skoda octavia estate ,santander bank. - compensation for wasted time

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Sun 31 Oct 2010 19:51
skoda octavia estate ,santander bank. - compensation for wasted time - tony g

im a part time car dealer and buy cars on a fairly regular basis from a local auction house.

up until recently the auction has insisted on cash payments,but recently changed its rules to allow debit cards for payment .with no additional charge. i recently bought a skoda estate for £5600 pounds on a friday and went back on a monday to collect the car.

first though i checked with my bank ,santander, that it would be ok to pay the amount by debit card.

i rang thier telebanking service who said no problem .thier was enough money in my account and it would go through. On four seperate attempts my card was refused.Each time it was refused i rang santander who said they couldnt understand why it was refused,but to give it five minutes while they sorted it out and then try again.

Finally i drove to a local santander branch where i paid £10 for a bankers draft made out to the auction, and went back and collected the car.

i then wrote to santander to complain, asking for an explanation,and for a refund of the £10 plus £60 to cover my wasted time, 3 hours at £20 an hour .a total of £70.

santander wrote back acknowledging the mistake was thiers .apparently each transaction can only be for a maximum of £5000 .but up to £10000 in one day.i just needed to pay the transaction as £5000 and a seperate one for £600.

they agreed in writing that thier staff should have known this but had never offered the correct information.Even though i spoke to four different members of thier staff

although i wrote again to santander asking for £70 to be credited to my account they have not replied.

im now seriously considering going to the small claims court to try and get the £70.

the issue is not really the £70,its much more about santander ignoring my request completly, and that they were so inept, as to fail to give the correct information 4 seperate times.

So in short, it seems to me that i am definetly due a refund of the £10 i paid for a bankers draft .However am i entitled to the £60 to cover the one hour of my time that i spent at the auction ringing santander followed by a two hour 20 mile drive to collect a bankers draft from thier branch.

regards

tony g

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Sun 31 Oct 2010 20:08
skoda octavia estate ,santander bank. - compensation for wasted time - bathtub tom

Write to the banking ombudsman. It's quicker and cheaper than small claims.

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Mon 1 Nov 2010 10:01
skoda octavia estate ,santander bank. - compensation for wasted time - LucyBC
They may repay the £10 as a customer service issue. You have no claim in court for the wasted time.
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Mon 1 Nov 2010 18:21
skoda octavia estate ,santander bank. - compensation for wasted time - Collos25

Santander have to be the bank that others have no difficulty in beating,I have never ever seen such a disorganised bank in my life how on earth they survive I will never know..

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Mon 1 Nov 2010 21:55
skoda octavia estate ,santander bank. - compensation for wasted time - Avant

Their motto is no doubt 'Manana'. Change to a good British bank, Tony.

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Tue 2 Nov 2010 11:16
skoda octavia estate ,santander bank. - compensation for wasted time - Harry Boy

Hola Tony, I would not be in a hurry to change banking arrangements on the strength of one incidenti if you are otherwise happy with the service. If it is one of a series of mistakes then that is a different matter and you should vote with your feet. I can't say that yours is the worst bank as there are many hundreds across Europe that I, and few others, have never experienced and all, I expect, have their own problems and dissatisfied customers, but it is how they react to mistakes that counts. Goodwill is notoriously hard to build but so easy to lose.

While I fully agree that the staff should have been aware of the rules I would also suggest that the terms and conditions of your banking agreement with them cover debit card limits. Yes I know that few people read the small print, but it is usually there in print, and I would expect the Small Claims court to take that into consideration. May be best to put it down to experience, after all you didn't lose the car because of it.

I hope that your eventual profit on the sale of the Octavia will more than compensate for £70 out of pocket/inconvienience expenses.

I hope I am being constructive and may say I do not and never have worked for a bank.

Ciao

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Tue 2 Nov 2010 12:37
skoda octavia estate ,santander bank. - compensation for wasted time - bathtub tom

I'm a customer of this 'Spanish practices' company.

Unfortunately, I can't find another that offers similar terms and conditions for my requirements.

I've complained so often that now they seem to give me ten quid and apologise each time.

The bonus is, I seem to have a 'marker' against me that means I'm treated with kid gloves whenever I call.

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Tue 2 Nov 2010 18:06
skoda octavia estate ,santander bank. - compensation for wasted time - tony g

hi lucy,thankyou for the info.

it seems youre advice will save me extra time and the cost of issuing a claim through the small claims court, about £80 i beleive.again thankyou

can you explain why i am unable to claim for my time, that was wasted as a result of santanders ineptitude,and admitted to in writing by them.

im guessing that a ruling in court must have already been given on a wasted time issue.

thank you for the other replies and comments .Sadly , santanders business bank account operation is a shabby affair. i could not recommend it even though its free of monthly bank charges etc. The fact that it costs nothing is the best thing you could say about it .

the reason i say that its a poor service can be summed up in three ways ,the maximum i can draw out in one day is £500.not much use to a car dealer.i have a private account with nat west where i can take out £4000 a day just using my pin number.!

if i pay in cash for more than £3000 in a month ,santander charge £5 each time i do that.

finally they charge £25 for a bacs or t t transfer.Nat west do it free of charge.

Once again thankyou to everyone for thier comments and suggestions

tony g

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Thu 4 Nov 2010 09:11
skoda octavia estate ,santander bank. - compensation for wasted time - LucyBC

You can claim for expenses but not for your time because they did not agree to pay you for it in the first place. It's very hard to recover costs for any "wasted time" in the small claims court. Here is seems to be the majority of your claim.

Business bank charges are high for custmoers handling cash. With these free accounts they seem to charge everything as an add-on.

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Wed 29 Dec 2010 20:02
skoda octavia estate ,santander bank. - compensation for wasted time - tony g

thankyou to everyone who commented on my problems with santander.

just a final note to say that santander paid the £70 as a gesture of goodwill and agreed that thier service had been rubbish.

although the service from thier glasgow call centre was terrible.ive since completed a couple of major transactions with thier local branch which went without a hitch.

so perhaps not every part of thier organisation is chaotic.

tony g

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