Santander UK: A Masterclass in Appalling Customer Service

On 3rd February 2025, I received a letter from Santander UK that left me both alarmed and frustrated. The letter stated that ‘immediate action’ was required to confirm my address, as a third party had allegedly informed Santander that I may have moved.

Given the serious nature of the claim, I immediately contacted Santander. What followed was an infuriating hour-long phone call, during which multiple representatives struggled to explain where the letter had originated or what it was about. I was left feeling completely in the dark, which is unacceptable from a supposedly reputable bank.

After much time wasted, it was finally revealed that the issue related to a previous address. This was baffling, as I have lived at my current address for approximately 22 years and had informed Santander of my move at the time. Despite this, I was now being forced to jump through hoops to resolve their error.

I was instructed to write to Santander Savings Operations with details of my current and previous addresses, the names of the accounts involved, and copies of my driving licence and passport. I did exactly as asked, sending my letter promptly on 11th February 2025.

Then—silence. No response. No acknowledgement. Nothing.

By 4th March 2025, with still no word from Santander, I called them again. After yet another exhausting hour on the phone, I was no further forward. This time, I was informed that I apparently had two profiles with Santander—something I had never been made aware of. The proposed solution? Merging the profiles. But, of course, this seemingly straightforward task could not be accomplished over the phone.

Frustrated, I requested to speak to someone more senior, hoping that they might be able to resolve the issue. After holding for 20 minutes, I was told that the senior staff member refused to take my call. This level of dismissiveness is completely unacceptable from a customer service perspective.

The final insult? I was told I would have to physically go into a branch, bringing my identification documents yet again.

Let’s recap:

• Santander falsely claimed I may have changed my address.
• They caused me unnecessary alarm and stress.
• They could not explain their own letter during a lengthy phone call.
• They forced me to waste time writing and posting a letter.
• They completely ignored my correspondence.
• They made me waste another hour on the phone with no resolution.
• They informed me of a second profile that I had never been told about.
• They refused to allow a senior staff member to take my call after making me wait 20 minutes.
• They forced me to visit a branch in person to fix their mistake.

This entire experience has been an exercise in incompetence, poor communication, and utter disregard for the customer’s time. A month wasted, countless hours lost, and still no resolution without further inconvenience.

Well, another couple of days have now passed since my last communication with Santander, it is now late on 6th March 2025. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that I have still heard nothing and my problem remains unresolved, I’ll definitely not be writing again and all I now seem to be left with as an option is the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Another day dawns, we are now at 7th March 2025 and Santander have still not resolved my problem even though the facts of the matter are straightforward and have been agreed and confirmed, those facts remain:

1. I have 2 dormant accounts, as identified by Santander.
2. The two dormant accounts contain money belonging to me.
3. I have been asked to provide address and ID details, which I have done.
4. Santander have done nothing to resolve matters.

In spite of this the latest from Santander remains: The relevant team are investigating the issue you raised in your previous emails, and they will be in touch once they have an update for you.

Another twist in the story yesterday! I received a letter from Santander yesterday, on 7th March 2025, the letter was dated 21st February 2025 so for reasons unknown to me the letter had taken two weeks to get from Bradford to my home, a distance of approximately 135 miles, I could have walked that distance in half the time.

The essence of the letter is:

We can confirm that we have re-instated your account, and they will no longer be made dormant. Please note that if your accounts remain unused, they may go dormant again.

This means that when I telephoned Santander on the 4th March 2025, I was speaking to them eleven days after they had apparently written me a letter confirming that my accounts were no longer dormant and yet the operator I spoke to, for about an hour, was unaware of this information. In this day and age it is beyond me why there seems to be such a lack of a central customer record detailing all customer communications which is available to customer facing staff.

Needless to say, I have checked my online banking system and the accounts containing my money remain inaccessible to me and in practical terms I am no further on.

The saga goes on, on 13th March 2025 I received a call from an 0800 number which I was unable to take, it transpired the following day that it had been Santander but for reasons known only to Santander they didn’t try again and as I had no idea who the caller was there was nothing I could do, I don’t reteurn calls to unknown numbers, many of whom are scammers. Why did Santander not call again? I don’t know.

On 13th March 2025 I received the following email:

Thank you for contacting us about your concerns. Once we’ve finished looking into your complaint, we’ll send you details of our review and the outcome we’ve decided.

Please take a look at the ‘How To Complain’ section of our website. It explains our complaints process. We hope we’ll be able to find a solution for you once our review is complete.

If you have any questions at all, please call us on 0800 171 2171, we’re available Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm and Saturday 8am to 4pm.

So, I’m no further on. I duly called the number above. I was told that the person who was dealing with my complaint was not available and it was not known when he or she would next be on duty but that they would be sent a message to call me. Surely if there is a central record of a complaint and in an organisation the size of Santander the whole thing should not hinge on the availability of one individual, who’s work schedule is unknown? Maybe this is the new reality of WFH?

All I can now do, once again, is wait, unable to access my own money. It is now about 5 weeks since Santander originally wrote to me erroneously raising concerns that I have changed my address and I’m no further on. What else needs to be said?

On 14th March 2025 I received a call from Santander upholding my complaint, telling me that I didn’t need to go to a branch and that they had all the information they needed to resolve matters. During the telephone call I genuinely believed that I was finally getting somewhere and that this sorry saga would be resolved, at last. I was reassured that I would be contacted later in the day or the following day to finally resolve matters and to discuss some form of compensation.

If you have followed this tale at all you can probably guess what comes next. It is now 09:00 on 19th March 2025 and I have still heard nothing. Another 5 days have passed, another acceptance of the problem and Santander upholding my complaint has changed nothing, I still don’t have my money and Santander have slipped still further down in my estimation. And yes, I’ve checked my phone, I haven’t missed any calls.

Well I finally received another call from Santander on 20th March 2025 once again upholding my complaint and agreeing to make a modest ex gratia payment for the inconvenience and hassle this has all caused, all of which was totally avoidable. However, since that call another week has passed (it is now 27th March 2025) and you’ve guessed it, I still have not received the money that Santander are holding onto. They have agreed that the money is mine and they agreed to return it to me when they rang on 20th March 2025. You really couldn’t make it up.

Finally I can report that my old accounts have been closed, the contents have been transferred to me and a small ex gratia payment was received. The saga is over.

Would I recommend banking with Santander to a friend?

Getting Organised - DiscCatalogMaker

Ancient Cuneiform Writing

My organisation programme goes on. I have now managed to feed almost my entire collection of data/software/odds and ends, M-Discs, DVDs and CDs through the DiscCatalogMaker programme which is indexing the whole lot for me. I’m hoping that my M-Disc archive will last for decades though perhaps not millenia like the really old technology, cuneiform script on clay tablets.

I’ve given each disc a unique number and all the discs are now in numbered sleeves in an aluminium box. So, if I need “that DVD that came with that xyz” years ago I can just search the catalog for it, get the disk number and fish it out. No more wondering where I put the disc which would always have been “somewhere safe”.

Same goes for video clips and photos on discs. The great thing, for me anyway, is that I can find everything and there is no single point of failure where I could lose the whole lot.

One of the main drivers in this was to avoid having everything stored in the cloud as I simply don’t need immediate access to this stuff so I didn’t want to be paying for long term storage. The more important stuff (old videos and photos) is now on the apparently very stable M-Discs, we’ll just hope for the best now.

“Awful April”

The seven bills due to go up in April. Energy costs are one of a number of bill rises which will come into force at the start of what some commentators have described as “Awful April”. The exact amount you pay will depend on your individual circumstances and where you live. Although minimum wages will increase from April, and wages on average have been outpacing inflation, household finances could still come under extra pressure. Here are seven ways in which you could be affected.

1. Water Bills.
Water bills for households are due to go up in England and Wales by £10 more per month on average, but there’s a lot of variation depending on the company. For example, the annual Southern Water bill will jump 47% to £703, while Anglian Water customers will pay 19% more, or £626. Factors including whether households have a meter and how much water is used will also impact bills, which are being front-loaded for the next five years, meaning the big increase is coming in April.

Water companies in England and Wales have said the increases are needed to invest in creaking infrastructure, including sewage, and to build more reservoirs. In Scotland, water bills are set to rise by almost 10%. Scottish Water, which is a public body, said spending was needed to cope with periods of “drought and intense rainfall” brought on by climate change. Domestic customers in Northern Ireland are not billed for water, with the system funded by the devolved government.

2. Energy Bills.
The annual energy bill for a household using a typical amount of gas and electricity will go up £111 a year to £1,849 from April. Regulator Ofgem increased the energy price cap because of higher wholesale costs and inflation. The cap is set every three months and limits the amount suppliers can charge for each unit of gas and electricity, but not the total bill, so if you use more, you will pay more. It affects 22 million homes in England, Wales and Scotland.

Standing charges - fixed fees to connect to a gas and electricity supply and varying by region - are rising again for gas but dropping for electricity, depending on where you live. Ofgem is suggesting households consider a fixed tariff for a bit of stability, even though there’s speculation of prices dropping in July.

3. Council Tax.
It is likely the tax you pay to your local authority will go up from April. In England, local authorities with responsibility for delivering social care can increase council tax every year by up to 4.99% without triggering a referendum or local vote. Smaller councils without social care duties can increase bills by up to 2.99%. For 2025-26, the government is allowing Bradford, Newham, Birmingham, Somerset, and Windsor and Maidenhead to bypass the 4.99% cap, meaning they could raise council tax by more.

Council tax rates in Scotland have been frozen or had limited increases since 2007, but they are expected to go up in April, in some cases by as much as 10%. The Scottish government says it is offering local authorities an extra £1bn in 2025-26 to help reduce the scale of any rise. In Wales, council tax rates could jump by as much as 15% in some areas. Local authorities were given £253m by the Welsh government in its draft budget, but council leaders say more money is needed. Northern Ireland uses a domestic rates system instead of council tax. All of Northern Ireland’s councils have reported district rate increases for the next year.

4. Car Tax.
From April, the standard rate of tax for cars registered after April 2017 rises £5 to £195 a year. According to the RAC, you may pay less or more if your car was first used before 2017. The exact amount for your road tax will depend on the year your car was registered and the type of fuel it uses.

One big change is that electric vehicles (EVs) will no longer be tax exempt. EVs registered from April 2025 will pay the lowest rate of £10 in the first year, then move to the standard rate. The standard rate will also apply to EVs first registered after April 2017.

5. Broadband, Phone And TV Licence.
Rule changes introduced by the telecoms regulator this year mean that mobile and broadband providers must now tell customers “in pounds and pence” about any price rises, as well as when they occur. The new rules typically only apply to new customers, so any price rise will depend on when you took your contract out.

For instance, under the new rules, someone with a mobile SIM-only contract with EE will see their bill go up by £1.50 a month, or £18 a year. But for the majority of customers who took their contract out before 10 April 2024, they will face an increase of 6.4%, based on the inflation rate last December, plus an additional charge. Similarly, most Virgin Media broadband customers will face a 7.5% rise in bills, but for anyone who took out a contract after 9 January this year, their monthly bill will go up by £3.50.

The cost of a TV licence will also go up by £5 to £174.50, and for a black and white TV, it will go up by £1.50 to £58.50.

6. Stamp Duty.
House buyers in England and Northern Ireland will start paying stamp duty on properties over £125,000 in April, instead of over £250,000 at the moment. First-time buyers currently pay no stamp duty on homes up to £425,000, but this will drop to £300,000. Anyone starting a search for a property now would likely struggle to move before the stamp duty changes.

7. Hidden Tax Rises.
The government has kept in place the freeze on tax thresholds on income tax and National Insurance until 2028, a policy brought in by the previous government. This is often dubbed a stealth tax - as governments don’t explicitly label it as a tax. But the policy amounts to a tax rise because of a process called “fiscal drag”, which sees more people “dragged” into paying higher rates of tax as wages rise.

According to figures from the government’s financial watchdog, by 2028-29, nearly four million additional people will be expected to pay income tax - and three million more will have moved to the higher rate - due to the threshold being frozen.

Source: BBC Website.

Reporting by Tom Espiner, Vishala Sri-Pathma, Faarea Masud, Shanaz Musafer, Mitch Labiak, Tommy Lumby and Kevin Peachey