The view from my bedroom balcony in Beatenberg, Switzerland © Ricky Yates
Late in the evening on Tuesday 11th April, I logged in online to my HSBC Sterling bank account, to discover that the age of miracles is not quite yet past. Nearly four months to the day since I had first requested it, earlier that day, the balance of my closed and frozen Barclays Bank account had finally been transferred. And, in a lot less than fifteen working days since the transfer was promised!
Since that day, I have pondered whether it was worth compiling yet another letter, pointing out to Barclays their series of failures and seeking some compensation for the costs I have incurred. Or deciding whether I should leave things and just be thankful that I finally once more have access to my money.
Yesterday afternoon, whilst sitting in my bedroom at a conference venue in Beatenberg, Switzerland, where I had arrived a few hours earlier, my phone rang. The female caller was from Barclays Bank complaints department and asked to speak with Mr Yates. I assured that she was speaking to him and I then answered a few security questions.
The lady then explained that Barclays had now finally completed consideration of my complaint CRYX28K7KH. For the first time during this whole saga, I got a decent apology for all that had happened. She then said that it was proposed to offer me £300.00 in compensation in order to bring my complaint to conclusion. If I still wasn’t satisfied, then I would need to take my case to the Financial Ombudsman.
I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised to receive both the call, and the offer of compensation. As I said in answer to a comment on one of the previous posts on this subject, I think that threatening them with the Financial Ombudsman is what has finally kicked them into action. As I think £300.00 is a decent offer, I have accepted it. Amazingly, it arrived in my HSBC account today, less than twenty-four hours after being offered.
Here endeth this saga! I do assure readers that I do now plan to blog about other things 🙂
Hi Ricky,
It must be a relief to have finally reached the end of that particular journey! How simple it could all have been had Barclays just paid a little attention to detail and ‘expedited’ their dealings with you, (‘Expedite’, ‘Expediting’, ‘Expiditiously’, and ‘Expedited’ are vital buzz words with the customer relations department of one Irish financial institution I deal with regularly; sadly their actions don’t match their words!). Hopefully you can put the annoyance and inconvenience of this period behind you now.
I hope spring has come to Stare Oleska and you are enjoying pleasant weather.
Take care,
Regards,
Sean
Hello Sean – It was a considerable relief when, on Tuesday 11th April, I saw that the contents of my frozen Barclays account had arrived in my new HSBC account. Why Barclays made me fight for so long is beyond me. In the end, it has cost them £300.00. As for actions not matching their words, see my caption to my photo of Barclays tag line, ‘Making money work for you’ 😉
Spring has now arrived in Stará Oleška though a little later than in some previous years. My cherry tree has blossomed and the grass has shot up during the time I was recently away from the village. I’m about to go and get my mower out of the lean-to. Thank you once again for visiting & commenting.