Ulster bank, ridiculous, appalling customer experience :/

jaceq

I just had appalling experience in Ulster bank, Inchicore branch. I was refused to transfer my own money, from my own account which comes up as AVAILABLE when I check my account online.
The story is, I lodged 2 checks on Monday into my account, until today by balance was higher than amount marked as available (which means that checks didn't clear yet), so I waited until all balance comes up as AVAILABLE, this happened today, so I went into branch to make transfer to my own savings account and was refused, because 5 days didn't pass from the moment of lodging. This is terrible customer experience, as this money is marked is AVAILABLE in my account yet, I can't use it!
I asked girl how should I know when can I use it the, where is it on their page that says that, and she said, you can't!
I mean, this is just ridiculous that I can't use my OWN money.
I think I will take my business elsewhere... I guess I will try PTSB...
Poor, poor ulster bank.

unclebill98

jaceq wrote: »

I just had appalling experience in Ulster bank, Inchicore branch. I was refused to transfer my own money, from my own account which comes up as AVAILABLE when I check my account online.
The story is, I lodged 2 checks on Monday into my account, until today by balance was higher than amount marked as available (which means that checks didn't clear yet), so I waited until all balance comes up as AVAILABLE, this happened today, so I went into branch to make transfer to my own savings account and was refused, because 5 days didn't pass from the moment of lodging. This is terrible customer experience, as this money is marked is AVAILABLE in my account yet, I can't use it!
I asked girl how should I know when can I use it the, where is it on their page that says that, and she said, you can't!
I mean, this is just ridiculous that I can't use my OWN money.
I think I will take my business elsewhere... I guess I will try PTSB...
Poor, poor ulster bank.

The chq's you lodged are not fully cleared. They show up as cleared funds to allow you to earn interest if the account type allows. The cashier is right in what they said. Every bank is the same when it comes to clearing chq's.

If you have online access you can move the funds now, or withdraw the funds from an ATM. Max of 750 per day.

As for the poor customer service. The cashier should have giving you a T&C book showing what they where talking about and if you seem angry to which i guess you got then a member of the management team should have been told of your issue.

There bottom line is they are right. But your bottom line is your right to be annoyed at the way your situation was handle/lack of proper explanation. If your that annoyed contact the branch and ask to talk to the SQA(Service Quality Advisor), explain your issue and they follow the banks internal complaint procedure and get back to you. They'll explain in detail what they'll do and when they get back to you. After all they do not wish to loose your custom.

After that if your still not happy complain to the ombudsman and/or move bank.

jaceq

unclebill98 wrote: »

The chq's you lodged are not fully cleared. They show up as cleared funds to allow you to earn interest if the account type allows. The cashier is right in what they said. Every bank is the same when it comes to clearing chq's.

If you have online access you can move the funds now, or withdraw the funds from an ATM. Max of 750 per day.

As for the poor customer service. The cashier should have giving you a T&C book showing what they where talking about and if you seem angry to which i guess you got then a member of the management team should have been told of your issue.

There bottom line is they are right. But your bottom line is your right to be annoyed at the way your situation was handle/lack of proper explanation. If your that annoyed contact the branch and ask to talk to the SQA(Service Quality Advisor), explain your issue and they follow the banks internal complaint procedure and get back to you. They'll explain in detail what they'll do and when they get back to you. After all they do not wish to loose your custom.

After that if your still not happy complain to the ombudsman and/or move bank.

Hi,

I was wondering what you'll say about this, I agree, if these are the rules than fine. What I was angry about is that I asked girl to show my rules / T&Cs that indicate that and she said it's not there...
I will be making complaint, got a form etc end will be filling this out tomorrow.

Regards

Bigcheeze

Does it actually take 5 days to clear a cheque or is it just a UB rule ?

I find them appalling for customer service in the branch.

They also lost my credit card business over an attempt to charge me interest on a "late payment". I paid electronically so the funds were guaranteed to be in their account in two working days but because they don't get around to processing the funds until the next day, they treat it as a late payment.

Their line was "we advise people to allow 4 working days for receipt of payment"

Anyway they chased me for months for €15 from the UK (or £15 as they used to say), by phone, by threatening letter and by collection agency. The amount rose to about €40 with surcharges. It's interesting how aggressive UK banks are compared to Irish banks. A lot of people would be intimidated by their tactics.

After getting bored of telling them to F*** off, I started the process of going through the financial regulator and they called me to say they would write it off as it would be too expensive to take me to court. I asked if they were going to treat this is an unpaid debt on my credit rating, which they said they were, so I said I was continuing with the regulator complaint and they then agreed not to touch my credit rating.

They must have spent about €500 chasing me but I was never going to pay on principle and told them that many times.

unclebill98

jaceq wrote: »

Hi,

I was wondering what you'll say about this, I agree, if these are the rules than fine. What I was angry about is that I asked girl to show my rules / T&Cs that indicate that and she said it's not there...
I will be making complaint, got a form etc end will be filling this out tomorrow.

Regards

Well i see both sides.

Totally agree with your complaint regarding the cashier not knowing. Shocking really. But its in the T&C's. UB more so than other banks take complaints seriously when made. Front line staff are sometimes to busy to notice but the training is there and they should have been better.

Bigcheeze wrote: »

Does it actually take 5 days to clear a cheque or is it just a UB rule ?

I find them appalling for customer service in the branch.

They also lost my credit card business over an attempt to charge me interest on a "late payment". I paid electronically so the funds were guaranteed to be in their account in two working days but because they don't get around to processing the funds until the next day, they treat it as a late payment.

Their line was "we advise people to allow 4 working days for receipt of payment"

Anyway they chased me for months for €15 from the UK (or £15 as they used to say), by phone, by threatening letter and by collection agency. The amount rose to about €40 with surcharges. It's interesting how aggressive UK banks are compared to Irish banks. A lot of people would be intimidated by their tactics.

After getting bored of telling them to F*** off, I started the process of going through the financial regulator and they called me to say they would write it off as it would be too expensive to take me to court. I asked if they were going to treat this is an unpaid debt on my credit rating, which they said they were, so I said I was continuing with the regulator complaint and they then agreed not to touch my credit rating.

They must have spent about €500 chasing me but I was never going to pay on principle and told them that many times.

5 days is pretty standard across the board. When you get into your type of problem it starts to go across several depts and of course it can get tricky to get proper service, still its no excuse.

Like anything if your not happy, complain. Every branch of UB have trained specialists in complaints. Its also best to talk to them cause UB are very service driven in branches. Even if your in the wrong they will try to make sure your happy with the service to an extent.

Overall banking charges in the UK are far higher than in ROI.

Bigcheeze

unclebill98 wrote: »

Like anything if your not happy, complain. Every branch of UB have trained specialists in complaints. Its also best to talk to them cause UB are very service driven in branches. Even if your in the wrong they will try to make sure your happy with the service to an extent.

Overall banking charges in the UK are far higher than in ROI.

The branch manager told me that credit cards aren't handled by the branch so I'd need to deal with the credit card section. i.e. some RBS centre in the UK.

Toboldlygo

Bigcheeze wrote: »

The branch manager told me that credit cards aren't handled by the branch so I'd need to deal with the credit card section. i.e. some RBS centre in the UK.

I find it incredible that a bank manager would brush you off in this way. I wonder if he / she was trying to sell you a credit card would they have made that comment. Anyway, blaming 'some RBS centre in the UK' is like a waiter telling you its the chef's fault if food in a restaurant is bad. The Ulster Bank manager should do as he / she is paid to do - take responsibility!

unclebill98

Spot on.

tiernanobrien

you think thats bad. i took a loan out with them in january 12 months ago for 5k. Agreed on 160p/m for 3 years or whatever it was and got the loan and so on. in June, 4.30pm (the day before im going to america for 3 months) i get a call from the theirs financiers saying i'd been underpaying my loan for months and that i should be payine 240 p/m for 2 years and i also owed them the difference. As it was after 4 I rang up the ulsterbank helpline as i couldnt go down and sort it in the branch and your one say to me that there was nothing she could do and I'd have to fix it myself. It'd take alot for me to lose the plot but expecting me to sort out their **** up I did. your one sorted it then. I've now virtualy closed my account other than repaying the loan as i dont want anything to do with them...

unclebill98

Your loan agreement dictates the repayments. If what you where paying was correct according to this then your right, if you never checked this and went with them then you done the wrong thing.

Either way the Loan Agreement would prove you or them wrong.

Rebel1977

Look in loan documentation you signed it will state how much each instalment is