Bank of Scotland......utter idiots!

[Groat]

Today I get a letter from a lawyer which he is passing on from an advocate. The advocate wants a whole lot of financial paperwork so that he can complicate a very simple matter. This paperwork includes several years of bank accounts from several banks for several companies, none of which are currently trading.

So I'm on the phone. Cashplus? No problem. Santander? No problem (surprisingly). Barclays? No problem. Bank of Scotland?

Bank of Scotland begins with the first idiot who demands a plethora of irrelevant information, then takes me thru security, then finally, 15 minutes into the call, tells me he doesn't deal with business banking enquiries, the call having begun with me enquiring about a ltd coy.

Would I like him to pass me on to Business Banking? No mate, why would I want you to do that? Why don't you put me through to the Lingerie Department or the fking cafeteria? Yes of course put me through to Business Banking but first give me their direct number because when your effort to put me through directly fails then I can call them myself.

His effort to put me through fails. (because he is an idiot).

I call the number he gave me directly and after some time and several worthless and irrelevant menus eventually get put through to a human. The human demands another plethora of information and then demands I supply the 3 sort codes and account numbers. I don't have them. Nor did any other bank require them. But BoS insist on them. So using another phone I phone another of the ex-directors of the company who very kindly goes and hunts them down (takes about another 10 minutes whilst the business banking idiot stays on hold) and yes, the accounts are located and yes the required historic statements will be sent.

And now the real idiocy:

'Where are you going to send them to" ?

"To the business's mailing address".

"But I've just told you the business ceased trading 4 years ago"

"We can only send the statements to the last mailing address we hold"

"But that business isn't there any more, nor, as the company has ceased trading is it trading anywhere else"

"We can only send the statements to the last mailing address we hold"

"But I sold those premises 2 years ago"

"We can only send the statements to the last mailing address we hold"

"So you're going to send these statements to a business that no longer exists at an address that I no longer own"?

"We can only send the statements to the last mailing address we hold"

"Could you send them to the branch we used to bank at"?

"We can only send the statements to the last mailing address we hold"

"Could you send them to my legal representative"?

"We can only send the statements to the last mailing address we hold"

"Could you put me through to whoever's using the braincell at BoS today"?

"I will put you through to complaints".

Unfortunately nobody at complaints had the braincell today, so I got no further. I phoned the lady I sold the premises to and she says she'll ask the tenants to look out for the package arriving to a name the postman won't link to the address and which the tenant will only recognise because the new owner will tell them it.

Apparently all this idiocy is for security reasons. So what's secure about sending my data to an address I'm not at rather than simply sending it to the address I AM at (like every other bank seems to be able to do)?

Just plain and simple idiots.

Edited by Groat on Thursday 25th June 18:59

[Carbon Sasquatch]

Its a real PITA when banks won't just take your word for stuff and send anything anywhere to anyone that asks nicely......

[Groat]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Nope. But I will when I'm drinking the wine the £50 the ombudsman awards me for being forced to deal with idiots arrives.

[Groat]

Carbon Sasquatch said:

Its a real PITA when banks won't just take your word for stuff and send anything anywhere to anyone that asks nicely......

It's even worse when they won't send it to one of their own branches, to an easily verifiable address, or even to an officer of court.

[loafer123]

Suggest you copy and paste the above into an email and send to;

[e-mail]

[Groat]

loafer123 said:

Suggest you copy and paste the above into an email and send to;

[e-mail]

Thanks for that. The only one I could find was [e-mail] (which I did send it to).

I'll send it to Mr Osorio right now.


eta: done.

Edited by Groat on Thursday 25th June 20:38

[tighnamara]

What form of security did you provide the other banks ?

I would be deeply worried if someone can call up a bank with no sort code / account details and have them send account details to an address unknown to them.

So I could call up and say Mr Groat here (ok I don’t know your name but many would) can you pass on details of my previous business bank accounts I had with you to address X (unknown to bank) as I don’t have access to address A that you have the account registered at.

Seems strange for my simple mind........that banks would give out details so easily.

[Groat]

tighnamara said:

What form of security did you provide the other banks ?

I would be deeply worried if someone can call up a bank with no sort code / account details and have them send account details to an address unknown to them.

So I could call up and say Mr Groat here (ok I don’t know your name but many would) can you pass on details of my previous business bank accounts I had with you to address X (unknown to bank) as I don’t have access to address A that you have the account registered at.

Seems strange for my simple mind........that banks would give out details so easily.

Do you think it's more reasonable (with security and data protection etc in mind) to send details to somewhere they have been told and could very simply verify is NO LONGER A USEFUL ADDRESS AND WITH WHICH NEITHER THE BUSINESS OR THE INDIVIDUAL ENQUIRER HAS ANY CONNECTION?

More reasonable than, say, sending :

1) to a branch where id etc could be required for collection?

2) to an address at which it is easily verifiable that the data enquirer resides?

3) to an officer of court - lawyer, advocate, court clerk etc on whose behalf the data is being sought?

I don't. I think it makes no sense whatsoever to send important data to an address where neither the business nor the enquirer are known, including to the postman who may well not even attempt delivery.

Actually I think that only an idiot would do that.

Edited by Groat on Thursday 25th June 20:54

[tighnamara]

Groat said:

tighnamara said:

What form of security did you provide the other banks ?

I would be deeply worried if someone can call up a bank with no sort code / account details and have them send account details to an address unknown to them.

So I could call up and say Mr Groat here (ok I don’t know your name but many would) can you pass on details of my previous business bank accounts I had with you to address X (unknown to bank) as I don’t have access to address A that you have the account registered at.

Seems strange for my simple mind........that banks would give out details so easily.

Do you think it's more reasonable (with security and data protection etc in mind) to send details to somewhere they have been told and could very simply verify is NO LONGER A USEFUL ADDRESS AND WITH WHICH NEITHER THE BUSINESS OR THE INDIVIDUAL ENQUIRER HAS ANY CONNECTION?

More reasonable than, say, sending :

1) to a branch where id etc could be required for collection?

2) to an address at which it is easily verifiable that the data enquirer resides?

3) to an officer of court - lawyer, advocate, court clerk etc on whose behalf the data is being sought?

I don't. I think it makes no sense whatsoever to send important data to an address where neither the business nor the enquirer are known, including to the postman who may well not even attempt delivery.

Actually I think that only an idiot would do that.

Edited by Groat on Thursday 25th June 20:54

Certainly not and I didn’t imply that.

I am just bemused that a businessman would not know account numbers / sort codes nor have any records of said accounts yet blame everything on the bank.

As I said only how my simple mind works...........I can understand the frustration and hope you get it sorted.

Edited by tighnamara on Thursday 25th June 22:07

[Groat]

loafer123 said:

Suggest you copy and paste the above into an email and send to;

[e-mail]

......and the outcome of taking that advice was......

.....someone frightfully posh and pleasant phoned to day. Apologised profusely and promised the paperwork would be sent directly to me without further ado !!

So thanks for that suggestion Mr Loafer!

[loafer123]

Groat said:

......and the outcome of taking that advice was......

.....someone frightfully posh and pleasant phoned to day. Apologised profusely and promised the paperwork would be sent directly to me without further ado !!

So thanks for that suggestion Mr Loafer!

My pleasure - glad it worked out.

[loggo]

What really gets to me is when a bank/insurance company runs me for information and then expects me to jump through hoops before they will let me give the information. Whilst expecting me to believe they are who they say they are because they say so.

[Kent Border Kenny]

It’s probably a good idea in future to keep copies of your bank statements, in case you need them later.

You can store them as PDFs, and then print them out if you need to.