Lloyds Bank - Useless or what?

[ROSM]

I have recently had the misfortune to have to deal with Lloyds bank. My mum recently died and I have been helping my Dad to sort out the admin stuff. Almost everybody we've dealt with has been courteous, informed and efficient - even the Department of Work and Pensions has been excellent. However Lloyds bank have been none of these.

When we went in to advise them of the death - they initially told (not asked) us to 'come back tomorrow'. It was only when I politely explained that this was not possible (given payments in and out that needed to be dealt with in a timely manner) that a 'manager' came to see me but said she 'wasnt qualified' to take the information and was 'in a meeting'. It turned out not to be a customer meeting and after explaining my own financial background she finally found someone available. My dad has banked wth them for over 50 years but that doesnt seem to be factor with them.

This person then tried to 'sell' probate services (not necessary). The person filled in a form to go to head office. We were given a direct number to dial and were advised we would be kept informed of progress. The only progress information that has been received is when we've gone back to the branch to chase. The accounts have been retitled but another account has been closed but the funds havnt appeared anywhere. I have tried phoning the number yesterday and this morning but it constantly bounces to an answer phone (left messages but no call back received) or just a recorded message directing me to phone banking (as a represenative they cant service me via that channel).

I am aware of how these things work (I wrote a large chunk of the deceased customer guidelines for another bank) so am shocked as to how this has been handled.

Is it just me or are they really that useless? have I just found a duff branch?

 

[surrey jim]

Have banked with Lloyds and Barclays in the past. IMO Lloyds are light years ahead in terms of customer service,

 

[Lush]

The local branches of big banks seem to be generally rubbish, full of 'old timers' with 'old-time' attitudes to customer service. My mum went into Goring Nat West to ask about a savings plan as she had some money she wanted to invest. No literature; no-one available who knew anything. I understand that branch staff have been cut, but to leave an elderly customer standing in the branch for 10 minutes waiting for someone to have the courtesy to speak to her is inexcusable. She just walked out in the end.

I've always found the Co-op, on the other hand to be excellent on the phone and in the branches.

 

[Simster]

Firstly, sorry to hear about you mum.

Secondly, in my experience the quality of banking from the big boys always seems dependent on the branch you are dealing with. Sounds like you found a duff one.

 

[ROSM]

Thanks guys - clearly a duff one then. Good to know that my investment in the part nationalised bank is safe. I am raising it with Lloyds themselves (Tunbridge wells seems to be the regional head office) and hope other people dont have to face this kind of scenario. Customer service is always important but at a time like this when peoples emotions are frazzled it is doubly key.

 

[gullshark]

Lloyds were also useless for my mum, we were in town and both of us took cash out from a machine (her card Lloyds mine Natwest) and as we were walking away we heard someone exclaim there was a skimmer on the machine and sure enough within seconds a few burly men turned up to 'reclaim' the device.

We both walked into our respective banks and told them to cancel the card and explained why. Natwest closed it and gave me a new debit card with a new number in the following couple of days. Lloyds for some reason didn't cancel the old card and sent out a duplicate one and mum's account was cleaned out to the tune of 4 grand! they also tried to claim that mum hadn't reported it as 'stolen' even though I was there to witness it.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Lloyds were also useless for my mum, we were in town and both of us took cash out from a machine (her card Lloyds mine Natwest) and as we were walking away we heard someone exclaim there was a skimmer on the machine and sure enough within seconds a few burly men turned up to 'reclaim' the device.

We both walked into our respective banks and told them to cancel the card and explained why. Natwest closed it and gave me a new debit card with a new number in the following couple of days. Lloyds for some reason didn't cancel the old card and sent out a duplicate one and mum's account was cleaned out to the tune of 4 grand! they also tried to claim that mum hadn't reported it as 'stolen' even though I was there to witness it.

You left out the bit about the a/c being recredited...why?

 

[gullshark]

We got the money back in the end.

 

[glasfryn]

The local branches of big banks seem to be generally rubbish, full of 'old timers' with 'old-time' attitudes to customer service. My mum went into Goring Nat West to ask about a savings plan as she had some money she wanted to invest. No literature; no-one available who knew anything. I understand that branch staff have been cut, but to leave an elderly customer standing in the branch for 10 minutes waiting for someone to have the courtesy to speak to her is inexcusable. She just walked out in the end.

I've always found the Co-op, on the other hand to be excellent on the phone and in the branches.

sorry about your loss.
we found Lloyds to absolute rubbish we were with them while we had our business in Brighton they went through 3 managers and they were all useless yet when we sold the business the manager came knocking on our door wanting us to invest the proceeds with them our money went into the highlighted bank above and we have been with them ever since.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

I have recently had the misfortune to have to deal with Lloyds bank. My mum recently died and I have been helping my Dad to sort out the admin stuff. Almost everybody we've dealt with has been courteous, informed and efficient - even the Department of Work and Pensions has been excellent. However Lloyds bank have been none of these.

When we went in to advise them of the death - they initially told (not asked) us to 'come back tomorrow'. It was only when I politely explained that this was not possible (given payments in and out that needed to be dealt with in a timely manner) that a 'manager' came to see me but said she 'wasnt qualified' to take the information and was 'in a meeting'. It turned out not to be a customer meeting and after explaining my own financial background she finally found someone available. My dad has banked wth them for over 50 years but that doesnt seem to be factor with them.

This person then tried to 'sell' probate services (not necessary). The person filled in a form to go to head office. We were given a direct number to dial and were advised we would be kept informed of progress. The only progress information that has been received is when we've gone back to the branch to chase. The accounts have been retitled but another account has been closed but the funds havnt appeared anywhere. I have tried phoning the number yesterday and this morning but it constantly bounces to an answer phone (left messages but no call back received) or just a recorded message directing me to phone banking (as a represenative they cant service me via that channel).

I am aware of how these things work (I wrote a large chunk of the deceased customer guidelines for another bank) so am shocked as to how this has been handled.

Is it just me or are they really that useless? have I just found a duff branch?

All of the 2000 Managers were sacked long ago & poorly paid assistant managers were given their title but none of the decision making abilities branch staff previously had, but were dreadful at (ie lending,10 of us in Head Office did a better job)...anything non standard/profitable is now a challenge

 

[adrian29uk]

I have recently had the misfortune to have to deal with Lloyds bank. My mum recently died and I have been helping my Dad to sort out the admin stuff. Almost everybody we've dealt with has been courteous, informed and efficient - even the Department of Work and Pensions has been excellent. However Lloyds bank have been none of these.

When we went in to advise them of the death - they initially told (not asked) us to 'come back tomorrow'. It was only when I politely explained that this was not possible (given payments in and out that needed to be dealt with in a timely manner) that a 'manager' came to see me but said she 'wasnt qualified' to take the information and was 'in a meeting'. It turned out not to be a customer meeting and after explaining my own financial background she finally found someone available. My dad has banked wth them for over 50 years but that doesnt seem to be factor with them.

This person then tried to 'sell' probate services (not necessary). The person filled in a form to go to head office. We were given a direct number to dial and were advised we would be kept informed of progress. The only progress information that has been received is when we've gone back to the branch to chase. The accounts have been retitled but another account has been closed but the funds havnt appeared anywhere. I have tried phoning the number yesterday and this morning but it constantly bounces to an answer phone (left messages but no call back received) or just a recorded message directing me to phone banking (as a represenative they cant service me via that channel).

I am aware of how these things work (I wrote a large chunk of the deceased customer guidelines for another bank) so am shocked as to how this has been handled.

Is it just me or are they really that useless? have I just found a duff branch?

Just about sums it up really. As if you don't have enough problems to deal with, they try and sell your probate services for fucks sake.

It is very very frustrating. Had the same problems when my dad died trying to get his accounts closed down. Once I got the death certificate things where a lot lot easier.

All you want to do is speak to a human being. I think honestly these banks need a department for dealing with bereavement, because the last thing on your mind is money and the only two things you need to do is
1) Close the account
or
2) Change the account names

 

[Gully]

Sorry to hear so many negatives about Lloyds, I have been with them for over 25 years and have never had any problems whatsoever. The only bank I have any gripe with is ABN-AMRO, who took about a year to close my account with them, despite me giving them several weeks notice that I was leaving the Netherlands to return to the UK. They kept adding charges to my account for various and spurious reasons, which meant that every time I forwarded money to clear the negative balance it was never enough, I felt like I was chasing my tail. Pretty sure that in the end I sent them a cheque for far more than necessary with a letter telling them where they could put their bank, that seemed to do the trick and I never heard from them again.

 

[e77]

Sorry to hear so many negatives about Lloyds, I have been with them for over 25 years and have never had any problems whatsoever. The only bank I have any gripe with is ABN-AMRO, who took about a year to close my account with them, despite me giving them several weeks notice that I was leaving the Netherlands to return to the UK. They kept adding charges to my account for various and spurious reasons, which meant that every time I forwarded money to clear the negative balance it was never enough, I felt like I was chasing my tail. Pretty sure that in the end I sent them a cheque for far more than necessary with a letter telling them where they could put their bank, that seemed to do the trick and I never heard from them again.

I had to do the same with Barclays. For some reason banks don't seem to be able to cope with the fact you don't want to bank with them anymore.

 

[ROSM]

You left out the bit about the a/c being recredited...why?

At least the account being recredited doesnt leave the customer out of pocket but the bank itself still loses the money (which if they'd stopped the card, wouldnt have happened).

It's interesting what you've said about the managers - but dealing with a deceased customer in Brighton must be about as standard as you can get. When I worked in a branch we used to get 4 or 5 deaths a week (it was in Brighton not Midsomer).

 

[Perry's Tracksuit Bottoms]

I asked Lloyds TSB to make a payment from my joint account to my Lloyds TSB credit card. They mistakenly made a payment to my wife's Lloyds TSB credit card instead. Simple human error I assume, and nothing to get upset about.

However, they then spent six months both refusing to accept responsibility and failing to rectify what seemed like a pretty obvious mistake. After a lot of hounding from me they did manage it eventually. Needless to say I no longer bank with them.

 

[Simontheseagull]

Having worked for Lloyds Bank for over 28 years before moving on nine years ago (including 8 years working in its executor and trustee department), Lloyds Bank has never been the same since it was "reverse" taken over by TSB. Brian Pitman who built Lloyds into the best Bank in the UK some years ago must now be turning in his grave.

I am still just a customer of Lloyds Bank, but having had an infuriating experience yesterday whilst on holiday in France with it taking over an hour to speak to a person rather than an automated message, much will depend on how the Bank deals with the FSA reportablecomplaint I will be lodging today. Even when I got though to a manager the only response I got was that he could not over-ride his computer! Lloyds is great for internet banking but if you want "personl banking" (as opposed to business banking) forget it.

 

[beorhthelm]

dont know about Lloyds, but Halifax have turned to shit since being taken over by them. must be a factor, they clearly have different direction on how processes work and its not as good as it used to be. best example is there's no access to ISAs online for a year while they upgrade the system.