Business Banking "update" is a downgrade, what a shambles

Irish Steve

OK, just to be completely clear, this is not as such directed at the support people here, it needs to go a LOT higher up the food chain of BOI.

I did a phone survey 2 days ago about BOI, and I am ready to admit that most of the ratings were well below satisfied, if I'd known how dire some of the SEPA changes were going to be, I'd have been giving even lower ratings.

I have managed to make payments today, but a facility that was there under the old system has been removed, but for some reason not yet explained, it is no longer possible to copy a payment instruction before authorisation.

Do any of your systems people EVER talk to the users to find out what they use, or do they just make changes on the basis of what they are capable of, which clearly is not much.

There is no facility to enter standing orders on line, so one way to deal with that was to enter a payment, and before authorising it, it could be copied, and the date changed before saving it, which saved some work, though not ideal.

Now, even that limited facility has been removed, so to make a payment on a regular basis for the same amount, (like a payroll for example) EACH transaction has to be put in multiple times 

Shambles is one word for it, I should be using MUCH stronger language, I cannot begin to articulate how much I despise the ignorant and ineffectual programmers and system designers at BOI, I have worked with computers, and on line banking systems since before decimal currency conversion in the early 70's so I know a LOT more about what is involved, and how it all hangs together, and the more I see of the way that BOI are "enhancing" their systems for business users, the more I conclude that BOI wants to get rid of business customers, the on line banking system is a total disgrace, and no longer fit for purpose.

You have known about these changes for years, you had the perfect opportunity to enhance and improve a bad and out of date application, and you have managed to provide a worse service with no upgrades or enhancements whatsoever. 

This was clearly a "yellow pack" minimum cost least change modification, and if it wasn't easy, simple solution is to remove that functionality. Well done to the moron that signed off on that change, clearly a bonus conscious experience lacking individual who has never worked in the real world of a commercial customer. 

That's 2 strikes now, the other was the shambles of LATM lodgements not having a unique reference number on them that carries across to the statement, an auditing nightmare in the making.

I seem to recall that the saying was 3 strikes and you're out. I wonder how long strike 3 will be. Not long, based on recent experience.

Please ensure that the right people further up the chain are made aware of my utter contempt for their ineptitude and ignorance of how a "real" business operates.

Bank of Ireland: Elaine

Hi Irish Steve,

Thank you for contacting us here on boards.ie

As always, we greatly appreciate the time you have taken to post your comments. We have forwarded your feedback up the lines to the Business Online Management Team. If you would like to call Business Online on 1890 818 265 a representative will be happy to discuss any queries you have regarding the recent screen changes as a result of SEPA.

We would also like to take this opportunity to kindly thank you for taking part in our recent survey. All our customers feedback, positive and constructive is important to us.

Thanks again,
Elaine

relaxed

Bank of Ireland: Elaine wrote: »

Hi Irish Steve,

Thank you for contacting us here on boards.ie

As always, we greatly appreciate the time you have taken to post your comments. We have forwarded your feedback up the lines to the Business Online Management Team. If you would like to call Business Online on 1890 818 265 a representative will be happy to discuss any queries you have regarding the recent screen changes as a result of SEPA.

We would also like to take this opportunity to kindly thank you for taking part in our recent survey. All our customers feedback, positive and constructive is important to us.

Thanks again,
Elaine

Firstly I am not having a go at you personally but that's a complete waste of time.

I could not login a couple of weeks back so I rang the helpdesk. It took about 30 minutes for them to talk me through deleting old Java, installing new Java, delete these cookies, delete some other history, turn off computer, turn on computer and so on. I eventually got sick of having my time wasted by an incompetent system and the girl asked if I wanted to log a complaint, I said yes please, then I said will somebody ring me with an explanation or compensation for the hassle (like not charging for crap that does not work), she said well actually nobody would do anything about my complaint. 

Bank of Ireland do not seem to understand that customers do not give a flying f*** about Java, we want online banking that runs from any Ipad, Iphone or PC as required, without ever having to go through Java upgrades or digital passwords.

Irish Steve

relaxed wrote: »

Bank of Ireland: Elaine wrote: »

Hi Irish Steve,

Thank you for contacting us here on boards.ie

As always, we greatly appreciate the time you have taken to post your comments. We have forwarded your feedback up the lines to the Business Online Management Team. If you would like to call Business Online on 1890 818 265 a representative will be happy to discuss any queries you have regarding the recent screen changes as a result of SEPA.

We would also like to take this opportunity to kindly thank you for taking part in our recent survey. All our customers feedback, positive and constructive is important to us.

Thanks again,
Elaine

Firstly I am not having a go at you personally but that's a complete waste of time.

I could not login a couple of weeks back so I rang the helpdesk. It took about 30 minutes for them to talk me through deleting old Java, installing new Java, delete these cookies, delete some other history, turn off computer, turn on computer and so on. I eventually got sick of having my time wasted by an incompetent system and the girl asked if I wanted to log a complaint, I said yes please, then I said will somebody ring me with an explanation or compensation for the hassle (like not charging for crap that does not work), she said well actually nobody would do anything about my complaint. 

Bank of Ireland do not seem to understand that customers do not give a flying f*** about Java, we want online banking that runs from any Ipad, Iphone or PC as required, without ever having to go through Java upgrades or digital passwords.

Spot on. apart from digital passwords, security is essential, and needs to be cast iron, given how poor internet security is.

That said, BOI have so badly lost the plot, it's not even funny, I spent nearly 6 MONTHS hassling them about an out of date security  certificate that kept throwing up warnings on IE, and the suggested avoidances were to either "ignore the warning", or "change the IE settings so that it doesn't throw up the warning", the excuse for 6 months to update being that "a significant number of customers still use dial up, and we don't want to inconvenience them with large downloads".

Yeah, I think the people at the other end thought I didn't understand computers, or the way that certificates work, or their size, or whatever. Problem is, I do, fairly well, having worked in on line real time programming scenarios, and knowing more than a bit about how bank back ends worked, I spent 10 years working with 3 of the big 4 clearing banks in the UK around decimalisation, before moving on to other areas of computing, and there haven't been many changes in the fundamental concepts of debit and credit banking, it's not rocket science, the underlying concept is very easy and straight forward.

BOI have outsourced their operations, IT and programming, but the skills that were needed to manage legacy software are not developed overnight, or even over a year, software that was written back in the days of mainframe computing needed a committee meeting to decide who's problem it was before they could start to fix it, and now, most of those skills were thrown out because they were too expensive, and we've seen the result, bad analysis, bad design, bad interfaces and even worse programming that slowly but surely is reducing the quality and functionality of what should be a core product for the majority of customers.

I still cannot believe that they are so blind about their lack of functionality, and their blind slavish tie in to Microsoft products, forcing people to only use Internet Explorer is insane.

I'm not sure that BOI will be capable of recovering this situation, they are showing no interest or intent in changing, no ability to even recognise customer dissatisfaction, and if they do belatedly recognise it, actually doing something about it will require assets that they no longer have in both financial terms and in terms of capable and skilled personnel, and the personnel are not available from their outsource contractors either.

On that basis, a new banking on line package for commercial customers is at least 3 years (probably nearer 5 years) down the road,  and the present system was past it's sell by date a good while ago.

Before the bottom fell out of the economy, they were making billions, but did it get put back into upgrading and enhancing the fundamental core services to the customer? Did it hell, and they are now going to pay the price for that in a big way, they cut down and got rid of their key people, probably because it meant that the top cats got fatter bonuses, and now they will end up paying a heavy price, BOI are a long way from being out of the woods of the recession, and upsetting their paying customers is not a good way to change that situation.

I will be looking very closely at the offerings of the other major clearing banks, and making appropriate recommendations to the customers I work with, for me, this latest downgrade is now strike 3. There's only one way to deal with a supplier that is non responsive, and that's simple, move to another supplier. That's not a simple thing to do for a limited company, so the research will have to be done carefully and in depth, I'm not going to keep changing banks for the fun of it.

Bank of Ireland: Elaine

Hi relaxed,

Thanks for getting in contact with us on boards.ie.

We are sorry to hear you are unhappy with our Business Online service. As previous mentioned in this thread all our customer's feedback is important to us and we will forward your comments to the relevant department.

We would also like to apologise for your recent experience while attempting to lodge a complaint. We can assure you, all complaints are dealt with in a professional and appropriate manner. If you would like to find out more about out complaint process please see here.

Once again, thank you for your feedback.
Elaine