How To Do Customer Service On The Cheap (Shocking BarclayCard, Shocking)
Let me start off by giving a bit of background. I signed up for a new Credit Card. Christmas, along with a trip to New York, is coming up, so a bit of credit comes in handy. Especially when BarclayCard are offering interest free purchases and balance transfers. Great, so I signed up. A few days later my new Platinum BarclayCard arrived in the post. I phoned up to activate it and transfer some money from a different card. Great, I thought, job done.
Well, no.
I received a letter earlier this week saying that the account was in arrears and I owed them two minimum payments. Couldn’t be, I thought. I set up a Direct Debit when I signed up. Apparently, BarclayCard have failed to carry out my instruction to set up a Direct Debit which meant I had missed a payment. So as soon as I received the letter I logged in to their website and immediately set up a direct debit. After a while something occured to me. I remember reading something in the terms and conditions that said if a payment was made late, any promotional rates would be lost. So at this point I tried to contact BarclayCard to find out if this is the case. And this is where the poor customer service really goes out of its way to hinder you.
Firstly, I looked for a phone number to call. With respect to BarclayCard, the number was easy to find (see image to the right, click to enlarge). So I called this “24 Hour” number. Turns out that this number only really operates 24 hours a week, not a day. So despite the number being labelled “24 Hours”, and despite making me type out my full 16 digit credit card number, I got a message saying the line was closed and advising me of the opening hours. It then abruptly cut my off. How DARE I think a number labelled “24 Hour” would actually by open on a Saturday Afternoon.
Right. Let’s try the online contact methods then. Once again, easy to find, but the actual design just screams “GO AWAY!“. As a web designer, you often have to consider your target audience. If you’re designing a site like this, you can be fairly confident that visitors are fairly IT literate. So you can take a few liberties. If you are designing a site for a bank, you can’t. Many visitors will be completely un-IT-literate, beginners. People like your parents. So everything has to be clear, big, easy to read and obvious. What you don’t expect is a form that limits what you can say and rushes you. but that’s what I found. I’ve put a screenshot to the left (click to enlarge) so you can see for yourself. It limits the amount you can write and imposes a time limit. There is absolutely no reason for doing either of these things other than to restrict what the user writes. They really don’t want you to contact them. Can you imagine your mother, for example, trying to write out a query in a tiny form box, in a limited amount of characters and within a time limit. To make matters worse, there’s a bug in their javascript that means when you reach the limit, your cursor and view jump to the top of the text box, so you can’t easily delete parts of your message.
Of course, this isn’t the full story of poor customer service. Since then I was told that it takes Six Weeks to set up a direct debit, so I had to pay the amount owed. Which I did. But then I was phoned up by someone from BarclayCard demanding payment. This is despite the fact I have a Direct Debit set up (twice!), have paid the amount requested by bank transfer and, worse of all, when I log in to may account it says payment isn’t due for another 9 days. I’ve never had such a poor customer service experience with any company. Maybe the Credit Crunch is affecting customer service?
So, to summarise. If you want to do customer service on the cheap, advertise great customer service like a 24 hour contact number, but don’t follow it through. And then, make any other means of contacting you impossible to use.
I’ve heard a rumour that the only way that BarclayCard accept complaints is written in blood on 200 year old parchment.
In relation to your above comments regarding barclaycard. If you read the terms and conditions properly, your bank details are taken on application as part of the checks barclaycard perform to be able to offer you a credit limit on your account. When you phone to activate your account you have the option there to set up a direct debit.
Also if you checked your statements it would have told you if you had a direct debit set up.
The customer services team are 24/7 it’s only departments such as collections which aren’t open 24 hours a day.
I hoped this has helped you
I think you’re missing out on two crucial points, Mike. Firstly, I gave the instruction to set up the DIrect Debit when I activated the card. It was Barclay Card that failed to carry out my instruction. Secondly, if you log onto their website and look up the contact numbers, the “Customer Service” number, under the 24 hours a day header, was the one I called. It wasn’t collections, which, by the way, I couldn’t actually get a direct number for (that’s another story, and goes some way to explain why ID fraud is so prevalent these days). I made no mistake, the 24 number, clearly stated as such on their website, was closed on a Saturday afternoon.
BarclayCard, to their credit, have since admitted their mistakes, corrected my account and refunded all charges. Unfortunately my complaint had to be escalated several levels before this happened.
I am just off the phone to the financial industry ombudsman, to whom I have lodged a formal complaint about the same thing. I have just come back from a 2 week holiday in Australia, all the while using my Barclaycard (BC) safe in the knowledge it was all 0% interest. Uh Uh… not so, BC failed to carry out my direct debit instruction also, despite confirming receipt. As soon as I realised the money I had set aside for the first payment was still sitting in my account, I called and made a manual payment. This was 6 days after it was due however, and I am therefore in default of the agreement through no fault of my own. AT NO POINT did anyone I spoke to, either while setting up my direct debit, or when I rang to make a manual payment, inform me I had lost the promotional reate. I AM FURIOUS!!! I have found similar stories on the web, others who tried to make first payment by cheque.
I tried to speak to someone but could only get call centre staff in a particular country where its cheaper to house call centres. I was escalated to a team manager who confirmed he was not able to re-instate my promotional rate and flat out refused to transfer me to, or give me details of his supervisor, claiming it was personal information.
Its my suspicion that BC rely on this and make a lot of money on the people who never bother to complain.
Welcome further comments, I’ll be checking back!!!
Be sure to let us know how you get on, Chris. As I said in a previous comment, my complaint got escalated several levels (dare I say it had to be escalated back into this country?) before it was resolved. The strange, and frustrating thing about the whole episode was that I got absolutely no joy until it reached a certain level, from which point on they were completely understanding, admitted their mistake, refunded all charges and reinstated the offer. I even had the name and direct number of a representative. It’s just a shame it had to go so far and the customer service was so bad initially.
I’m tempted to agree with you about Barclay Card using this tactic to break people out of the interest free offer. It’s telling that the letter you receive saying you’ve missed a payment doesn’t actually mention the fact you’ve lost the promotional rate.
I’m also having a night mare with BarclayCard. I’m fuming after one call to an Italian call centre (apparently), 2 to India and a 1 to a barclays call centre in Manchester. The Indian call centre people are something else. Could you perhaps share the number for the people you go through to in the UK?
As far as I’m aware there isn’t one. At least that’s what they insisted when I asked. The only way I ended up dealing with someone in the UK was to lodeg my complaint with the Financial Industry Ombudsman and wait for Barclaycard to reply (which for the record they did and dealt with my complaint to my satisfaction – 0% promotional interest rate re-instated, late fee and interest refunded)
Good luck – Chris.
I had a very serious problem with my card my payment due date was 9 of june for 643£ and on 5th of June I deposited 340£ in barclays branch so the due amount was 200 something which has to be direct debit to my acct on 9th of June but, the barclays took the full 643£ again from my acct because of. That some other direct debit got affected and now I have to pay the fee for overdraft.I think it should not happen with me because they send me the paying slip with the statment which usually I dont get with other cards because of direct debit set up,barclays send me that creating confusion as if direct debut is not set up,and if I have paid more than minimum ammount they should have not took the the money from my acct atleast not more than I owe them
just another bit of info . i had a £50 fixed direct debit which suited my usage. then i spent a lot more and my minimum payment should have been £120 . However on the statement it says they will collect the appropriate amount . i assumed they would take £120 no not a chance they took 50 sent me a nasty letter and took £12 late payment fee…………….since refunded
Barclaycard, held for 30 years,
suddenly Barclacard gone off the rails, for reasons known only to themselves withou checking back, they accepted a telephoned advice of a change of address …..result I get no statements, for a few months, as I pay off balances on receipt I didn’t think too much about it.
It was only when they phoned me to ask if I got my new card that the alarms started ringing!
When informed that no new card was requested they then asked if the transactions of £9000+ in one day were mine!
Seems Barclaycard
1) changed my address without telephone confiming
2) they then issued a new card to the new address (telephoned request)
3) they then issued a new PIN for the new card at the new address
4) They then authorise multiple same day payments that are completely out of character with my spending record – again no checks.
5) Seems this is all my fault!! – How?
Many Conversations later with Fraud Department and most of the balance is cleared away as not being mine. Result £9,000 approx was written off – wonder if a crime report was filed?
I asked for clarification on balance remaining – about £220, and requested statements that were missing as a result of changed address, after many weeks of waiting for statements and further requests for same, I start to get calls from collections Department (Sunday morning text messages!) and phone calls at work – at home and on my mobile – amazing how they can suddenly find so many phone numbers for me.
All calls include a veiled threat of what they are going to do to my credit record, and the procedings they may be forced to take.
Further discussion of the circumstances surrounding the events elicits a sympathetic response from Collections and a cessation of calls. – Still no statements.
Spend 1 hour on telephone to Customer Services
– not their problem – they cannot give me the information requested – transfer to anoher department – Call cut off!
Desperate –
write explanatory letter to Managing Director Barclaycard UK c/o Northampton address asking for assistance – letter returned – Persons Unknown! – Do they not have a Managing Director?
Spend 1/2 hour on phone to Fraud department, eventually uncover the account number of the card that Barclaycard asked me to destroy and the account number of the fraudulent account.
Spend 1 hour on Telephone to Customer services
-Armed with all the account details I can eventually get a verbal account of what makes up the charges they are chasing.
Seems that they are charging me for late Payment and for overdue interest on amounts outstanding during the time they were sending my statements to the fraudsters.
Paid outstanding balance and write letter to Customer services requesting they waive the late payment charges and the overdue interest charges as all of this occurred while I was not receiving statements and I was unaware of the balances.
Result ZERO – no answer!!!!
Seems with Barclaycard its only one way traffic – they talk to you about their demands and ignore anything you might request of them.
Barclaycard best advice shred it!!!
That’s quite a story Peter. I hope you get it all resolved. As I alluded to in my first comment, the method of contact BarclayCard used caused me cause for concern. I was called out of the blue and challenged with “security questions”. I, of course, refused to answer them and asked for a number I could call back on to verify it was actually BarclayCard calling. Apparently, this department didn’t have one. So I challenged them, a challenge which, worryingly, they passed.
Just think about that for a second. They phoned me and asked me to provide some personal information to verify I was the card holder. This could have been a scammer for all I knew. So I refused and asked them to provide me with some of my own personal information to verify that they were BarclayCard. And they did. Now, if they had the wrong number, they would have given my personal information to someone else. And by definition, the sort of information a bank holds about you is at a level sufficient to be used for financial applications.
There are two options, either you have to give up your personal information to anyone who phones and asks for it, or you can allow the companies you deal with to hand out your personal information. It’s Win – Win!
Barclaycard are a nightmare! In August I went £1.29 over my credit limit, for which I was charged £12, which after a phone call to complain (India Arrrrggggg!) was told it would be waived as my payment history was excellent. I cleared the full amount on my account only to again receive my next statement and my outstanding balance was now £24 and this has happened twice since.
I duly wrote to the customer services director and got a letter back to confirm that my balance was now set to zero and would not not need to make any further payments. Horror of horror I receive a statement this morning for £54!!! The worst thing is that when you phone “customer service” you have a 2 in 3 chance of going through to India, they cannot and will not put you through to the UK and are not interested in your problem and If you get assertive they cut you off.
When you do eventually get through to the UK (after going through all the options on the phone – at my cost), they fully understand your problem but are as useful as a chocolate teapot at resolving it. They will not give you a direct contact number for the UK, their extension number or e-mail address, they just expect you to play russian roulette when you wish to phone again as to whether or not you get through to the UK. This all for going just £1.29 over limit! I am absolutley FUMING and contemplating my next move.
Barclaycard must be making a packet out of the non complainers.
I just got off a frustrating phone call to what sounds like the Indian call centres. They have also failed to change my direct debit instruction months ago, which resulted in the old bank account gone overdrawn. During this call, in my attempt to change this month DD, I was told this is not possible even though the payment is not due to go out for another 10 days! Also in my attempt to change it for the future periods, I was told that this is not possible, and I can only do so between the 2nd and 9th (1 week window) next month. Such an excellent customer service, I cannot imagine how hard it is to actually pay them!! I have other important things in life, Barclaycard is not one of it. I dont want to worry about it anymore, so goodbye Barclaycard!!
Ok.. I work for this organisation and first of all I must say, that We do not have a direct number for the UK call centre and we can not give out email addresses as they are for internal use and ALL members off staff receive exactly the same training.
In regards to the Direct Debit queries we do state that you must check your statement to make sure that the facility has been set up correctly for you.We also state that if it has not then you must make this payment yourself untill the statement reflects this. And there is a weeks window in regards to changing a direct debit due to the banking facilities.
I am sorry that you have had bad experiences within the business but not all advisors are the same.
Hi everyone,
I’m having a problem not unsimilar to you guys and not sure if anyone can help me! I sent a cheque in the post for my Barclaycard two weeks before the payment was due. Apparently this was lost in the post, and on Saturday (three days after my payment was due) my mother and father started recieving automated calls to their house phone (barclaycard hadn’t bothered to update the details) saying i had missed a payment.
So fine Sunday morning i telephoned them, got an automated system that said i was overdue and gave me the option to pay there and then, which was all fine and dandy. however, today the phone calls have continued, bearing in mind my father is not only elderly but currently unwell. These calls are happening every hour, there is no one to talk to. So i rang BC up today and got their Indian call centre, had a very lengthy heated discussion with the lady on the other end, told her i was not happy. Apparently the calls could not and would not be stopped until the payment had cleared which would take 4-5 working days! I was very angry with them and said this was unfair and had to stop as it was not fair on my dad, and asked to speak to a supervisor. Was then told a supervisor wouldn’t talk to me as they could only repeat what the advisor was saying, In the meantime though BC decided that their automated system wasn’t working the day i made the payment and they wanted me to pay again, but without the calls stopping. I said no way was i going to pay again, as my bank confirmed the payment had gone through! After more shouting at the advisor for ten minutes she then said there was a way to stop the calls, she was going to put my account on hold for 7 days for the payment to clear, and take my parents phone number off the account and the calls would stop immediately – haha! what a joke my parents have had another 10 phone calls since 11am this morning i have faxed BC and had no response, i can’t get these calls to stop and i can’t get barclaycard to say i’ve paid the bill even though the money as gone from my account – we’re not living in the stone ages it would take 2 days max!
I have no idea what to do now, there is no one else i can complain to as BC are just giving me a sack of s*&t when i call to get me off the phone, can i report them for harrasment? Ahh they are driving me mad
I have had a similar experience with Barclaycard, having spent the last six months trying to sort out my elderly mother’s account. Their customer services have lied, fobbed me off, hung up on me, taken additional payments from me stating that the extra payment would sort the whole thing out, which they havent, have re-instated an old direct debit and taken money, illegally, from my mother’s account causing her to be overdrawn and incur bank charges, have been sending threatening letters for months, despite the fact I’ve been ringing and writing almost weekly to try and sort things out, and paying the amount which was agreed by them last August! I have never experienced anything so completely shambolic as their customer services.
I will say, once I finally got through to the complaints department in the UK last month, I was hopeful that everything would be sorted. They apologised, promised to refund interest on the account going back to October, restart the payment plan that should have been in place since August (we have been paying, they didn’t set it up correctly). All seemed well, however, they didn’t do anything they promised and I’m back to square one.
I work for a company who deals with Bcard customer service every day and I can confirm that the customer service department is every bid as awful as these comments describe.
I don’t know what kind of contracts or work practises the employees in India are on, but they appear to have absolutely no interest in dealing with any queries of any complexity whatsoever.
Whenever I call on behalf of a customer, if it takes more than 30 seconds to explain the problem I am informed “I will transfer you to the department that deals with this” at which point I am transferred to the incoming call queue of a seemingly random department where the process starts again.
Whenever someone from Bcard calls me about a customer, their priority seems to be to get the call transferred to me as soon as possible regardless of whether or not I am the appropriate person to be dealing with this query. When I ask them to clarify what the customer wants before they transfer him/her, they often just hang up.
I have a feeling that these people are working towards targets of taking a certain number of calls an hour regardless of whether or not the customers queries are addressed. (I have no proof of this)
They are certainly not customer orientated and even when they admit to me that the error was on their side, they are very reluctant to remove the fees or charges that they added to the customers account or reverse any procedure that might end up affecting the customers credit rating.
Overall, the outsourced call centres operated by BCard customer service are appalling to deal with and I get numerous comments from people expressing this to me every day.
It is inconcievable that Barclays Bank are not aware of this, the only conclusion one must come to are that they are gaining in other ways.
I agree with the above. I’ve been a BC customer for well over
15 years, and I can say that they did have very good customer service
at one time. Then they outsourced most of their customer care. Now
the situation is nothing short of disgraceful. It not only wastes time
and frustrates customers, it also puts them at great risk of financial
fraud and identity theft (despite what they may claim). I recently
cancelled both of my Barclaycards, and would strongly advise anyone else
to do the same.
Like the commenter above, I had a call out of the blue from an
Indian call centre, telling me that I had a number of fraudulent
transactions on my credit card. Then she challenged me for personal
information! Which I refused to give, and like the commenter above, I asked
her to confirm MY details – which she did (very worrying). I said I’d call
back because I still had a bad feeling about it. When I called back, I was
passed through numerous departments, had to explain the same thing to each
person. Eventually they confirmed that it was their staff who called, and
reassured me that I’d be issued with a new card, and everything would be ok.
Several weeks went by, and the new card still hadn’t arrived. I didn’t even
receive the dispute form which I was told I would.
Further, extremely frustrating calls to their Indian call centre didn’t get
me anywhere, I was fobbed off and lied to on numerous occasions.
Eventually I demanded to talk to a manager, who then promised that the new
card would be issued. The card did arrive a couple days later. My
PIN also arrived – the envelope for the PIN was OPEN! It hadn’t even been
sealed. I also got the dispute form, which I filled in and returned.
Well that was a few months ago – Since then nothing from BC. I’d already
paid the fraudulent ATM transaction and have since been waiting for
a refund. Called BC again. Got through to the Indian call centre – and
I then had to repeat the whole story to several people, after which I
was eventually connected back to the UK. The lady there was very sympathetic
but like other readers found, completely useless. I was passed back to India
and had another very heated and frustrating conversation with a woman
at the call centre. She asked me “which were the fraudulent transactions?”,
“because none were disputed”. They’d already cancelled my card, issued
me with a new pin, and I’d sent the dispute form, yet apparently nobody at
BC knew about the fraudulent transactions (even through BC flagged the
transaction in the first place). She said that I hadn’t disputed them – at
which point I hung up. So months later and hours of phone calls, nothing
has been done about this.
Now I just opened my statement for my second Barclaycard (MasterCard),
and what did I find? Another fraudulent £350 transaction. So now I
have the problem with not one, but both of my cards. Even trying to
cancel the cards has been a nightmare. Whatever’s going on there at
BC it’s not good – their security has clearly become very lax –
I have no trust in them anymore.
Formal Complaint about Barclaycard Credit Card from Mr Ollie MacDxxxxxx
Dear Barclaycard Customer Non-Service
You can contact me by email or telephone on xxxxxx@blueyonder.co.uk or +44 7905 yyy xxx, and please quote my reference “Barclaycard Appalling Service†in all correspondence.
My Complaints about Barclaycard’s Credit Card
• Why is so difficult to speak to a human being at Customer Non-Service? I have just discovered it is just as difficult to e-mail you!
• Whoever thought about having SEVEN options on an answering machine service?
• I set up a direct debit Barclaycard online to fully pay my (Cashback) Credit Card on 8.5.09
• I complained that it was not my fault that the D/D did not go through, and after threatening to close my account, my charges were refunded.
• BUT, today I tried to book a flight to Paris and my card kept getting rejected. After 3 attempts, I had to use my reliable ABBEY Visa Card.
• When I finally got through to a human being on 0844 811 9111, he was less than sympathetic, indeed he was arrogant, informing me that my Credit Check revealed I had defaulted on three suppliers! When asked who were these 3 suppliers, he said he could not tell me. Anyhow, they had REDUCED my credit limit without even informing me! PLUS removed my ability to withdraw cash! I find this very upsetting, embarrassing, and wholly unprofessional.
• If this complaint is not resolved within 5 days, I will close my account: I thought I would try Barclaycard’s Cashback Card, but the Customer Non-Service takes some beating.
What will happen next
• Can you please send me an e-mail acknowledgement of this complaint within 5 working days.
• Can you please give the name of the human being who will handle my complaint and how to contact them.
If I am still not happy:
I will close my Barclaycrad Cashback Account Number: 5301 2710 yyyy xxxx
regards
Ollie
NOTE: I have actually closed my BC account, and will proceed with this Formal Complaint.
Folks,
Here is an internal direct number for the U.K. Barclaycard customer service center. It completely bypasses the outsourced call centres.
0844 811 4101.
In my dealings with the company, you are much more likely to get a satisfactory response to your query at this number.
The very best of luck in having your issues resolved.
It’s no accident that banker rhymes with w**nker, however this is compounded by confusing conversations with Indian call centres!
Thanks for the 0844 811 4101 number – seems to cut through the systems a little, although one still has to deal with Barclaycard!
R
The leadership of Barclaycard are a bunch of criminals along with most directors who run these rip off banks. Why do you think the world is in deep doo doo? I have just paid mine off thank goodness and I will never ever have another credit card, I will live within my means, which is what we should all be doing anyway.
I just wanted to say thank you to Guy for the 0844 811 4101 telephone number. I got through to someone in the UK who is hopefully sorting out my problem.
IVE HAD SIMIKAR PROBLEMS WITH RUDE INDIAN CALL CENTRES.I FOUND IT HARD TO PAY THEM BECAUSE GLITCHES IN THEIR SYSTEM,I ONLY REALISED I THEY DIDNT GET THE MONEY WHEN I RECEIVED THE NEXT STATEMENT SAYING I HAD A LATE PAYMENT FEE,THEY HAD RETURNED THE MONEY TO MY BANK.TRIED TO SORT THINGS OUT WAS EVEN TOLD BC WILL BE GIVING ME £20 FOR THE HASSLEBUT THIS WAS LATER FOUBD OUT TO BE A LIE AS NOBODY ELSE KNEW WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT IE BC DONT DO THAT.THEY SEEM TO WANT ALL BAD THINGS TO HAPPEN TO YOU WITH GLEE LIE WHEN ANYTHING GOES WRONG ITS YOU.ANYWAY IM FREE NOW NO MORE BARCLAYCARD
I have just finished with Barclaycard after 30 years. First they closed my account without telling me, then stopped my card without telling me as they believed a payment (which is an annual payment which had been made for the past 3 years) was fraudelent. Their customer service in India was so rude I was shocked. I asked them for compensation for the upset their company has caused me and they refused, offering only to refund phone calls. When I told them I was closing my account, they more or less said they didn’t care. Barclaycard made £761 million profit last year out of mugs like us. My advice is cancel your Barclaycard and use someone else!
I can relate to many of the issues people are raising here. Yesterday I decided to call it a day with Barclaycard. I thought I would make one last effort to complain, on the first attempt they cut me off half way through, on the second attempt the guy noted the details and as I was saying my goodbyes (after 29 years) he tried to sell me insurance!!
They really have lost the plot.
Hi I am a Person who work with Barclaycard Customer Service.I am writing because I am FULLY AWARE OF THE FACTS MENTIONED ABOVE, I am also disgusted by the internal environment of the organisation—HARaSSING. No procedures and policies; just small interests dominate the working of the management, I am TIRED of fucking the Manager and the Asst. Manager for last 5 months now see what happens? I am sure some staff member will definitely sue the Co. for such reasons. I know more painful cases than have been mentioned here they really have fun abusing the UK customers. Poor and unfair services, for sure.
I have just had the worst experience ever myself on the phone to the Indian call centre. I called to check my balance as I transferred money a few days ago to cover a bill due to go from my Barclaycard account on the 1st of next month to find my limit has been decreased without notice. After speaking to the advisor and getting no help or explanation as he did not even seem to know what my quiery was I asked to speak to his manager. I waited a further 15 minutes for him to take the call and he actually told me it was my fault as I have been struggling financially due to charges they have taken with no reason and he would not even try to explain the situation, saying only that a letter was sent out (which I haven’t recieved). After I explained this he just kept repeating himself and saying it was my fault and there is nothing he can do and that the payment due from the account which I had transferred the funds to cover will not be paid and I will recieve charges for. He even said it is up to me but I would get no joy whatsoever when I told him I will be contacting the financial ombudsman!
Having worked in customer service myself since leaving school 11 years ago I was disgusted with the way I was treated and spoken to on this matter and will be closing the account as soon as I am able and sending a formal letter of complaint explaining the reason why!
I also had a terrible experience with Barclaycard. When I bought an IPAD at an Apply Store, I signed up for a one year no-interest plan through Barclaycard. With that I set up an automatic payment account which transferred $100 each month to Barclay for the timed payment.
One problem: there was no option to change the last payment so that a final $140 would be transferred the last month of the plan. So although the last payment was made automatically and on time, it was $40 short. Because of that I was charged the full $151 dollars interest I had thought to avoid.
Each of the two representatives I spoke with said there was nothing they could do. WhenI asked to speak to a supervisor, she said she had studied my payment record (which was flawless) and there was nothing she could do. She informed me that Barclays “does not do favors for customers!”
I called to cancel my card, and then received a pro forma letter asking me to call about my concern. When I called, the representative said there was nothing she could do. Then why send the letter, I asked. She said that the letter didn’t mean anything would be changed. It was sent in response to my concern.
Bought a Mac Pro using the 6 month deferred credit barcley card signup. Was told no payments for 6 months. 6 weeks later I get a $25 late fee notice. Called them, they would not remove it or even explain. Immediately paid off the entire deferred amount, about $4000. My balance still showed the $25. Next I get a notice I’d be charged another late fee if I didn’t pay the first one. A rude lady at customer service said they will never remove late fees.
I’ve only had 3 credit cards in my 63 years, and all of them would work with me if I called them. They valued my being a customer. American Express has been the most gracious. Barcley’s attitude will insure their long-term failure.
My advice is to avoid their services
This situation with Barlcaycard does not seem to be getting better. The more you investigate the worse it gets.
I had setup a direct debit at the time applied for a card but never used it. In Decembe 2010 I took up their offer of 0% transfer for 18 months (this is not 0% as u pay 3.0% upfront btw). I received a call saying that I had missed a payment. Not possible as I had confirmation that the notified instalments will be taken via DD. Because there had been no activity in my account the DD had gone dormant. This the usual procedure by the banks. Barlcaycard (Indian Call Centre) informed me that it was my duty to have it activated. If that was the case why on earth do we authorised them to set up a Direct Debit? Ignorance at its worst.
I have clear credit rating. This missed payment is mark and a slur on my rating and the manner in which my first call was addressed is dispicable.
Philip, Surrey
I have had a complaint ongoing with Barclaycard since June 2010, i have now forwarded it to the ombudsman and am refusing to pay any money from my outstanding balance until they resolve the problem, i keep getting an email saying they are dealing with my complaint and will respond shortly and that that they take customer complaints very seriously. I have now taken to emailing them on a daily basis with a running commentary on their appalling customer service as this way i have a electronic record of the correspondence sent to them. Not sure why their service has gotten so apalling and just how long they think they can get away with it!
thanks for the english customer service number.
Had a horrible phonecall to indian call centre.Then phoned again to english one and got my late payment charge refunded.Do try this number.
I’ve been complaining to Barclaycard since January about this direct debit issue. Haven’t heard anything in a while so called them today – and was told it can take up to 40 WORKING DAYS for a complaint to be answered.
Have you every heard anything so ridiculous??
Claire, I am an ex-employee of BARCLAYCARD contact center. I know how one would feel going through all these troubles. I have also worked for different financial organisations. Honestly, BARCLAYCARD is all about business and no wonder why they are making a lot of money. I myself don’t feel that they are treating their customers fairly and this is one of the reasons why I left the organisation. Additionally, if you personally have a chance to witness the employees here, not that I am better, some of the quality of the employees are pathetic, specially in operations. It might have at least helped a li’l bit even if some of the policies are unbelievable, had the quality of the employees are up to the mark to do their JOB. At-least 60% of the employees can’t even speak correct English and have a fair knowledge about the CREDIT INDUSTRY. The worst part is, when a rep can’t even cope with a call flow, getting a nice customer on the phone who is tossing in, some humor and small talks. It feels like speaking to a ROBOT. Had it been a robot, I bet it must have been so very much better. All they can say is SORRY. Their ENGLISH is not even enough to please and give the required service nor enough to pick up a fight or give a reasonable explanation on issues. Wish I am a BRITISH, I would have made a lot of money from it.
Hi , B’Card sent my hubby a text saying he had missed a payment, I checked thru the Bank and it had been paid, I always pay when the statement arrives!!!! Then we started getting calls despite telling them hubby was sick, they kept calling , a non descript letter arrived saying they were investigating our complaint, but we are closing the account now, we are 64 and 67 we dont need this hassle. Rather use Nat West
Barclaycard’s customer service have got to be the worst-trained and the worst-informed. They do not have a clue what they are talking about and if they’re not sure I’m sure they just make it up as they along. I settled the balance on line in full in July and I rang to make sure that there was no further interest, and the guy just told me a load of bull about how the account was completely up-to-date and how the balance shown was my outstanding balance – I had overpaid on purpose to cover any interest in the interim – this month I get my statement and there is interest added.
Un-be-lievable – total waste of time and effort talking to anybody on their customer care team – it is not even worth lifting the receiver – you will just be fed an absolute pack of lies by completely incompetent individuals who must have a script in front of them when they are dealing with 95% of their queries and then the remaining 5% is down to however imaginative that particular member of staff is.
Hi I set up a direct debit, read out my card details to the forgein operator, when I activated the Barlclay Platinum Card.
Needless to say that the payment was not taken from my account and I was hit with a late payment fee. I called and they removed the late payment fee, fingers crossed I don’t have to go through the whole drama regarding the loss of the interest free period.
hi all,
i work with barclaycard (indian call centre).. as some of u have mentioned… and i am an indian..
after reading all ur issues out here all I can say is that its not only barclaycard, but u have different people in every customer service facing industry and there are good people too. barclaycard does a lot to ensure that it puts customer interest first and then its own,, do u even know the amount of losses barclaycard suffered jus because of interest and late fee refunds last year.? no coz ur nt interested in that. and how can u blame indians for being rude wen u people do not give them any chance to help u. the moment u hear an indian voice, u ASSUME that ur query will not be answered or ur phone will be disconnected. we dont care… coz its u who is coming as foolish as u called with a problem…. so think back… barclaycard has done a favor by giving u credit.. its a loan not ur fathers money…. so stop treating it as ur money!!!!
goodluck
cheers