Visa Debit Changover - Appalling Service

DoctorGonzo08

Since I have had my issue, I have found out that three of my friends have experienced the same thing.

I found that on Saturday morning my Laser Card was cancelled, and was unable to take money out. I was left stranded in Dublin and had to ring for a lift to come and get me from Longford.

I rand 365 and was told that Visa Debits were issued and that Laser Cards would be cancelled. I would like to note that on the site it states that the Visa Debits would arrive 2 months before cancellation. I did not recieve mine. To add to the situation the girl on the phone was abrupt, unhelpful and replied "That's tough" when I asked how I was going to access my money now.

I emailed 365 raising all the issues, including several other issues I have experienced in the last 6 months. I got a reply saying simply 'We do not activate cancelled cards'. Everything I had pointed out was ignored.

I am absolutley furious with the so-called service 365 online provide, and the complete waste of time the helplines are. I do want to point out that it is the 365 service that I have a problem with and not the branch, as the branch have helped me out where they could fix the mess 365 had created.

As of today I still have no card to access my money, and no advice or help as to when I will have.

Lawrence1895

DoctorGonzo08 wrote: »

Since I have had my issue, I have found out that three of my friends have experienced the same thing.

I found that on Saturday morning my Laser Card was cancelled, and was unable to take money out. I was left stranded in Dublin and had to ring for a lift to come and get me from Longford.

I rand 365 and was told that Visa Debits were issued and that Laser Cards would be cancelled. I would like to note that on the site it states that the Visa Debits would arrive 2 months before cancellation. I did not recieve mine. To add to the situation the girl on the phone was abrupt, unhelpful and replied "That's tough" when I asked how I was going to access my money now.

I emailed 365 raising all the issues, including several other issues I have experienced in the last 6 months. I got a reply saying simply 'We do not activate cancelled cards'. Everything I had pointed out was ignored.

I am absolutley furious with the so-called service 365 online provide, and the complete waste of time the helplines are. I do want to point out that it is the 365 service that I have a problem with and not the branch, as the branch have helped me out where they could fix the mess 365 had created.

As of today I still have no card to access my money, and no advice or help as to when I will have.

You still can go to any branch and withdraw money, you just have to show your ID.

t worked for me, when i was in the same situation.

Bank of Ireland: Tara

Hi DoctorGonzo08,

Thanks for getting in touch.

There are various reasons why a customer may not receive their Visa Debit card, you can find more information here. If you have not already done so, please contact your branch and a representative can order another card for you. Once requested, the card should be received within 6-8 working days and is sent to the address on your account. Contact details for your branch can be found here.

As Lars1916 correctly mentions, while waiting for your new card you can call into any branch, with photo id, to withdraw funds.

Thanks
Tara

DoctorGonzo08

Lars1916 wrote: »

You still can go to any branch and withdraw money, you just have to show your ID.

t worked for me, when i was in the same situation.

I'm working in the UK so I will never be around to go to a branch Mon - Fri, so that isn't an option for me. It has really messed me around with no access to my money.

DoctorGonzo08

Bank of Ireland: Tara wrote: »

Hi DoctorGonzo08,

Thanks for getting in touch.

There are various reasons why a customer may not receive their Visa Debit card, you can find more information here. If you have not already done so, please contact your branch and a representative can order another card for you. Once requested, the card should be received within 6-8 working days and is sent to the address on your account. Contact details for your branch can be found here.

As Lars1916 correctly mentions, while waiting for your new card you can call into any branch, with photo id, to withdraw funds.

Thanks
Tara

As my reply to Lars has pointed out that it is not an option to go into my branch, 6-8 days delivery is plain ridiculous on top of what I have already been forced to wait. Is this really considered helpful?

Also the link provided giving reasons as to why I wouldn't receive a new card don't apply, and again it states I should have received it two months prior to cancellation. Therefore it can only imply that BOI have messed up, offer no assistance and shift you on to a branch only option.

What is the point of internet banking or the 365 service then? It's not as if this is a new technology as other banks have being using Visa Debit for years.

Bank of Ireland: Tara

Hi DoctorGonzo08,

We were not aware that you are currently outside Ireland as your original post mentioned you were in Dublin. We would suggest you contact your branch or Banking365 to confirm the address on your account, as this may be the reason you did not receive the card.

If you have an account in the UK, it would be possible to transfer funds on Banking365.

Hope this helps,
Tara

DoctorGonzo08

Bank of Ireland: Tara wrote: »

Hi DoctorGonzo08,

We were not aware that you are currently outside Ireland as your original post mentioned you were in Dublin. We would suggest you contact your branch or Banking365 to confirm the address on your account, as this may be the reason you did not receive the card.

If you have an account in the UK, it would be possible to transfer funds on Banking365.

Hope this helps,
Tara

My correspondance address hasn't changed in 7 years so there is no reason as to why it shouldn't have been issued. Transfering funds on 365 hasn't worked for me as I have to request access to new payees, and on top of this I will be charged and subject to currency conversion, all of which does not help the situation.

A simple solution would be an apology and a registered post delievery of the issued card, but this is obviously outside the box thinking which may require somebody doing there job and fixing a problem as opposed to creating one.

In light of the amount of problems and the comparitive services provided by my UK Bank I am strongly considering closing my account and looking elsewhere. I will be advising others to do likewise.

movingsucks

DoctorGonzo08, we had the same thing happen - Visa Never arrived the LASER was cancelled even though my husband rang them several times voicing his concern he was just fobbed off. We will be voting with our feet and I hope you do too.
The level of customer service surrounding this rollout has been utterly disgraceful. We pay enough in fees for the privilege of having an ATM card !!! They never should've allowed for LASER to be deactivated without ensuring the VISA was activated first.

Bank of Ireland: Tara

Hi DoctorGonzo08,

We are sorry the alternatives we have suggested here do not help your situation. We will pass on your comments and suggestions to our Visa Debit Team.

Thanks
Tara

DoctorGonzo08

movingsucks wrote: »

DoctorGonzo08, we had the same thing happen - Visa Never arrived the LASER was cancelled even though my husband rang them several times voicing his concern he was just fobbed off. We will be voting with our feet and I hope you do to.
The level of customer service surrounding this rollout has been utterly disgraceful. We pay enough in fees for the privilege of having an ATM card !!! They never should've allowed for LASER to be deactivated without ensuring the VISA was activated first.

Exactly, it is just common sense. I have tried all the correct chains via phone an email and have been hung up on, given a smart answer or ignored. Anyone would think it wasn't my money!

I started the thread here to see if anyone else was experiencing similar and hopefully it will show on google searches too. As it is a public forum, it forces a more respectful response from BOI reps.

I have had to take extra holidays from work to come home during the week to close the account in the branch, and will be urging my friends to do similar. There is a point when you have to question why am I paying for this 'service'.

DoctorGonzo08

Bank of Ireland: Tara wrote: »

Hi DoctorGonzo08,

We are sorry the alternatives we have suggested here do not help your situation. We will pass on your comments and suggestions to our Visa Debit Team.

Thanks
Tara

Alternatives is a very subjective term. You have told me to go to the branch, which is the default response from all issues. I have suggested an alternative but it will be ignored. The fact is the problem should not have occured in the first place, and as it is becoming more apparent, I am not a one off. You will lose customers as a result of this and BOI would want to smarten up if they wish to keep the remainder.

movingsucks

They don't care Doctor, my husband told the lady in the branch we would be moving banks and she didn't even flinch she just blanked him.
I will say the individual I was dealing with was as helpful as she could be under the circumstances but people like her are sadly very few and far between.

daheff

somebody i work with had the same problem...laser card deactivated but never received a visa debit (or even notification of the change!)

BOI - your customer service leaves an awful lot to be desired.

BOI customers, the sad thing is that you are paying for this 'service' :eek:

mountainy man

Same thing happened to me, 30mile round trip to a branch from where I live to get some money, took two weeks for the damn thing to arrive and then can only be activated as one of their own ATMs so another 30 mile round trip . Thanks BoI you have been terrible!

clicli

The exact same issue happened to me. I have also been promised two call backs from managers at my branch which has not happened. I am disgusted at how this situation has been handled, not everyone can take time off work at short notice to get to a bank to withdraw funds.

Bank of Ireland: Graham

Hi all,

Our best efforts were made to communicate the Visa Debit card roll-out to our customers in a number of ways including on-screen ATM advertising, in-branch signage and a message on our branch and Banking365 phonelines.

Bank of Ireland: Linda wrote: »

Please see here as to why you may not have received your Visa Debit card.

Thanks for your posts,
Graham

clicli

I think you are missing the point. You may have advised your customers about the switch, but you have not provided visa debit cards to many of your members, and then cancelled their active laser cards without any warning and leaving them without access to their accounts. The mistake was made by Bank of Ireland.

I have just had a call from one of your branch managers apologising profusely for this mistake. Stop trying to push the blame onto your customers, the fault lies with your processes.

Tow

Bank of Ireland: Graham wrote: »

Our best efforts were made to communicate the Visa Debit card roll-out to our customers

Hi Graham,
Did BOI phone their customers whose cards are about to expire, but have not yet activated their new ones?
Tow.

colly10

There's been a few replies on this thread and they still seem to fail to see the issue. Why would you cancel the active card before the replacement is on the way?

As for customer service, your more likely to get divorced in this country than change your bank, so it's partially our fault for putting up with poor service in the first place

steve_r

I'm in the same boat, my laser card was deactivated with no replacement.

I didn't realise there are others in the same boat.

I'm going to call into my nearest branch to see what they can do, but it shouldn't come to this.

If you are paying transaction fees that you should expect a certain level of service.

Bank of Ireland: Pat

Hi all,

Our sincerest apologies to anyone who has had their Laser card cancelled without first receiving a Visa Debit card as a replacement. We are currently working to have Visa Debit cards sent to any customers that have been affected.

Due to the fact that we are leaving the Laser card scheme and changing over to Visa Debit, we do not have the option of leaving all Laser cards active until a Visa Debit card has been activated on the account. In most but not all cases, the customers that did not receive their Visa Debit cards was due to us having out of date contact details on our system.

We have made efforts to notify our customers through various means. Unfortunately, it simply isn't reasible to phone every customer that has not yet activated their Visa Debit card. However, in the coming days we will be sending out a reminder text message to all Laser/Visa Debit card holders that we currently hold a mobile number for. We appreciate that this will not help our customers that have recently had their Laser cards cancelled, but we hope to limit the effect on more customers.

We would like to request that any customers that are still using their Laser cards and have not yet received a Visa Debit card, to contact their branch or Banking365 on 0818 365 365 at their earliest convenience.

Thanks
Pat

frogstar

This happened to me too. I didn't receive any correspondence about the introduction of visa debit,

Laser cancelled last week. Very embarrassing to have been REFUSED service in a shop. Luckily I had an AIB credit card.

I rang 365 who said that my card was cancelled and they sent me out a new debit card two months previous. I did not receive this so requested this to be cancelled and to resend me one. Was told I was being charged 8 euro for this (even though I did not receive it and it was not activated!). It would also take 3 weeks! I politely told the girl that this is not fair but she sd er hands were tied. I need my card so requested her to proceed.

To the representative here, WHY am I being charged for something I did not receive and who can I contact to get this refunded? 365 said she could not do anything. It's not a lot of money but it's the principal. You take so many charges off me I'm going to fight this! You have a backlog of cards to send out so makes me think there was a major issue with these debit cards. I'm not one for complaining but this really has bugged me!

Oh btw I recd the text yesterday (!) telling me my visa debit is not activated. Thanks for that, I only informed you guys on wednesday that my card wasn't working. It would have been nice to get that text BEFORE you cancelled my card!

chris2008x

frogstar wrote: »

This happened to me too. I didn't receive any correspondence about the introduction of visa debit,

Laser cancelled last week. Very embarrassing to have been REFUSED service in a shop. Luckily I had an AIB credit card.

I rang 365 who said that my card was cancelled and they sent me out a new debit card two months previous. I did not receive this so requested this to be cancelled and to resend me one. Was told I was being charged 8 euro for this (even though I did not receive it and it was not activated!). It would also take 3 weeks! I politely told the girl that this is not fair but she sd er hands were tied. I need my card so requested her to proceed.

To the representative here, WHY am I being charged for something I did not receive and who can I contact to get this refunded? 365 said she could not do anything. It's not a lot of money but it's the principal. You take so many charges off me I'm going to fight this! You have a backlog of cards to send out so makes me think there was a major issue with these debit cards. I'm not one for complaining but this really has bugged me!

Oh btw I recd the text yesterday (!) telling me my visa debit is not activated. Thanks for that, I only informed you guys on wednesday that my card wasn't working. It would have been nice to get that text BEFORE you cancelled my card!

https://www.centralbank.ie/regulation/Pages/home.aspx

Make a formal complaint to Bank of Ireland also cc the email to the Central Bank.

Also if you are making the minimum payment every month on the credit card you used any interest occurred through purchasing this item you should be reimbursed by BOI for this. Also claim the cost of the phone call too.

A number of customers have been inconvenienced by the roll out of these debit cards. Unless BOI register post these cards to it's customers then the €8 replacement charge should be waived.


The only difference between a Gangsters and a respectable bankster ain't much , Gangsters rob banks, Banksters rob everybody else. Al Capone

Bank of Ireland: Tara

Hi frogstar,

Thanks for posting.

We are sorry to hear that your Laser card was cancelled before you had received your Visa Debit card. As you did not receive the Visa Debit card sent to you, there should be no charge to have another one issued. Representatives in Banking365 do not have system access to waiving fees. This can only be done by your account holding branch.

If you would like to pm us, your name, branch and a contact phone number, we can have a representative from your branch call you to arrange this. Alternatively, if you would prefer to contact your branch directly, contact details can be found here.

Thanks
Tara