Anyone work for Barclays, or any UK domestic bank?

[Chris Wilson]

Just got off the phone, after a very frustrating hour on to a woman in India at Barclay's Call Centre. Achieved absolutely sod all. Just after re assurance really. I paid in a cheque for £15,000 this afternoon, at the Cheadle, Cheshire branch, which is 60 odd miles away, as I was passing through. Just had to pay a bill via on line banking and noticed to my annoyance that my personal account, into which I paid this, shows a credit of £1500. Thank God it was a single cheque, and not cash, but it's not a trivial amount and I am far from well pleased The payment in book stub is stamped, and it clearly shows £15,000. Is this something the system will pick up or do I need the issuer of the cheque to put a stop on it?

 

The woman in India said, "I'll just ring the branch", and before I could say it's 7.10 PM here she'd gone for 15 minutes. Which is the bank that has local call centres...? If it was cash deposit I'd be a lot more upset!

[Pete]

Ooops.

I wouldn't worry about it Chris. Just ring the bank in the AM, the cheque can be traced and sorted I'm sure. It would be picked up in clearing anyway.

[tooquicktostop]

Funny how it never goes the other way and you get £150000

[RedM]

I had trouble with my bank today. There is a mystery deposit of 13,500 dated from today!

 

I bet the buggers will want it back.

[Chris Wilson]

No, that'd be too much to hope. The annoying thing is you can never ring a branch these days, only a central call centre. 4 years ago you could ring the branch in question. I should have waited until I got back home and banked it locally, then I would have been able to pop in and sort it out, I will learn form this.... PITA.

 

Thanks for the reassurance Pete. The car went well, and don't worry, I'll cover the parking tickets

[Tom]

There is a mystery deposit of 13,500 dated from today!

 

 

I gave it to you as a gift!

 

I'll have it back if you don't want it though.

[ozz]

Barclays...hmmm, they 'lost' a cheque for 2k I paid in from a friends account. Luckily I had the stub, to sort it they arranged a bank transfer on the spot with him on the phone as he was also with barclays (he's not on the net). They advised him to cancel the cheque which he did.

 

2 months later 2k went out of his account...and didn't get to mine! They could not trace the money but refunded him pretty quick. We both put formal complaints in, both had letters saying sorry and offering no explanation. I hate to think what would have happened if I had lost the stub.

[Pete]

The car went well, and don't worry, I'll cover the parking tickets

[carl0s]

No, that'd be too much to hope. The annoying thing is you can never ring a branch these days, only a central call centre.

 

As far as I know, all the RBS branches have direct numbers. I regularly ring both Hale & Altrincham and I think I've phoned Didsbury a few times too. Sounds like you need to ditch Barclays!

[Wez]

Barclays are a shower of sh1t

[Ibrar Jabbar]

When I was with Barclays all i had was problems, now with LloydsTSB and get a better service.

[Pete]

Never had a problem with them, 20 years and counting.

[_Lynz_]

I used to work for Lloyds TSB. It should be picked up when it goes through the clearing system, but my advice would be to ring the branch tomorrow morning.

 

I don't know whether it works the same as with Braclays, but if one of our customers rang the call centre and demanded to be put through to the branch, then the staff had to put them through.

 

You may need to go into your local branch and show them the deposit slip but they should easily sort it for you as all cheques are scanned so they can trace it.

 

Hope it gets sorted for you soon though as it's a pain.

[Sharpie]

You can call Natwest locally, or so they say on the TV ads.

[Sharpie]

Thanks for the reassurance Pete. The car went well, and don't worry, I'll cover the parking tickets

 

Better than speeding tickets, eh Pete

[Nick]

Barclays Business Banking was sodding useless. If the call centre is now in India I can only imagine how much worse it is....

[marbleapple]

You can call Natwest locally, or so they say on the TV ads.

 

Ture, but if the phone goes unanswered (which 99.9% of the time it does) it is then diverted to the call centre.

 

My trick is to meet your manager personally and get (demand) a business card which has their office number on it. It works out quite well... she rings me fairly regulary to inform me i'm in the red again

[DaveK]

You can call Natwest locally, or so they say on the TV ads.

 

Ture, but if the phone goes unanswered (which 99.9% of the time it does) it is then diverted to the call centre.

 

But at least the call centre is in this country, and it doesn't feel like you're talking to somebody who's just reading from a script.

[Ace]

Chris, you'd do well to get shot of Barclays. I did so as soon as they bought out the Woolwich (useless bankers replaced by more useless bankers), and went with First Direct.

 

This week I got a bank statement from Barclays telling me that my account (which I had closed six months ago when I transferred) still had 1600 quid of my money in it. Livid doesn't come close, particularly as there's been no correspondence from Barclays since the confirmation of closure of my account.

 

The silver lining is that I will have a very good Christmas with that money. But of course, it's the principle of the thing. We are expected to trust these people to take care of our money and receive/distribute it as we instruct them to; clearly not on this occasion.

[caseys]

Nasty to hear, but I would've thought it's a typo at the cashier level. It should be picked up at clearing otherwise you may have to go through the hassle of getting a check for the remaining balance off the payer.

 

I'd look at going to LloydsTSB, even though I don't have a business account with them and only use them for personal banking I have had the mobile phone number of all my account managers (2 in 9 years so not much churn). It's a lot more useful when you can ring up the manager of your account at your local branch when you want. None of that call centre rubbish to deal with.

 

I'd hope their business service would be even better.

[Wez]

HSBC are supposed to be very good for business banking.

[Pete]

Better than speeding tickets, eh Pete

 

He told me by PM he was only joking...... he went in yours.

[Pete]

This week I got a bank statement from Barclays telling me that my account (which I had closed six months ago when I transferred) still had 1600 quid of my money in it.

I wish I could afford to mislay £1,600

[hogmaw]

Abbey Business banking - direct line to a real person at head office. FREE banking - no monthly charge, no charges for cheques etc. Free online banking too. I have been with them for 2 years now, with no problems.

 

Switching to them from NatWest has literally saved me £thousands.

[Chris Wilson]

The saga continues. had to present in person, with ID, my payment in book, at my nearest Barclays branch (initially they wanted me to do the 120 mile round trip to the Cheadle branch I paid in to, until I put them right), and they photocopied it. They PROMISED to ring me before close of banking to let me know if it was resolved. Needless to say they didn't... I got on to their customer care line, got another Indian, insisted on speaking to someone in the UK and was (surprisingly I thought) put straight through. They now want me to contact the issuer of the cheque, as Caseys surmised, and ask them to verify only 1500 was debited from their account, and once they had done that in writing, ask them to issue another cheque, this time for 13,500 pounds. A total, utter, Royal PITA. If I'd issued the original cheque I'd be dubious about issuing another for a further £13,500, I have to say.