Helpline? You must be joking

Abbey has recently offered good rates on its Isas and Fixed Rate Monthly Saver account. And, maybe inevitably, stories have emerged of it getting behind in processing accounts because of the high demand.

But it's one thing to get behind with opening a new account; it's quite another to make a total hash of it and not to have the grace, or indeed the good business sense, to own up.

I opened a Fixed Rate Monthly Saver account with Abbey on 7 November last year and sent a cheque for the initial deposit. At 7 per cent it seemed a good deal. On 10 November I received a letter from John Dodgson, business manager, thanking me for 'opening a Fixed Rate Monthly Saver account and for your initial deposit'.

He added that the standing order form I had filled in was incomplete and to arrange the order with my bank. This I did, with an instruction to start monthly installments in early December.

Dodgson also said I would need to 'pop' into my local Abbey branch with my ID and collect a passbook. This I also did and collected my shiny new passbook. All seemed fine, expect that by mid-December my initial cheque had still not passed through my bank and the first payment against my standing order had mysteriously been returned to it, with no word of explanation from Abbey.

I wrote asking what was going on, saying that it was a strange way to do business for a bank to appear not to want its customer's money, adding: 'This is the first account I have ever had with Abbey. It will be the last unless you give an early explanation - and tell me if you want my standing order to continue.'

In early January I received a reply from Customer Account Service Excellence (sic): 'I am unable to offer an explanation as to why we did not receive an initial payment.' My account was now closed, it added. If I wanted to open another, I should ring the helpline or visit my local branch.

I replied that Abbey had received my initial payment, that Dodgson had written to thank me for it, and that I could only conclude Abbey had lost the cheque. Having rung the helpline once, and received no satisfaction, I called in at my local branch, passbook in hand. I was told if I wanted an account I would need to start all over again.

I suggested to Customer Account Service Excellence that in view of the way the matter had been handled, they reinstate my account and find my cheque, or ask me for another remittence.

Back came the reply: 'The cheque must have become detached.' They could not admit to losing it. And no, my account could not be reinstated; I would have to start again. If I was not satisfied, then a leaflet 'you'll find with this letter explains your rights'. No leaflet was with the letter.

I replied that the Abbey had lost a customer. It lost my cheque - well anyone can lose a cheque - but compounded the error by not admitting it. And it didn't bother to send me an explanation as to what was going on or why it was returning my standing order payment.

Meanwhile, my shiny passbook has four entries all showing £0.00. The whole saga gave me the impression of a bank in a mess.

Last week Customer Account Service Excellence wrote, saying 'sorry to hear of your disappointment with the service you received in your recent dealings with Abbey. I hope that any service we can offer you in future will be in keeping with our normal standards'.

At least it was an admission that the service they offered me fell below standard.

Abbey says sorry for poor service
Cheque went missing, says bank.

We're very sorry about the standard of service Mr Madeley received when trying to open a Fixed Rate Monthly Saver account. We have looked into this and spoken to Mr Madeley to explain the situation.

Mr Madeley applied for a Fixed Rate Monthly Saver account on 7 November 2004 and the account was opened three days later. Unfortunately, the enclosed cheque was lost during this process and the account was opened with a nil balance.

Unfortunately, we failed to contact Mr Madeley to inform him that we hadn't received the first payment. As a result, the account was closed and the first standing order payment was not accepted.

We take full responsibility for this error and would like to apologise for the poor standard of service Mr Madeley received whilst trying to resolve the issue.

We have offered to open a new Fixed Rate Monthly Saver account for him, but understand that he might not want to do this.

We have also sent him a letter of apology and a cheque for £50 as a gesture of goodwill.