Annoying address nonsense

I recently got round to changing my address with the bank for my current account. They make it ludicrously hard to do this, you can't do it over the phone (unlike every other thing including credit cards that they also run why the bank account should be so special I have no idea), the branches don't open on Saturdays, if you get them to send you the forms they never show up, and if you do manage to go in on a weekday they never seem to have the relevant paperwork or the queue is three miles long and full of old dears depositing or taking out money why they can't do that in the day when everyone else is working I don't know.

So as a result of this and some small amount of laziness on my part I hadn't got the thing changed over for quite a while, previously I had lived in places with exterior unsecured mailboxes so I didn't have any bank stuff delivered to the place so it was set to my parents address which for the most part was fine.

So I finally got round to sorting it out when I had to go in to deposit a cheque (who the hell uses bloody cheques any more they're a nuisance) and since they had none of the swift deposit forms I had to queue up for a cashier. Nearly half an hour later when I reached the front of the queue they took my check and had me fill out a large number of forms (they only had half my signature in their computer I don't know which half) and tried to get me to see someone for an "account checkup", I had set the ball rolling on the address change. Which for some unknown reason takes nearly a week, since it'll be one work experience kid in a back room typing it in to the computer I suppose maybe he's spending most of his time surfing for porn or some such.

I had a couple of pre-orders on things in the pipe so I duly phoned round and informed the various businesses that I had changed my billing address and they should update their records. They assured me this had all gone through OK and all seemed well. That was till today when I find an email saying my order for mass effect has been cancelled due to my card failing. It doesn't take a genius to work out why that is so despite my putting the effort in to make sure everything was up to date and correct they fucked things up meaning I might not get the thing at launch despite pre ordering well in advance. I naturally sent them a strongly worded email of complaint which will probably achieve nothing but made me feel a bit better, and now I've vented my spleen a bit more here I can get on with the rest of the day without the desire to smash things.

Comments

Thats pretty shocking. Which bank is it? (and also can I have your mothers maiden name, your first pets name, and your place of birth?)

When I moved house I was able to update my address with HSBC online, why you couldn't do it on the phone is beyond me. Also, no-one should be using Address Verification on credit cards etc, as it returns about 20-30% incorrect results...

babychaos's picture

It's lloydstsb once again proving how they repeatedly make the top of the list of worst banks for customer service. Oh and the details are Marmalade, Flesh Reaper, and England.

Evilmatt's picture

Yeah - address verification is a nightmare. I can't order pizza from Dominos unless I have cash because they do it, and it fails all of my cards.

Re Mass Effect, can't you just cancel the pre-order and pick it up in town somewhere? I know you don't work in a town centre, but I'm sure you could make an exception and drive in at lunch time or something. :)

If you really can't get to a Game during opening hours, I'm sure someone one here (like me) would be happy to pick you up a copy for collection later on Friday night.

AggroBoy's picture

That's weird, I went into a Lloydstsb branch one lunchtime and the lady changed my address over the desk at reception. It took about 5 minutes. It was changed instantly then and there so I could go an order some Chrimbo prezzies that afternoon.

brainwipe's picture

AVS is really bad with flats, industrial/commercial estates etc, hence why we don't use it at Yell. It "works" by checking house number and postcode, but any format issue at all and it returns a negative (or, if you want to be really sad, a code 200). As flats tend to have 2 numbers (the flat number and the building number) the card issuers seem to panic and fuck it all up.

babychaos's picture

The problem with trying to buy it in a shop is I don't have a games shop in town, I have places that do sell games (sainsburys, tescos, woolworths, whsmiths, blockbuster, the knitting shop ... no wait scratch the last one they only do PC games now) but they often don't get the latest stuff in for ages. That leaves driving up to oxford to go to PCworld which is tricky on a lunch break.

It looks like they might still manage to get the thing off to me for friday.

Evilmatt's picture

Grrr no sign of my copy of mass effect and yet I know they shipped it yesterday which means I can't go out and buy it or I'll end up with two copies BAH!

I wish game still did their 10 day no quibbles money back thing.

Having paid for next day delivery I will be having words with those jokers when it does show up.

Evilmatt's picture