A story of two banks, Part One

Royal and I got into our new hometown on January 22, 2007.  We had a list of things to do, like signing myself up with the workforce, obtaining a national insurance number, and ADDING ME TO Royal's bank account. 

National insurance number was a piece of cake.  The workforce was fantastic - easy to work with, very nice... BUT you need to have a bank account to get paid, obviously.  So I completed and signed and let them copy everything they needed, and I was to get bank info to them as soon as I got one.  Easy, right?

WRONG.

My husband banks with Barclays, an English bank.  Which was great back in the big city in South England where he's from, but now the nearest Barclays is a fair bit away from our house. Oh, and Barclays doesn't have a direct PHONE NUMBER!!  So here goes:

We drive to the bank to add me to his account (which, in the States, took me about 10 minutes to add Royal to my accounts) and the lady tells us that we'll have to make an appointment, and no none are available today.  When works for us?  Royal, being military, does not get days off (at least not in any pattern) so we ask about Saturday... they are not open on Saturdays.   Also they open at 9:30am and close at 4:30pm.
I mean really, what's the point.
But we go ahead and give her a date for unfortunately, the week after, but one we know he has the afternoon off.  She says someone will give us a CALL to let us know if that date is okay, and that we need to bring our marriage license - which we had with us then, of course.

No phone call.  Finally the day before we were supposed to have the appointment, I call the only number Barclays has and speak to a lady who says she will FAX the branch and they should be calling us that afternoon before 5:00pm.  A very busy sounding woman called back around 4:00pm asking if I had the necessary papers -- mainly proof of MY address -- which had to be a sort of bill. 
We'd only been moved in about 2 weeks at that point so I didn't have that, not to mention most of the companies (phone, gas, etc.) didn't want to put my name with Royal's on the paperwork.  We usually got told that it'd be on the records and if I called that should be enough.
When I told her this, she said she was canceling our appointment and to come back when we had that bye now.  Click.

I might have been a tiny bit upset and VERY mad.

About a week later, we finally received an electric bill with both our names on it!  I immediately called the main bank number, who again said that they'd fax and we'd hear back within two hours.  No call came that day.
Royal called the next day, same thing, no call.
We waited two days (just got busy really) and Royal called again.  The man on the phone asked if we'd like to file a complaint.  Hell yeah we want to file a complaint.  NO CALL WITHIN FOUR HOURS.  So he calls AGAIN that day. 
No call came in.
We tried once more a day and a half after that.  Nothing.

That was the last straw, Royal and I decided we were going back into the bank and making them give us their time.

The continuation: Story of two banks: Part Two

** UPDATE:

Part Three
Part Four

Comments

[Goalie]

Poor Kath! Just make sure they don't think you're trying to stick them up when you go back!

[Alex Fear]

Kath,

First off congrats, sorry it's been a long time coming.

Secondly, re: banks and the rest of the beurocratic monster- welcome to England!

Its been a huge hassle for us too, the wife struggles daily with the drop in quality and standards compared to N. America.

Welcome to what, in reality, is a 2nd world country.

But at least we have great comedy shows. aah the office.

[Goalie]

Wow...I feel famous! Thanks for the link; love _your_ blog and comments!

[dagamore]

wellcome to the wonderfull world of trying to get anything due when in the military.

sorry to hear about your troubles, but the banks on post, atleast here in Germany, have the same damn hours. Why even be open, and dont have signs up saying you support the troops, and then have a sign over that that reads, close on all Saturday untill further notice.

Banks i hate them with a passion.

[Pat]

Would there be any point in copying and pasting your post and sending it to the head of Barclay's Bank? Or Watchdog BBC? At least you have recorded it all. I am sorry you should have this hassle and hope it gets sorted soon.

[Kath]

Thanks for the comments guys! It's definitely been a challenge, and it's STILL not over :o)
Goalie, thanks for the compliment - I hope people visit your site!
Pat, it seems that Barclays is now listening to us, but if it's not resolved soon I will take your suggestion.