Centurion

My wife's mum passed away in Australia with us 4 weeks ago. Needless to say its a horrid time as it was unexpected and she was relatively young. One of the necessities is to sort out advising companies etc.

It transpired there was a Barclaycard still in the UK and after several attempts of actually trying to speak to someone there and always being in a queue for 15 mins+, I gave up and faxed them a letter, copy of certificates, cards etc with the closing to contact me should they require anything else. That was a week and a half ago.

So early this morning (way too early this morning) I got a call from a family member to say that Barclaycard had been on the phone chasing money. No worries thinks I and call them.

• Call 1 - Bounced from dept to dept and then to a dead line. I'm not certain how many different geographical locations in India I must have been connected to. Each person more clueless than the next. I'm patient and polite throughout despite all the odds.
• Call 2 - As above, but took a while longer before someone just put the phone down on me.
• Call 3 - I explain the situation. Call center staff "So how would you like to make payment". Me "Have you just heard and understood what I have explained - I need to make sure that you have the information to deal with this as xxx has passed away". Idiot - "Yeah I'll transfer you - once you have made payment". This went on a while before I asked for the name and complaints dept details. The phone goes down on me.
• Call 4 - Like number 3 but with the added bonus of someone saying "I need to speak to the cardholder." Me - "would that be by tarot, medium or seance ? Alternatively I can always hold the phone to the urn with xxx remains but she's been a bit dead recently". it goes on...

I really couldn't make this up if I tried. Ultimately I have been left now with a complaints address to write to, as fax, email or telephone is too modern a method of communication apparently to use. Oh - and still no further forward.

Seriously my early morning coffee was like the dead parrot sketch. Little Britain it appears is alive and well.

Jaycee1

Centurion this is awful My deepest sympathy to you and your family.
Surely there must be someone at this company who can help.
I have pm'd you some links that you may help.
J x

Centurion

Thanks for the PM. I'm not too worried about the debt itself. The joys of being in Australia and far away from petty threats by toothless robots made to someone who worked in the debt industry for years.

It did make me annoyed that other people, less robust than I, might have to go through this sort of grief. Having dealt with other UK companies in closing accounts and so on it was relatively easy and they were helpful - M&S, Halifax etc.

It seems that Barclaycard's customer service is just very poor. Which is a shame, since I am a man with too much free time on my hands and a penchant for vendetta's, writing to MP's, consumer watchdogs and not going away when someone has truly got my back up. It happens very rarely and I dont complain easily but this mob have wound me up. The gauntlet has been laid down!

louie

Sorry to hear of your loss.

Coincidentally hubby and I have been having a battle with Barclaycard in the last few days after a payment was credited to my account when it should have gone to hubby's last month. If I ring and put in my card no, I get through to someone in the UK, if he rings he always gets someone unintelligible in India. I think your card no might determine who you get put through to. I guess that might mean I spend more than hubby! Either way the answer was "computer says no".

Happily we bank with Barclays. One call to Barclays to ask them to sort it out and sorted out it was. Did your mother-in-law bank with Barclays? They might be able to help.

sonlymewalter

Good luck in your quest Centurion. What you are going through is par for the course with these banking clowns. They are quick to take someone's money but try stop it and they throw everything in your way. This will be even more difficult if it's not your actual card.

When I tried to close my own card down with zero balance I was passed from pillar to post, on the phone on several occasions and all the things you mention like being cut off etc. I contacted them by several communication means e.g. email, fax, phone to no avail. They even passed me on to a call centre in the IOM, only to be cut off after waiting to be put through, passed to many different departments. The cost of sorting out never mind the time spent doing this is laughable.

Good luck mate. They are arseholes.

Centurion

Well an update. Last night I spent some time on Skype and finally spoke to someone after several attempts who it would appear may of had English as a first language.

We bantered for a while and I commented that it must be very difficult for them to deal with foreign estates where nobody cares about UK credit ratings and enforcement is near impossible. It must be really hard given the Data Protection Act and passing information outside the EU and I was surprised that she discussed the account with me at all over the phone and released confidential information without documented proof of my capacity.

By the way, could I have the details of your governing body or watchdog since I need to complain about the disgusting way that you treat vulnerable people. Would she mind spelling her name please, because I wanted to send a letter to the Times as I'm sure that other people wouldn't want to put through this sort of thing. Absolutely nothing personal and I was sorry she got lumbered with the call.

End result - debt written off as a gesture of goodwill.

Sigh.

Fly Away

The same thing happened to me when my Aunt died. It took months for Barclaycard to sort it out. Finally after months and months of telling various people and departments and nothing being done while the interest racheted up, I walked into a Barclays branch in my home town with the letters of administration for her estate, her will, her death certificate, 2 proofs of my own ID as executor of her will and a million other pieces of information and demanded to speak to the manager. He then certified that the documents were true, phoned all the relevant departments on the internal lines which they keep a closely guarded secret, faxed the certified copies of my documents through, got the interest wiped off from the day of her death and unfroze her Barclays accounts. I don't doubt that many bereaved people wouldn't have the staminia to cope with the process which they seem to keep a closely guarded secret.

Sorry for your loss Centurian, I hope that this added stress is now over.

Dreamy

I feel for you and your family.

When my husband died 13 years ago most companies were fantastic. Admittedly TSBTrustcard tried to use the event as a marketing opportunity 'do you realise if you'd had insurance on the card then you wouldn't have had to pay the outstanding balance'.. but hey ho, it was true.

The worst people I had to deal with was a mobile phone company. This was back in the days when mobile phones weren't universally carried by everyone and their dog (god, that makes me feel much older than my 40 years!!) and it was a nightmare.

To make matters worse TheOriginalHimself had had the temerity to die in Portugal so at the time we only had a Portuguese death certificate. This hadn't presented any problems at all dealing with the mortgage people (both of them as we had both a repayment and a thingy one before they went all 'this isn't enough to pay the debt' and I can't remember the term for them, bugger), the credit card people, the bank account people, the Government for my Widowed Mother's Allowance, so on and so forth.. but for his crappy mobile phone it was like he'd died on the Moon. And they wouldn't even talk to me until they'd had a certified translated copy of the death certificate.

I think in the end I told them to stick it sideways up their bottoms and let my solicitor deal with them. Well, I wasn't very old and had better things to worry about.

moneypenny20

Endowment


Well done. Pillocks like that deserve grief when they can't attempt any compassion at what is obviously a damned hard and time and one where, generally, you have no idea what you're doing.

Centurion, well done on getting it sorted. You really don't need the strife though. Hope everything that needs to be done, has been and you can concentrate on getting your lives back slowly.

paulry

Centurion, I'm very sorry to read about you and your wife's awful loss and your difficult experiences with Barclaycard at a time when you most need a sympathetic and understanding ear. Barclaycard are very blunt in the way they handle things and they have been for some time. Fortunately not all of the banks are like that. I had a problem where my credit card was charged twice for my mums funeral. There was some initial difficultly from Egg with them requiring me to contact the outlet in South Africa, etc; but as soon as they understood what the double transaction was for they said "leave it to us, we'll sort it out" and that was the end of the problem. It's a big thumbs up from me for Egg.