Barclaycard Customer Care

[supermac9]

Barclaycard seem to be taking customer care (or the complete lack of it) to new extremes with me.

A few weeks ago (around 14th December) I fell behind with a payment, which prompted a flurry of calls from them, some from their strange automated sysyem (where you can promise to pay in 7 days etc.) and some from the silent call centre.

I've traded a bunch of messages with them since then - this is a summary (in reverse order, most recent message first) and my apologies for the length of them:

From:NTPCSsecure@barclaycard.co.uk
Date:29/12/2010 9:36

Thank you for your e-mail.

I am very sorry that you have had cause to contact us again.

In the circumstances I have forwarded your query on to our
Customer Relations Unit who are a specialist team managing queries
of a serious nature.

A member of this team will be in touch with you within the next
7 - 10 working days.

Please be assured that your concerns will be investigated in full.

In the meantime, I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for
the delay and the inconvenience caused to you.

Kind regards.

Vishal Chakraborty
Customer Advisor
Barclaycard Customer Service Team




From me 23.12.10 - Your latest message has confirmed that you have forwarded my e-mail to the 'relevant department' for a response within 7 days - as you will see from the date of my first complaint (around 14th December 2010), I have had no formal response in relation to this matter for 9 days now. I'm not sure what else I can do other than send reminders to you? It is extremely frustrating that you make almost continuous contact with me when my account has been in arrears (including, as I have pointed out, silent calls where the call-centre has simply rung my mobile number and then said nothing and hung up), but when I have a complaint, I hear nothing from you.
If I do not hear something by lunchtime tomorrow, 24 December 2010, I will refer this matter to the Financial Ombudsman without further reference to you.

From:NTPCSsecure@barclaycard.co.uk
Date:22/12/2010 14:47
To
Cc:

Thank you for your email.

I am very concerned to learn that you did not receive a reply to your previous email. It is certainly not our intention to ignore our customer's emails and in the normal course of events, all correspondence is dealt with promptly and without delay.

In regard to your query, I have forwarded your email on to the relevant department. You will receive a reply from them within seven days.

If you wish to contact them please call 0844 556 0060 or from abroad 00 44 1604 230 230, Monday to Friday 8am till 7pm and Saturday 9am till 1pm.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards

Shivanka Chauhan
Customer Advisor
Barclaycard Customer Service Team


From me
Date:21/12/2010 13:51
To:<NTPCSsecure@barclaycard.co.uk>
Cc:

Thank you for your latest e-mail - I regret that I am becoming increasingly frustrated with your responses, as this is the second e-mail message stating that I will receive a reply within 7 days (the previous one was sent to me on 14 December 2010) - to date, I have not received any contact other than your standard acknowledgements.
Would you please ensure that someone contacts me as a matter of urgency.

From:NTPCSsecure@barclaycard.co.uk [add contact]
Date:21/12/2010 13:01
To
Cc:

Thank you for your email.

Your email has been forwarded on to the relevant department. You will receive a reply from them within seven days.

If you wish to contact them please call 0844 556 0060 or from abroad 00 44 1604 230 230, Monday to Friday 8am till 7pm and Saturday
9am till 1pm.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.


Kind regards

Bhanu Joshi
Customer Advisor
Barclaycard Customer Service Team


From me
Date:20/12/2010 16:52
To:<NTPCSsecure@barclaycard.co.uk>
Cc:
Bcc:

Hello,
I still haven't had any contact in relation to my complaint.


From:NTPCSsecure@barclaycard.co.uk [add contact]
Date:14/12/2010 18:42
To:
Cc:
Bcc:

Thank you for contacting Barclaycard.

Your email has been forwarded on to the relevant department who will contact you within seven days.

Should you have any other queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards

Tamagna Gupta
Customer Advisor
Barclaycard Customer Service Team

I've since had a letter from them saying they are investigating and will get back to me in 7-10 days!

I haven't gone down the FOS route - would this be something they would take an interest in?

[supermac9]

Re: Barclaycard Customer Care

Since posting this message, Barclaycard have been in touch and have agreed to reduce the interest rate on my two cards by 50% and my minimum monthly payments have also been reduced by around 30%! It's only for three months, but every little helps.
My faith has been partly restored.

[supermac9]

Re: Barclaycard Customer Care

In response to an online message, I've just had a refund of two fees (late/overlimit), so I'm another £24.00 better off - they didn't even put up a fight! Barclaycard are going up and up in my estimation, long may it continue.

[supermac9]

Barclaycard Customer Care

A further word about Barclaycard.
After being late with my latest payments, I had a couple of the usual non-calls from the Barclaycard automated system, as well as one where the caller simply cut me off after around 30 seconds of conversation!
My complaints have borne fruit, which may be a lesson for others - despite breaching the previous agreement (3 months worth of reduced interest and monthly payments), they have been back on and have offered a similar deal, this time for 6 months.
Talk about a result! Moral of the story is that simply complaining seems to get them to come up with an offer.