Poor BOI help

The Tetrarch

(1) A few months ago I left my wallet in a newsagents. 
Minutes later I when I was about to pay in another shop and realised my wallet was missing, went back to the first shop, and was told they has phoned Bank of Ireland.  They returned my wallet.
Two days later I tried to order online and my credit card was denied. 
I had no communication from BOI.
When I phoned BOI Card Services they said they had tried to contact me by phone when my wallet was "lost".  I do not carry my phone. 
BOI did not leave a message on my phone. 
And I did not report my wallet / credit card lost.  It was reported "found".
When I phoned BOI Credit Card services two days after the wallet was found BOI Card Services said they they would reactivate the credit card in five minutes. 
They did not.  
I phoned for the next ninety minutes without once getting through to BOI credit card services.
I also found my ATM card (debit card) was cancelled. 
It took me two weeks to have an active debit card and credit card.

(2) I instructed a person to buy a horse at Newmarket (UK) sales in December 2018. 
Bidding was in guineas (sterling). 
The person asked me to pay them in sterling as they had to settle a sterling invoice. 
They sent me their IBAN, BIC, account name, account number, amount payable of their BOI sterling account.
This person is already set up as a payee on my BOI 365online as I pay horse keep and veterinary invoices monthly in Euro.
I tried to set up an International Payee using their IBAN number.
365online rejected the IBAN number. 
The horse buyer was in France for a few weeks over Christmas holidays and could not check the IBAN number on their invoice until they returned. 
In the meantime I used an online IBAN checker and that rejected the IBAN. 
I phoned BOI help and they told me the IBAN was incorrect, even suggesting that I was probably being scammed by someone who had sent me an incorrect IBAN. !!! 
When the horse buyer returned from France they checked the IBAN and found it correct, scanned their BOI sterling bank statement, and sent it to me.  
I went to BOI Stillorgan with a print of the statement, they confirmed that it was (or looked like) a BOI account, and they checked the IBAN, and said it was incorrect. 
My last action was to buy a sterling draft, put it in an envelope, and post it to the horse buyer. 
BOI 365online subsequently sent me a message online saying it was probably the fault of the search engine I use, or cookies, and to delete my search history, and a list of other daft (imo) suggestions.

(3) Yesterday I got the January 2019 horse keep invoice. 
I tried to pay it online half an hour after the stud farm sent me the invoice. 
Unfortunately, I typed one digit of my security code incorrectly and was locked out of 365online, unable to pay. 
I phoned the BOI helpline. 
Now it gets really weird. 
It is an automated service where you press 1 for private customers, then type in your 8 digit bank account number. 
I made a mistake with the 8 digit number and backspaced to correct one digit. .......
......... and I got "Emergency Services, what service do you require, police, ambulance, fire".  
......... I apologised, rang off and tried again. 
......... Again I got one digit wrong, and again got Emergency Services, police, ambulance, fire.
......... They said I had dialled 999 and were a bit irritated.

When I got through to BOI help they would have reactivated my 365online but I could not remember my last Debit Card transactions so they would not help.
I and was told to bring my passport or other ID to any BOI branch.  The phone went dead.
This morning I went to BOI Stillorgan, and my 365online is back in action.



What puzzles me about Bank Of Ireland is their lack of response to problems.
(1) My Credit Card was promised to be reactivated in 5 minutes.  It wasn't.
I phoned for 90 minutes with no reply. 
If you tell this to BOI, or BOI Card Services they listen and ignore.
(2) I have a BOI bank Statement with an IBAN that 365online does not agree is a valid IBAN.  
BOI have not investigated, or offered an explanation.
(3) Are BOI Helpdesk or a BOI branch  interested in the fact that using their phone system I got put through to 999 Emergency Services twice in a few minutes?  It appears not.

Keep pushing buttons until it works, keep phoning helplines, keep typing in your 8 digit bank account number, keep producing ID at the branch.

Investigate why they promised to reactivate my credit card, did not, and were uncontactable.  NO.
Investigate why a BOI IBAN does not work on 365online. NO
Investigate why you get through to Emergency Services twice when contacting BOI helpline.  NO

IGNORE, IGNORE, IGNORE.

A few months ago I opened a KBC bank account in Stillorgan and am letting my BOI balance decline to zero.

Bank of Ireland: Alison

Hi The Tetrarch

Thanks for taking the time to get in touch.

We are sorry to hear of your recent experience with us.

We're disappointed to hear the credit card was not reactivated when advised by a colleague. We fully understand this would be very frustrating for you. We would be very interested to look into the adding of the payee and the phone menu incident.

Our colleagues within our Complaints Department would welcome the opportunity to look into this further for you. There are several ways to contact the Team here

Please be assured the Team will fully investigate for you.

Many thanks
Alison