I have found their call centre in India to be rather unhelpful, the same of their staff in branches and their lack of clarity in dates for the reduction of my overdraft. Is it worth e-mailing them to complain?
I would say so.
I believe a couple of major UK companys have shifted thier call centres back to Britain from India because of customer dissatisfaction.
I'm suprised to hear Abbey use an Indian call centre anyway. I bank with thier internet arm Cahoot) and on the rare occasion i've needed to speak to them on the phone i've always spoken to someone in the UK.
i have to say all banks seem to be the same! I have accounts with lloysdtsb and abbey, and i wouldn't trust lloysds as far as i could throw them, and recently abbey have also been a bit disappointing and crap
Vote with your feet and take your business elsewhere! Nationwide might be a good bet. I switched earlier this year after 25 years with Barclays. No regrets so far.
After seeing that scam on TV last week where a reporter was able to contact a middle man in India and pay peanuts for your full bank details including credit card numbers I would be wary of dealing with any bank that used off shore processing.
Abbey's credit card business isn't offshore.
They have 2 call centres in India (Bangalore & Pune).
Don't email them for anything. Ever.. Phone them up and ask for the address of their complaints department in Milton Keynes (note to anybody - don't ever go to Milton Keynes, just send a letter there).
If you email them you can guarantee that you'll get a standardised reply that means nothing.
I used to have savings accounts with Abbey for years. Then they reduced the 6 counter positions down to 3 and I used to spend most of my lunch hour in the flaming queue. I closed all my accounts and moved to Nationwide - better rates and better service. I now have my main bank account with Nationwide and they are great and pay you good interest on the current account too.