Changing Bank mandates Rant!
We have recently changed treasurer for the County. Since trying to get on as authorised signatory I have had nothing but delays. The previous treasurer obtained the mandates to be completed from the bank. We completed them and showed them to the staff at the local branch. "Yes" they said all ok and correct but I should come in with another signatory and proof of identity to sign in front of their staff member. We did this. "No" we can't tell you how long it will take. Week later blank forms returned different edition date and different layout (we were given 2014 print new one was April 2018 print). Completed the same information, same signatures, same committee minutes plus letter about why different form and how to get online banking. No reply but received a personal e-mail to say my e-mail held by them had been changed (previously signatory for another community account). Visited branch and confirmed that I was an authorised signatory. That was about two weeks previous no written confirmation received and no response to my letter. Found mandates for online banking and sent them off 4 weeks later still not heard. Rang bank help line. AH! seems to be a query about the mandates, mention of not all mandates received. Said there was only one required. Ah!, will ring you back. Have heard that some poor folks have been waiting 3 months to get sorted, currently at the 2 months point. So why does it take so long? What are other members experiences? Why are their forms/instructions so vague?
Can you recognise the bank I am talking about? If so just say yes without naming them, please.
I can see more telephone calls speaking to someone that has minimal information and minimal experience of this "proceedure".
Off to a dark room with a damp cloth for a few hours.
CMOT_Dibbler
Comments
In my experience banks struggle with things which are out of the ordinary. Bog-standard personal accounts are fine (most of the time); ditto business accounts. Anything else can be a nightmare (my problem was with trustee accounts which required two signatures out of the three trustees). I would hazard a guess that the bank concerned was one of two possibilities (one bailed out by the British taxpayer 10 years ago, the other foreign-owned), but it may be that the problem is more widespread.
I have copied and edited the first part of your statement to illustrate our experience..."We have recently changed treasurer for the Club. The previous treasurer obtained the mandates to be completed from the bank. We completed them and showed them to the staff at the local branch. "Yes" they said all ok and correct."
I think we were only in-branch for less than half an hour. As Abbeybear suggests the problem may be widespread but as we found - not universally bad.
Spoke to bank yesterday. My online paper application received 14th September (sent about 24th August) they only have the front page scanned, can't confirm whether the pages were stapled together but all other pages are missing. They only go by scanned correspondence. They emailed me another online form to register with. That one is completely different to the one I sent, but it does explain what to do a bit better. Have to add another signatory. So downloaded the form and found that blow me down it is different from the other two forms I have used this year. Both recent forms are different in that for some answers the visible form changes to give more questions/boxes to complete.
Begining to think that banks really don't want our business. Now on the look out for a strong box!!
CMOT_Dibbler
In my day job I work with lots of banks. I would say it's completely random whether you are going to get good service or not, it just depends on who gets the email / talks to you in the branch, there's no evidence that at the local level one particular bank is obviously better than another