You Can Bank On It
Why is it that now everything is so much easier to do, it is so hard to get anything done?
You Can Bank On It
Why is it that now everything is so much easier to do, it is so hard to get anything done? I wrote to ‘customer services’ for my NatWest credit card well before it was due for renewal asking for it to be cancelled as I did not wish to continue paying £100 for a once valuable card that had, over the years, had all its benefits stripped out one by one.
I asked for written confirmation that my wishes had been carried out and on receiving no response wrote again. As the deadline loomed I rang the card centre and was told that a note had been put on my electronic file not to renew and that the file had gone to the relevant department so I chopped up the cards.
Now I get my monthly statement showing the card has been renewed and £100 will be charged. I ring up to protest and this time I am told that the card cannot be cancelled through the card centre, it has to be cancelled through the branch.
As I live some distance from my branch I rang the number given on my bank statement but this is another call centre, not the branch number itself. I am told that the card cannot be cancelled over the phone unless I can give my Internet PIN. This is a little difficult as I have never had one and have never banked online. The call centre refuses point blank to give me the branch’s real telephone number so I ask for the branch to be told to call me. Nothing happens.
So I have had to write to the branch, but I know from a previous experience that most letters to the branch are intercepted and sent to a regional centre, no doubt to the same people who won’t deal with me over the phone unless I can provide a non-existent number. I shall therefore have to make a special journey to get to my branch in bank opening hours.
Why is it that now everything is so much easier to do, it is so hard to get anything done? I wrote to ‘customer services’ for my NatWest credit card well before it was due for renewal asking for it to be cancelled as I did not wish to continue paying £100 for a once valuable card that had, over the years, had all its benefits stripped out one by one.
I asked for written confirmation that my wishes had been carried out and on receiving no response wrote again. As the deadline loomed I rang the card centre and was told that a note had been put on my electronic file not to renew and that the file had gone to the relevant department so I chopped up the cards.
Now I get my monthly statement showing the card has been renewed and £100 will be charged. I ring up to protest and this time I am told that the card cannot be cancelled through the card centre, it has to be cancelled through the branch.
As I live some distance from my branch I rang the number given on my bank statement but this is another call centre, not the branch number itself. I am told that the card cannot be cancelled over the phone unless I can give my Internet PIN. This is a little difficult as I have never had one and have never banked online. The call centre refuses point blank to give me the branch’s real telephone number so I ask for the branch to be told to call me. Nothing happens.
So I have had to write to the branch, but I know from a previous experience that most letters to the branch are intercepted and sent to a regional centre, no doubt to the same people who won’t deal with me over the phone unless I can provide a non-existent number. I shall therefore have to make a special journey to get to my branch in bank opening hours.
