The Spanish Acquisition: Can Santander pull it off? And what it means for you

I have held Alliance & Leicester shares since they were given to me free in 1996 and each year I used to receive approximately a total of £150 (one hundred and fifty pounds) in dividends from A & L. Now that Santander has taken A & L over I am now receiving a total yearly dividend of $15 (fifteen pounds) which means 90% less than before the take over. The other day I received a free foldable red

umbrella in the post (with no compliment slip) with Santander written all over it, what are they taking us for? Obviously they take us for mugs!!

If they gave you an umbrella you can bet your life they will want it back once it rains

Include me out!

According to James Bevan, 'Santander’s global roll out has had a big focus on their self-professed IT systems superiority which they expect to enable them to offer high service at low cost'

James is careful to use the phrase 'self-professed'.

It would seem that the manifest shortcomings of their IT systems are matched by their conceit and arrogance. A very dangerous combination.

Q. The Spanish Acquisition: Can Santander pull it off? And what it means for you

A. An even worse customer service experience.

I am very fustrated and disappointed that when Alliance & Leicester changed to Santander our on-line current a/c is activated but not my wife's savings a/c which she operated on-line before the change over.Our a/c summary shows 'Unavailable'. We seem to get no joy from the customers sevices. What sort of change over is this?

I wonder other if other customers of A & L are experiencing similer problems and what can be done to sort this out?

I have been with Alliance & Leicester for many years and found their customer service helpful.

Last week I sent three e-mails to Santander and they still have not given me an answer to a simple question. One of their options was that I should follow certain steps in order to find out the answer myself - unfortunately this procedure no longer came up as an option on their web page.

I have now decided to withdraw my money.

Good luck getting your money!

I have an ASDA credit card which Santander took over. I pay the balance in total each month by direct debit. At takover they wrote and apologised for failing to take the 1st payment and said they would take both payments the following month. 6 months later they reduced my credit limit from £2500 to £250 because of adverse credit info. I looked into this and found that the adverse info was no payment 6 months ago on a credit card i.e. a default. This was their own cock-up which they then used against me. On being informed of this they credited me £10 for the inconvenience but have not yet restored my credit limit.

My Tesco Card limit has never been affected, and I now use that card instead of the ASDA card.

Santander are an incompetent load of fools and I am most annoyed that they have taken over my RBS branch, and consequently my mortgage. I will now use my HSBC account for normal banking and Santander can go to hell.

Santander have taken away the same day payment facility that A&L previously honoured up to 250-00. Is this customer service I ask myself?

I sense a growing groundswell of resistance by UK bank customers against poor Santander service. For those of us accustomed to personal banking relationships (as provided by RBS for example) there will be an immense culture shock in becoming simply yet another number on a Spanish computer.

However, unless you actually NEED to enter the premises of your bank branch it is perfectly possible to remain with RBS if you are a satisfied customer to date. Simply tell your "Relationship Manager" you are opting out of the Santander takeover and require assistance is transferring to a branch with a Scottish sortcode.

My family have already taken this approach as living in rural Devon it takes just as long for us to reach Edinburgh by air as it is to take the train to London!

After 48 years with the RBS Group starting with Williams Deacons Bank I have no wish to sever a much valued connection with my bank. On any occasion when something wrong occurs - always mild such as a late arriving statement - I gently remind the person I am talking to that I first opened my account before they were born! I fear such gentle humour will not serve me well with Santander.

My family are looking forward to continued British banking - just based in Scotland instead of England! And cetainly not controlled by Spain.

I have moved to a branch of RBS in Scotland. I am not happy to leave a branch of RBS which has looked after me so well for 20 years but I don't like the look of the option of staying.

Hi

I am curerenty persuing a complaint about mis-selling on behalf of my mother which is about discraceful service - after three letters to Santaner I have had no reply - I shall move my pesonal account from RBS - this group is hopeless and cares little about customers.

Professor Brent Davies

I've already commented on a previous article with examples. Postition unchanged. I suffer from Sandanderitis - if they can- the affected RBS customers should move asap to avoid being infected. To say that their customer service is appalling is an enormous understatement. Run for the hills RBS customers.

Good news at last. We've transferred all our savings, except for one cash ISA which will take several weeks, from A & L.

Only remaining advantage is that current accounts can still be accessed for cash in the nearest PO about 4 miles away; it used to be in the village.

I have moved all my accounts from Santander to other banks due to very very poor service and no one willing to assist or deal with complaints , I will remain with RBS

It's a pity that the nearly 2m of us can't stop this sale, but that would be the same as getting nearly 2m people to do the same thing. If it were possible then I would suggest that all of us change banks now and leave Santander with 318 empty branches.

It is nearly Autumn after all

Do you think it would do any good protesting to the monopoly and mergers government department, Trade &Industry Secretary s remit I think.

My business and personal accounts and mortgage are all with RBS and I have already had one of these letters.I have been thinking seriously about moving and now I think I'm off to the Co-Op !!!!

I do not understand why RBS is selling all their English branches and customers; presumably they do not want to sell, or need to sell, and their customers do not want them to sell, so what is going on, who is behind all this nonsense?

Answer: It's the European Commission stupid, - why am I not surprised!

I have serious misgivings about Santander: first when winding up an estate which had funds in Santander accounts I found that they were seriously disorganised and one part of the company did not know what was happening in another part - presumably a problem arising from its size and complexity. I had to send the same death certificate several times to different sections of the company. A second problem is the well-known one that compensation is limited to £50K but Santander owns half a dozen banks/building societies in each of which one might have substantial funds. Ones choice is greatly limited if one is concerned about compensation when they go belly up.

There was a rumour a few years back that Spanish companies receive a tax rebate for any non-Spanish (possibly only EU) company acquired. Which means they can buy at a bargain price. Any truth in that?

I used to have an ISA with Abbey (Santander). To cut a long saga short ,when I decided to move it to another Bank it took from the beginng of April to well into July to take effect. In the meantime my account was closed and my money disappeared into the ether, After days on the phone through impenetrable call centres with sheer dogged persistence on my part coupled with threats of Court action plus Ombudsman reporting I discovered that they Santander transfer funds to other Banks by cheque sent by second class post, with any luck the cheque will be lost in the post and literally weeks will go by without you, the client ever discovering this. This is what happened to me and they couldnt have cared less. In fact they were making even more money with my cash. Having kicked up such a fuss and forcing them to take remedial action ,they sent me £100 in compensation. If in future any of my accounts are taken over by Santander I will close the account immediately and open with a Bank which really does take an interest in their clients welfare. They are poorly staffed or they use methods which suit their own bottom line. I will never use them again for this type of transaction.

22 Comments - 100% extremely unhappy with Santader. Why no protest/action from our govt on these imposed obligations to sell on Briish Banks/B Socs? Well if enough folk decide to leave then the business can be bought back for much less and the invaders repelled!

you should have sold your shares on then if you dont like it in the kitchen , think about all those poor soles in China and India who have no job, no house, no food, dead relatives and no clothes on their backs and soldiers abroad getting their b----- blown off for you greedy people who have nothing better to do than to gripe about what they are missing. Get a life

Considering that most western sold trainers are made by 7 years olds from China and India I'm surprised to read their soles are having a hard time.

I am currently both a personal and business account holder with RBS. I have been for many years. I shall be moving all my accounts shortly. I have no intention of allowing my accounts to be screwed up by Santander.

As an Rbs customer I am moving from them to avoid Santander AKA the bank from hell. Pity all of us banking through the RBS branches now bought out bySantander don't move our accounts. It's easy easy to do and would send a powerfull message about this appaling bank.