Letters: How British banks became synonymous with poor customer service
SIR – I am the treasurer of a small group that fundraises for a children’s hospice in North Yorkshire.
In November 2022, Barclays threatened to close our account (Letters, February 6) unless seemingly endless questions were answered. Replies were sent without acknowledgement.
I complained and received replies by post, assuring me that inquiries were taking place. But the requests for information continued. Both the letters regarding complaints and the information requests came from the same place. I wrote again asking if either side knew what it was doing, and the charity finally had £25 credited to its account, and an apology.
In March 2023, however, it started all over again, with identical requests. An email from Barclays in October 2023 told me it was very busy and would address the situation in due course. I wait with bated breath.
Clive Townsend
Scarborough, North Yorkshire
SIR – I visited my bank to try to open an account for a volunteer group.
I was instructed to do this online. I started the process, only to abandon it in frustration. The bank expects everybody to be able to follow reams of instructions, some of them complicated and poorly explained. I thought that I’d cracked it, only to be told to upload my signature using a linked app. At that point, I gave up.
Customer service in banking is at an all-time low. Older customers, in particular, seem to have been completely forgotten.
Do banks care?
Paul Caruana
Truro, Cornwall
SIR – Like Trelawney ffrench (Letters, January 29), I received a letter from Barclays informing me that the branch at Bluewater shopping centre was to close as “we’re changing how we support you with your banking”.
It suggests I go to Bexleyheath or the Post Office at Greenhithe – not easy journeys for a pensioner with mobility issues – but is “keen to hear what you think”. Really?
Nadine Smith
Bean, Kent
SIR – I have always gone to the local branch of my bank. I felt this would help to keep it open.
Recently, however, I explained my reasoning to a cashier, who told me that I was wasting my time. Each visit costs the bank money; closure decisions are not related to footfall.
You can’t win when customer service is secondary to profit.
Peter Lawrie
Romsey, Hampshire
SIR – I had a text from Barclays about a year ago, telling me that staff would be in attendance each week at a hall in the town where it had just closed one of its banks. Apparently I could go there for a chat, but there would be no monetary transactions. What is the point?
Diann Pollock
Upton, Wirral
Boats to Ukraine
SIR – Charles Moore (Notebook, February 6) rightly highlights the bureaucratic nonsense that is delaying the sending of “small boats” from Britain to Ukraine, and the procrastination of the Home Office.
This is yet another example of why the Government’s natural supporters currently despair of it. We get nothing but dithering and dodging from those in charge, and yearn for a leader who has the backbone to say: “Action this day.”
John Firrell
Litton Cheney, Dorset
The trader’s life
SIR – I was interested in your article, “Trader secrets: the savage side of City life” (Telegraph Magazine, February 3), which told the story of the former trader Gary Stevenson.
I was a trader at Citigroup at about the same time, working in an area closely related to Mr Stevenson’s, and also making a seven-figure sum, including bonus. Like him, I experienced stress and left in 2014 to work for a charity, taking my deferred compensation with me.
However, I wish to defend Citi. I do not recognise the debauched world that Mr Stevenson depicts. My managers were good family people with (as far as I knew) few vices beyond an occasional fancy dinner. When in 2012 I considered leaving as a result of burnout, they were compassionate and supportive, allowing me to work part-time for two years. When I decided to leave in 2014, human resources approved my request without creating any difficulties, and my managers were kind and professional.
Citi was, as far as I know, unique in the industry for allowing workers to take their deferred compensation with them, provided they were leaving to work for government or a charity. Elsewhere, Mr Stevenson would have had no grounds for this request and no chance of keeping the money. It seems he took a combative approach with his management, which naturally wanted to understand the background before approving his request.
His implication that management just weren’t willing to let him leave the company – a tale more reminiscent of a Hollywood gangster movie than an international financial institution – seems rather fanciful to me.
Andy Kent
Sharpthorne, West Sussex
Hasta la wisteria
SIR – We shouldn’t be too worried about the fate of the RHS Wisley wisteria (Letters, February 6). Our thriving wisteria, Arnie, first planted in about 1850, was cut back to a stump in the early 2000s.
Have no fear – it will be back.
Tim Wright
Rampisham, Dorset
Long memory
SIR – While I was telling my class of six-year-olds the Easter story (Letters, February 6), one piped up: “Gosh, you know so much, Miss. What was it like to watch Jesus on the cross for real?”
Patricia Abbott
Wattisfield, Suffolk
SIR – At my late mother’s 80th birthday party, my five-year-old granddaughter was drinking a make-believe gin and tonic.
On finishing it, she asked for another, only to be told by her father that one was enough.
“But it’s quite alright,” she replied airily. “I’m not driving.”
Richard Longfield
Weston Patrick, Hampshire
Justice delayed
SIR – I am an experienced criminal law solicitor and sit as a magistrate.
I regret to report that delays are not confined to the Crown Court or to rape cases (report, February 5).
I came across a case that was charged as common assault: two women pulling each other’s hair. The defence was self-defence. There were to be four witnesses: the victim, the defendant and one for each side. The time estimate was two to three hours. You could hardly have a more simple case.
The incident occurred on April 5 2023; the first hearing and not guilty plea was December 6 2023, and it was adjourned for trial to October 25 2024. Such delays are common. The reason is a shortage of court legal advisers.
John Cooper JP
Southwold, Suffolk
Rail fare inflation
SIR – Paul Schofield (Letters, February 6) should bear in mind that rail fares are only regulated because of privatisation.
Under British Rail, there was no notion of capping fare increases, with fares being considered in the context of the overall budget. In 1974, when inflation was at 19 per cent, there were four fare increases amounting to an overall rise of 68 per cent. Beware of what you wish for.
Joseph Kerrigan
London W13
Pothole proliferation
SIR – While walking in our village last weekend, my wife and I were amazed at the number of new potholes in the road.
Water running down the road had excavated new holes and enlarged existing ones. Suddenly I realised that every drain at the side of the road was full to the top with compacted dirt and debris, and this was the main cause of the constant flow of water.
We counted 14 totally blocked drains in just over a mile. It seems that emptying these is no longer a priority.
David Parkinson
Clitheroe, Lancashire
Time and tide
SIR – It is not just milk bottles that migrate (Letters, February 5). The fish boxes among the crab boats of Cromer, unsurprisingly, include many from the Netherlands. My favourite, however, was from a childhood haunt: Dunmore East, County Waterford.
Hugh Antrobus
Cromer, Norfolk
A taste of England at a great French restaurant
SIR – Like Frances Presley (Letters, January 31), I dined at La Tour d’Argent in 1989. The occasion was Mum’s 65th birthday, and Dad treated the family to a surprise celebration in Paris.
My sister-in-law ordered the French onion soup as a starter and commented most favourably on the taste, especially the cheese. In her best French, she asked the waiter what cheese it was. Somewhat haughtily, he replied in English: “Madame, it is cheddar.”
Paul Webster
Swettenham, Cheshire
How the Government could fix the dental crisis
SIR – The present NHS dental contract has all but killed off NHS dentistry in this country (“Queue that shows the state of NHS dentistry”, report, February 6). It provides a cap on the Government’s NHS dental cost, but it is grossly unfair and actively discourages dentists from taking on new NHS patients
A return to the previous fee-per-item contract and the freedom to set up a new NHS practice without needing an NHS dental contract would very quickly improve the situation.
Unfortunately this is unlikely to happen, as it would require a huge increase in NHS dental funding.
Peter Rosie BDS
Ringwood, Hampshire
SIR – When I received the diagnosis of a faulty heart valve last September, I felt the same sense of dread about having to deal with the NHS that Tim Stanley did (“What my operation taught me about ‘our’ NHS”, Comment, February 5).
Like him, I can testify to the kindness and attentiveness of the NHS staff involved. I am currently on an “urgent” waiting list for heart surgery. If this is the “tenderness” the article mentions, then the “horror” of the NHS is in its dysfunctional communication and administration. I waited 35 days before a helpful prescription was issued and it was nearly seven weeks before I had a scan.
After I raised a concern through the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (Pals), the explanation given was that the two health trusts I am dealing with have different computer systems. In addition, hospital secretaries are overburdened with “signing off” clinic letters, reports and test results.
There is frequent mention of the scandal of waiting lists and inefficiency in the NHS, but I believe the main issue of poor, delayed communication between patients, hospital departments and surgeries is largely under-reported.
Graham Brownridge
Scarborough, North Yorkshire
SIR – What a wonderful article by Tim Stanley. He sums up what many of us feel about the NHS but couldn’t have put into words: “Great at care, terrible at managing it.”
That says it all. Thank you, Mr Stanley, for pointing it out.
Judy Davies
Tenby, Pembrokeshire
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