Barclays Bank Whistleblower documentary

[Steve Pearson]

Don't know if anyone else was watching it. I was skipping between BBC1 and Solo on Channel 5.

 

Anyways, I was skipping channels as I said, when I just happened to catch a sentence spoken by the journalist who was working undercover in one of the Barclays branches. She was talking about how products are sometimes mis-sold to customers without the account holders knowledge, in this instance a product called Additions.

 

That made me suddenly pause what I was doing and then a light bulb suddenly switched on inside my brain.

 

"Additions? That sounds familiar. I wonder where I've seen that?"

 

A few long seconds went by and then

 

PING!

 

"Statements! I swear I've seen that written on my statements!"

 

In a flash I chucked my custard creams to the floor and dived to the cupboard containing every single Barclays Bank statement I've kept since opening the account back in 1997.

 

So, there I was flicking through the statements looking for something that said the word "Additions". After going back several months of statements nothing materialized so I consigned myself to the fact that it was a false alarm.

 

And then I turned to the next statement.................

 

There it was, as bold as brass in big bold blue letters, right at the top of the statement's page - "Additions Plus" - May 2006.

 

The shock made me take in a deep breath of air followed by a natural reaction to such discoveries.

 

"F***ing........B*****ds!".

 

I immediately began going through the statement, line by line until I saw right at the very end of the statement "Account Fee(s) Additions £13.00".

 

Gotcha!

 

I then proceeded to go back even further until I found the statement that contained the very first payment relating to this "Additions Plus" - Sept 2003.

 

Eh? What? Sept 2003?

 

My mind began going back in time desperately trying to remember if I'd signed up to anything.

 

I thought to myself "Thats impossible. I couldn't possibly have agreed to anything like this. I was in.....Iraq".

 

And indeed I was. Infact I'd been there since several months previously.

 

It then began to sink in that for all that time I'd had £13.00 a month being debited every month right up to it suddenly stopping in May 2006. And then the anger began to build up. You know, that sort of anger where you feel as though you've been robbed. Not just any old feeling of robbery where you've been robbed of a phone or car stereo. But that feeling where you've been robbed of cold hard cash. Over £3,000 in total!

 

Now, they'll be a few people that will probably say why I didn't notice this any sooner. And to that I have no answer. I suppose when you've got all your bills like mortgage, gas, electric, council, house insurance, car insurance, life insurance ect coming out by Direct Debit, £13 is very easy to miss. For nearly 3 years .

 

So, needless to say I was straight in the blower to the main Barclays customer service number, which luckily for me was open till 11pm.

 

Whilst wading through all the options and then selecting the correct option to my enquiry, I sat with crossed fingers hoping to god I don't get put through to an Indian call centre.

 

"Please be a British call centre. Please be a British call centre. Please be a British call centre"

 

There's nothing worse than getting through to an overseas call centre where, through no fault of their own, the advisor doesn't fully understand the language that you're speaking.

 

Anyways, got through to a British based call centre (shock horror I know!) and explained the situation to the advisor. Just my bloody luck I end up getting an advisor that only started working for Barclays 2 days previously! It was like the blind leading the blind.

 

So, after explaining the situation as clearly as possible for the umpteenth time I was advised that it would be logged as a complaint and someone from the complaints department will be contacting me back within the next few days (which is probably call centre speak for never) to get this matter investigated.

 

I wait with baited breath. To that end, I decided that I will be going into my local Barclays branch first thing in the morning, along with every single statement I have kept since 1997 and get it sorted myself. At least that way I know it'll get sorted and I've at least got some measure of control over the situation. It's my money, and I intend to get it back. And I ain't taking no for an answer.

 

If you bank with Barclays, check your statements. If it's got Additions or Additions Plus on it, ask yourself one question - Did I ask for it?

 

Evenin' all.

[DarkLite]

Oh, *beep*!

 

That's either a MASSIVE *fruitcage* up, or something much more sinister.

 

I hope you can get it sorted.

[wolfstein5]

Wow.

 

Good luck with that.