Dear Alliance and Leicester,
Today it was noted by myself that a standing order of £200.00 had been paid out of my account, I believed this item had been cancelled on the 21st of November when I set up a new one as the payee had changed bank accounts. I telephoned the banking service who said they could attempt to recall this, I explained there is an ongoing dispute on the account the money had gone into, the advisor made clear that it is not guaranteed that the money can successfully be recalled. Obviously, I was very upset about this as I was utterly convinced this item had been cancelled as who would be so stupid as to pay something twice.
I then decided to speak to the internet banking team to see if there were any records of what I had carried out that day, the advisor confirmed that I had indeed set up a new standing order and deleted something from my account. The advisor placed me on hold and spoke to her supervisor she then advised me that I had in fact deleted the standing order from my list of payee’s and not the actual standing order itself. I explained to the advisor that I was going to have to hang up because I was so upset. I then went online to check the procedure and I am disgusted with the system, I cannot understand why these are not interlinked? Not only are they not interlinked there are no messages appearing telling you that the item will still be paid as normal, any sensible person who clicks on an item anywhere in the internet banking system and clicks delete and sees the item disappear would assume that the item whether that be a standing order or direct debit would not be paid and had successfully been cancelled.
Because of your flawed system, I am probably going to be £200.00 down before Christmas and will consequently cause strained relations with the payee. I would like you to consider updating this system so it is absolutely clear that deleting an item from your list of payees does not mean that the corresponding item has been cancelled. I for one will never trust the online banking system again and will be forced in turn to do all banking over the telephone and request written proof that such requests have been followed correctly therefore recouping the £200.00 I have lost from you.
