Britannia/Cooperative Bank LPA rant

[HillyBilly]

Mum has an ISA type product with what was the Britannia building society, now part of the Cooperative bank. I spoke to them when the LPA was registered and they advised me to go into one of their branches when I was over in the UK with all the required documents. My visit fortunately coincided with the last remaining days of a local-ish branch being open - they seem to be closing the majority of their high street branches.

So, in I went, no furniture left, a skeleton staff but still a photocopier, on the floor. The manager took copies of all my documents, filled out all the forms etc. Happy days I think.

This morning I received a letter from them that they'd sent to Mum at her old address (house now sold but the new occupants kindly forwarded it to me) advising that the photocopies were of unacceptable quality and so to go in to another branch (miles away from original branch) to start over. Of course, I'm now back in Ireland...

Ranted and raved on the phone to head office. The poor guy at the receiving end was at a total loss what to do with me. Said he would call me back. He had to call back from his own mobile as he couldn't call Ireland via his switchboard. Said that a post office should be able to take an acceptable copy of all the docs and could send to them. (He doesn't realise I'm in Ireland, Ireland methinks). He asks me for my postcode so that he can find my nearest PO that offers this service. Those of you in Ireland will understand my amusement at and futility of this exercise. He calls back to check he's got the postcode right Strangely, he discovered that POs here don't offer this service...

Outcome - he accepts it's their **** up so on this occasion they will accept emailed copies of all the docs, seeing as one of their branch managers has had sight of the originals...

I do hope that this is not what it's going to be like with every LPA registration...

 

[Beetroot]

It would be an added cost, but could you find an English recognised lawyer or notary in Ireland who would certify copies for you and of any other document you might need, such as passport? Then you could post them off without risking losing the originals; they should send the certified copies back to you, but it's not the nightmare it will become if originals get lost.

 

[HillyBilly]

I think I might have to do something like that.
I've now heard back from the Cooperative Bank that the copies of the documents I've emailed them are unacceptable because they're photos rather than scanned
Don't have a scanner so I guess I'll have to go and find a photocopying service tomorrow and send them.
Un-Cooperative Bank might be more appropriate

 

[Beetroot]

If you have a brick wall handy, you could try banging your head against it. You might get a bit further that way.

 

[Tin]

Had similar problems with Britannia building society/Cooperative bank. Way back when mum moved in with me. She did not have a proper bank account and everything was being paid into the building society, unfortunately the nearest branch was 30 miles away in the centre of a busy city and absolutely no branch for Cooperative. so you can imagine the parking hassles. I decided to open a bank account for mum at NatWest and tried to get Britannia to transfer funds every month-no go! In the end we closed the account but not without hassle and endless trips to the branch with documentation, some wrong some right. I did not want to close this account because mum was getting an annual loyalty bonus of £100, but end of day, just was not worth it, I would have probably spent £100 a year in petrol!!

 

[arielsmelody]

We've got a cheap desktop printer that also scans and photocopies - if this kind of problem comes up often it might be worth investing in one.

 

[BeardyD]

Having gone through this many times with my wife's accounts I now give organisation one chance and then invoke their complaints procedure - it should be on their website. Send the complaint as a letter and include some text like "I am submitting this under your complaints procedure", they will then know that you know that the next stage is to contact the FSA. I always got phoned back by someone who was positively helpful and whose job was to solve the problems before they got to the FSA.

The only issue I had was with Birmingham Midshires who would only accept a self-certified LPA if it had their wording on it. They seemed not to understand that even if I reprinted a copy of the LPA with their wording there was no way my wife could sign her name 20 times anymore. At least the person I was talking to had the authority to bend the rules so we agreed that I would write their wording on a copy of the front page of the LPA and my wife would sign it once although I don't know how they would recognise her signature. At least they sent me £75 for my trouble !!

 

[HillyBilly]

We've got a cheap desktop printer that also scans and photocopies - if this kind of problem comes up often it might be worth investing in one.

Got one of those - it refuses to scan or photocopy any more lol.

 

[HillyBilly]

Fingers crossed - hopefully sorted now having sent photocopies off.
Emails of apology, offer of £50 compensation which I asked them to give instead to Mum's preferred charity.