Bank rant!!

So I've been ranting on Facebook, Twitter and anywhere else I can the last two days about... Tescobank. Frankly - give up on the view of being a rival to established firms and go back to selling baked beans. WHAT A JOKE!!!

So - they were "converting the system" over the weekend - so no access. Ok now most online banking systems don't seem to need to be offline for 48 hours but it was well advertised beforehand.

So Monday morning - I attempt to log in on the new site. New signon screen says I need a new ID set up - as the little pamphlet they had sent me had said it would. I select new ID and then... and then... next section stayed "greyed" out and I couldn't progress. I tried a few things, refresh the page, go back etc. In the end I was dumped out the site. So fire up new browser and try again. Now old ID is not recognized and the new one says I have a "general error". So find a bit to check the id is associated with my account - yes it is. Try again - same problem.

Ok I'll leave it a bit. Tried later - same problem. Tried to phone customer services. After about 30 mins of music and being told that I was "moving forward in the queue" and that "our customer representatives really want to talk to you" I gave up.

Tuesday morning - on the phone... over 30 mins. Had to go off to do something else. Lunchtime - nearly 50mins! By now getting angry! Later that afternoon another 45mins wasted time. Search the internet - BBC has a news story saying

"For a brief period some customers were unfortunately unable to access their accounts," a Tesco spokesman said.

"We apologise for this, but can reassure them that the process is now complete and all customers can access their accounts online as normal."

This morning - tried again - same error. 30 mins on the phone. Nothing!!! Search about the internet. Find this and this. From these it would appear I'm not the only one with the problem so a long way therefore from "all customers can access their accounts online as normal".

I start tweeting about how poor this is. I retweet others saying how poor this is. I send several messages to @tescobank on Twitter (which has never tweeted by the way - shame you could have said something on there that would have possibly helped) saying "Answer the flipping phone!!!". They don't even have an email address you can email and obviously no branches. Am I regretting ever opening this account - oh yes!!!

Ok - 46mins into another call - now completely numb to the music and the recorded platitudes a voice says "Hello Tescobank can I help you?". I quickly said what the problem was. The lady was helpful - my account is still not accessible but we are making some progress so I have to try to be optimistic here don't I? She sounded tired, nervous and stressed so I didn't give her a hard time - she's trying to help me and it isn't her problem.

So I await the final stage in the getting my account back on line - this involves Royal Mail so still much to hope doesn't fail yet - but I'll reckon it'll be over a week I'll have been without access! I have had to find funds from somewhere else to pay a bill.... GRRR GRRRR!!! (That is me really angry btw).

So get access sorted and finished. Get my money out of there to somewhere else and then write a stinking letter of complaint to them. Oh I have already contacted BBC Watchdog programme (not that I like the style of that show but it is a vehicle to expose the lie perpetrated by the statement on Monday vs the reality of today) and also to Which - which I do like the style of and hopefully them making it clear how rubbish their service is might cost them business. In the end you have to vote with your feet and take your custom elsewhere don't you - it is the only thing that might make them get it better in future - however it'll be a future without me as a customer.