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Santander cancelled Standing order mandate without my Knowledge!

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  • Santander cancelled Standing order mandate without my Knowledge!

    Back in 2008, I set up a standing order to cover vehicle storage charges. We were moving into temporary accommodation whilst I completed a load of renovation work on our new home.The rental house did not have a garage big enough to accommodate my daily commuter and the other vehicle. I checked routinely for the first 6-8 months to ensure the regular payment was being made-it was. In late August 2009 we finally moved into our new home but the existing garage was still insufficient to accommodate my daily commuter and the other vehicle so it remained in storage. A quicj check on the statements revealed that the payment was still being made.
    In January 2011, the old garage was demolished and I began work on the new replacement. Knowing that I could only work at the weekend when my wife was not at work or I had help from my father-in -law, it would be a slow build!
    In early March this year, I got to the point where I could start thinking of a date to bring the vehicle home. Having informed my wife she pulled out the account file to check the payment date each month to see if we could tie it in neatly with that. After a few minutes, she asked when I had transferred the payment to be deducted from my account? I replied that I had not & it was coming from our billing account. After going back through months of statements it transpired that no payment had been made since Dec 2009!
    Worrying that my vehicle may have been sold by the storage company to recoup their costs, I spent a sleepless night. The following morning I called them & advised of a possible return date & we discussed various options. I queried what the delivery charge would be & was asked to call again a few days later to confirm this.

    In between calling them back I called Santander to find out what had happened to the standing order mandate as I had not contacted them to cancel it either by phone or in writing.
    I was informed that since it was more than 2.5 years old, no records would be held as any instructions relating to direct debits & standing orders are only retained for this length of time before being destroyed. However records of transactions are retained for 6 years. I was informed that there was an end date of 01/01/10 on the mandate. I said that this was an error as no end date was specified when the mandate was set -up as it was not known how long the payment would need to have been made. I queried when that end date was set up & they replied that they could not tell as records were only retained for 2.5 years.....etc. Clearly I was unhappy with this and the call was put through to the 'back office team' who would investigate further. Two days later, I get a text message to say the request is complete & to call them with any queries. I called.
    'Records on standing order mandates are only retained for 2.5 years before being destroyed. We cannot investigate any further' was the response. I was then offered £50 by way of compensation for the inconvenience caused. I refused & raised this to a formal complaint.
    I then spoke again to the storage company to confirm the delivery costs. They made no mention of any outstanding payments.

    A number of days passed and another text message was received from Santander: 'We have responded to your complaint reference XXXXXXX. If appropriate a letter will be sent. If you have any queries, please contact us.' this was sent on 22nd March & the letter referred to arrived on Saturday 6th April.
    After several more fruitless phone calls, the situation is that there are some 39 months of storage fees unpaid; Santander have no records and are not prepared to do anything more and have said take it to the Ombudsman if you are still unhappy; It is your responsibility to manage your account.

    I am of the opinion that the events between Dec 2009 and Jan 01 2010 are the problem-it is too convenient that the end date is 01/01/2010!
    In Dec 2009, the bank existed as Abbey National. In Jan 2010, they became Santander. Whatever the process was that closed Abbey accounts to become Santander accounts missed out on this mandate and it was not re-started correctly.

    The storage company have finally twigged today(08/04/13) that they have not received payment since Dec 2009!

    I have never received any paperwork for any standing order mandate once it has been set up that would confirm the start and or end date (if applicable) Surely this should be good practice? But then this is Santander & good practice completely eludes them.

    Any thoughts, comments or suggestions would be welcome.
    Tags: None

  • #2
    Re: Santander cancelled Standing order mandate without my Knowledge!

    Get your account details by means of a Subject Access Request from the Santander Bank of Toyland.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Santander cancelled Standing order mandate without my Knowledge!

      Are you currently out of pocket for anything? There is a double stupidity in this, ie the standing order was not paid since 2010 and you have not noticed(I am very much checking everything on my account but that is me) but also the storage company didn't notice either cos that might have pushed you into being able to find out what was on the original mandate earlier in time. The money has not been deprived from you but I have worked out that you have missed £280.00 in total payments.

      The obvious question is this: what are you looking to get out of this?

      I would do a subject access request because if the original mandate was on paper then maybe a scanned copy of the original might exist.
      It may simply be human error on both parts. As they have not sold the car and have not shut down the storage then at the moment you are not technically out of pocket. £50 seems reasonable but perhaps a bit more of a nudge might help them increase that gesture of goodwill compensation
      "Family means that no one gets forgotten or left behind"
      (quote from David Ogden Stiers)

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Santander cancelled Standing order mandate without my Knowledge!

        Yes, you are right it should have been picked up. However having established that it was being paid routinely for over a year and checking that other regular payments are being made, it is not unreasonable to assume that the payment was continuing as it was open ended.

        If I recall correctly, the Standing order mandate was set up via telephone & I have never received any paperwork for it. If I had & there was an end date present, then it could have been corrected.

        The missed payments exceed £1100.

        The storage company have continued to provide the service they are contracted for. As the customer,it is my responsibility to ensure they are being paid for that service. Morally, they are due their fees.

        What do I want from this? For the bank to admit their cock-up and to rectify it accordingly. I am not after them paying all outstanding fees- there are three parties involved with this balls up & each has to bear 1/3rd of the blame. To some this may be idealistic but it is how I see it.

        What irks me most is the attitude of the bank; they are hiding behind the data protection smokescreen and the lack of any mandate records over 2.5 years and are completely unwilling to look into it any further. Their 'if you don't like it take to the Ombudsman' attitude just stinks.

        I have nothing to lose by taking it to the Ombudsman & just maybe it might lead to improvements in the setting up of standing order & direct debit mandates & require banks to send out confirmation details to customers.

        If we dismiss all of the above & look again at the transfer from being Abbey National to Santander, I am convinced that this is where the problem lies. It is just too convenient that the mandate ends on 01/01/10. Who would collect a vehicle on New Years day? The storage company would not be open either!

        Again, I welcome all comments & am grateful to those who have responded thus far.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Santander cancelled Standing order mandate without my Knowledge!

          Originally posted by 51rider View Post
          Yes, you are right it should have been picked up. However having established that it was being paid routinely for over a year and checking that other regular payments are being made, it is not unreasonable to assume that the payment was continuing as it was open ended.

          If I recall correctly, the Standing order mandate was set up via telephone & I have never received any paperwork for it. If I had & there was an end date present, then it could have been corrected.

          The missed payments exceed £1100.

          The storage company have continued to provide the service they are contracted for. As the customer,it is my responsibility to ensure they are being paid for that service. Morally, they are due their fees.

          What do I want from this? For the bank to admit their cock-up and to rectify it accordingly. I am not after them paying all outstanding fees- there are three parties involved with this balls up & each has to bear 1/3rd of the blame. To some this may be idealistic but it is how I see it.
          The only way to rectify it is to set up a payment for the storage but to send a large lump sum of money to them but the question is whether you have that sum of money to pay out? I would add that a bit of compo for time and inconvenience would be in order. In respect of the storage depot it is worth asking how long you would not have to pay before they even contacted you cos 2 and a half years is a long time not to audit their storage facility.
          What irks me most is the attitude of the bank; they are hiding behind the data protection smokescreen and the lack of any mandate records over 2.5 years and are completely unwilling to look into it any further. Their 'if you don't like it take to the Ombudsman' attitude just stinks.
          I do know that banks keep certain paperwork for shorter periods than 6 years which is the DPA line. The only issue with this is that it was done over the phone and that may mean that call logs, ie traceable log of the calls being received and/or stored may be lower that the date protection act limit of 6 years. For me that is annoying and I suspect that it was bank error on their part ie the telephony operative more than anything else.

          I have nothing to lose by taking it to the Ombudsman & just maybe it might lead to improvements in the setting up of standing order & direct debit mandates & require banks to send out confirmation details to customers
          These days there are lots of methods of banking so sending confirmation to customer might be impractical and would be costly especially when the mandate is set up correctly. The problem is when it is not set up correct and that leads us to where we are today with them.
          If we dismiss all of the above & look again at the transfer from being Abbey National to Santander, I am convinced that this is where the problem lies. It is just too convenient that the mandate ends on 01/01/10. Who would collect a vehicle on New Years day? The storage company would not be open either
          I am not sure that is necessarily the case but is more likely to be bank operatives error.
          Again, I welcome all comments & am grateful to those who have responded thus far.
          It might be worth a google search to see if similar cases have been reported in the internet with this kind of problem.
          "Family means that no one gets forgotten or left behind"
          (quote from David Ogden Stiers)

          Comment

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