Recently I have been having a challenging time trying to get some aspects of my online business bank account to work.
I have always been a great fan of the bank, open 8 till 8 and on Sundays, “award winning” toilets and they even have biscuits for dogs (I don’t have a dog but I appreciated the effort)…and they used to have a working website. If anyone asked if I would recommend this bank I would say Yes, the service is great and they seem to be very customer-focussed.
The bank is very proud that they have improved their website, which is lovely, but it’s not improved for me. About 5 weeks ago I found that I couldn’t pay a bill online, but I kept trying and it became a bit of a quest. Then four weeks ago I rang them to ask for help. I thought I was going to be a while so I had a coffee with me, little knowing I would have time for a 3-course meal. 1½ hours later and having been passed to three different people I finally managed to speak to someone who said he would raise an IT ticket and the issue, whatever it was, would be resolved in 72 hours. He also sorted the payment that needed doing immediately but not the one that needed to be paid next month.
I then went on holiday for 11 days and during my “catching up project” I again tried to schedule the outstanding payment and again failed. So with coffee, some admin work and a positive attitude I rang them again. 2½ hours later and having spoken to 5 more people, including, at one point, being randomly put through to the fraud department (No it really is my account I assured them) and was put through to someone else, someone gave me a mobile number for my ‘relationship manager’.
Later he rang me and said “Yes some people are having this problem” and I asked why the people on the helpline didn’t know about this, nor did any of the service status websites. His answer was “I don’t know!” You might have heard my yell of frustration, it went on for a while. He then tried to give me a list of tasks that would make it easier for him to help me. At this point my heels dug in and I reminded him that I was the customer and he should email me the list to ensure clarity. Yesterday I went, by appointment, I visited my local bank. Here I was helped by a young man who took me through various security things. I was assured that this would be sorted in 72 hours, but said I should try it on an ad hoc basis before that. We agreed a time and date to meet if the problem persisted.
This morning I logged in and guess what…I can log in but no longer gain access to my business account!
The quest continues. The people I spoke to tried, in the main, to be helpful. My frustration however is with a company that knows there is a problem, because of changes they have made, for some customers, and doesn’t communicate this to the people at the front end who are dealing with customers problems. I tried to find the contact details of the CEO, Dan Frumkin, without any success, so I tried to find the same for all the senior managers, again I failed. So they don’t know that this particular fan has changed her opinion about their company and will be actively telling people not to use their bank, including this Blog. Oh and the bank? Metro Bank.
Thank you for reading and easing my pain, here is my gift to you: my Top 20 networking tips just follow this link: ebn.uk.com and complete the form to receive your copy.
Have fun,
Glenys
