo the Installable Options were not greyed out any more.
Change:
Printer Hard Disk to Not Installed
Job Storage to Disabled
Mopier Mode to Disabled
Press apply
Problem 2
The HP Color LaserJet 3800 has 2 trays, Tray 1 and Tray 2. Tray 1 is the Manual Feed and Tray 2 is the normally used tray stacked with A4 paper. After upgrading to Windows 7 there was no option to select Page 1 or Page 2, just "automatically select" and the automatically select defaulted to Page 1 which wasn’t the tray I wanted to use. My previous fix/solution was to send the job to the printer then click on the menu on the printer itself to select Page 2 which was very time consuming and very annoying.
Solution 2
Open printer properties
Select the Device Settings tab
Change the Form to Tray Assignment
Change Auto Select to something odd – I selected A5
Change Manual Feed in Tray to match the Auto Select i.e. A5
Change Tray 1 to match the Auto Select i.e. A5
Leave Tray 2 selection at A4
Change all the others to Not Available
So basically the default is now set up for something unusual (I chose A5 – I don’t send A5 to printing) and it ignores Tray 1 which is set up for A5, and the printer moves on to Tray 2 which is the tray I want to use which is set up for A4 (about 99.99% of the time I send A4 for printing). Bingo!
30 October 2011
Phlegm is a girl’s best friend (a guest post from Mr Blog)
Mrs Blog is a serial offender when it comes to forgetting her glasses, she ends up peering at menus or having to ask somebody else to read them out loud. I’ve lost count of the number of times we have done a U-turn back home because she has forgotten her lippie, her phone or her earrings. So I came up with a suggestion: it’s a mnemonic to help her remember. It has to be slightly disgusting to be memorable! Here it is, one word, Phlegm, it stands for:
- Phone
- Hanky
- Lippie
- Earrings
- Glasses
- Money
So when Mrs Blog is about to leave the house she should clear her throat and think "PHLEGM"
19 September 2011
What a lost marketing opportunity: look at the Costa Coffee Twitter account, one word says it all – inactive.
The Costa Coffee Twitter customers are obviously keen, all 3,502 of them. Perhaps the bean counters at Costa Coffee should invest some money getting their Twitter account up and running properly
Costa Coffee Twitter account @CostaCoffee
"We’ve finally arrived on Twitter!" |
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