I do not normally use my writing website for personal issues, but I have had enormous trouble of late (over 13 weeks in fact!) with Barclays Bank. I am currently getting a lot of responses via Twitter because of this, and therefore I think it's best to post a summary of events for people to read here at a static website (and not on an ever changing site like Twitter).
This is the tweet that's kicked things off today:
In a nutshell, Barclays won't let me do phone banking and have been rude and unhelpful about it, because I'm visually impaired and can't read the pass code. The provision of an alternative,accessible method of reading the passcode has either been totally wrong (I got sent the wrong pass code!), or just not coming at all.
A few years ago, I wanted to change banks. Barclays seemed nice and considerate with regards to sight disability accessibility, so I came on board. I signed up for
phone banking, and each time I called I explained I could not read out the pass
code I had been given, because it was a peel-back scratch card thing, grey on grey with which
even with my magnification equipment, I could not make out the numbers. “No
problem,” was the usual response, “we’ll ask some additional security
questions, such as what’s your [personal information], how many beans make five, etc.” With
that, I would be off and sorted and have my banking done on the phone with no
issues.
But on 4 February 2012, a jobsworth refused to help me with a
transaction because I cannot
read the pass code on account of my sight disability, and things progressed to
the 5 February, where I requested a complaint be raised regarding it. For the
first time I was offered a pass code. However, the call agent told me it would
be provided in Braille. When I questioned this, he began to explain to me that
it’s a way of reading by touch, and I can touch it and know what the numbers
say in a very patronising manner. I’m not an idiot, I know what Braille is, but
the assumption that because I have a sight impairment I must read Braille is
wrong and rather offensive. I am informed that only 3% of visually impaired
people actually read Braille. Large print is my preferred format. They didn't ask, just assumed.
I
have been told that I was a “security risk” because I’m visually impaired
trying to do phone banking. Not comforting words, don’t you think? I was also
told there is a ludicrously low limit on the account because I’m visually
impaired trying to do phone banking, when I was trying desperately in February
to get money out via phone banking to pay a bill. Why such a low limit would be
placed because I’m trying to do phone banking with a visual impairment, I don’t
know, but I bet another family member wouldn’t have such a limit on her account, because
she’s fully sighted.
I have serious concerns for how Barclays staff members treat the security of
disabled customers’ accounts. I was advised to find someone to read the code
for me (Yeah, right. Like I’d do that, let someone else know my personal
details and codes! Not likely!).
In
fact, in conversation with a member of Barclays phone bank staff, I have had it confirmed that
disability awareness training does not take place, and Barclays staff are “not
really aware of any disabilities”. It’s Barclays’ responsibility to allow me to
access my banking facilities by a method of my choice (in this case the
telephone) as per the UK’s disability laws, but one staff member tried to put
the onus on me by stating that I “can’t expect the staff to know everything
about every disability”. No, I can’t expect that; if I were talking to someone
who knew everything about every disability, I’d likely be talking to a medical
expert, not a phone agent in a banking call centre, but a little understanding
and willing to go the extra mile to enable me equal access wouldn’t be amiss.
Alas, it was not to be.
The
crux of the matter is that that the phone staff haven’t really wanted to help;
their only suggestion usually was stop calling us, leave us alone and just go
to a branch and deal with it there instead. Hardly accessible, when I would
have thought that getting the phone banking facility working for a visually
impaired customer would have been a must. Also I cannot take time off work to go into the bank every time I want to do a transaction!
I
have been extremely limited in what I can do with my own money, and it has
taken a lot of strength and concentration and lengthy, lengthy calls (the
shortest has been about half an hour, and to 0845 numbers it likely does not
come cheap), getting cut off a number of times (hardly very helpful), and calls
where the focus has not been on helping me do my banking, but rather
obstructing me doing my banking. Because the original cause of this is my
visual impairment, an inability to help or allow alternative security questioning
to suffice distinctly tastes to me of disability discrimination.
Don’t forget, I couldn’t read the original pass code because
of my disability. Imagine my surprise when on 5 February I was told I could get
a passcode in large print (with an unwarranted diversion with another call
agent through Braille territory, as outlined above). Three to four working days
was the time for that. Oh joy! I’d be able to bank easily on the phone along
with my non-disabled peers in less than a week! This then was amended to ten to
fifteen days. Okay, I thought, maybe a little over two weeks , max? In later
calls it was amended to ten to fifteen working
days. Right, we’re up to three weeks now, I sighed. In the meantime, every time
I wanted to do banking, I was still meeting obstruction. Hardly equal, when
already at the two week stage a non-visually impaired person would have had a
pass code and be banking already. This is unacceptable, and although I
appreciate it may take a little while to run a text through a braille
embosser/printer (an organisation their size, they DO have one, don’t they? Please
don’t tell me they outsource altformat provision with further delays thus
thereon) , it shouldn’t be that difficult to change a font size to print large
print. In Word 2010, for example, you just press CTRL + A to select all, CTRL +
D to bring up the font pane, tab over to the font size and type in 20 ( my minimum
preferred size of font) and voilà, it’s “bigged” up. That takes 30 seconds at
most, not three weeks!
Finally, on the 5 March (29 days wait!) it arrived, in large
print. I could read it at last! “Huzzah!” I cried, and my wife looked at me
oddly for shouting so, as I held the envelope in my hand. My son just looked up
and said “Dada!” expectantly. I could not contain my joy. At last, I could bank
as an equal, unimpeded by my disability! Eagerly, I called the phone bank, and
put in my numbers to the automated robot.
The numbers were not accepted.
I got through to a human, and again the numbers were not
accepted.
Computer says no….
The horror, the horror.
I eventually got through to someone else, was told to no longer use the code as it was clearly the
wrong code, and carry on banking without it for now until a new one arrived.
This, it was confirmed, would definitely take only three to four working days,
and that all I had been told about the extra time needed was wrong. As he was
the most confident person I had spoken to about this, I now will only accept a
time-frame of 3-4 working days as an acceptable time frame just like someone
without a visual impairment would wait, because it does not warrant waiting up
to seven times as long (here’s the maths behind that: 3 days minimum normal
wait, 15 working days = 21 days at one stage prescribed to me, and 3x7 = 21!)
to change a font size.
I have also been advised by the complaints people at Barclays that if I referred the issue to the Financial Ombudsman, it could take even longer to resolve. I suspect that I was advised this to dissuade me from taking it further.
Now, today, 7 May 2012, I still haven’t had a replacement
pass code. When I called up on Thursday 29 March 2012, the phone agent said he
doubted that it had even been requested or sent. In the meantime I feel I've had only empty platitudes from the numerous complaint handlers, and no resolution. In fact, she offered me a small amount of money to say the complaint is closed, even though I still have no pass code to access phone banking. When I asked why the amount offered was so small, she said it's because I haven't been using the account much recently, and did not understand the irony of her statement. I would gladly use my account frequently if I had been allowed access to it by phone!
In the meantime, apart from empty platitudes from Barclays, I have only been offered a paltry sum to try and get me to close the complaint, and still no passcode to allow me to bank on the phone, so no resolution. I have been happy with Barclays in the past, and in theory would like to remain a customer of theirs, but they are making no effort to resolve this issue in my opinion by letting it drag on for over 13 weeks.
If anyone from media sources such as newspapers, radio, TV, etc. would like to contact me to discuss this, I can be reached at mail (AT) damonlord.eu (so written to stop spambots picking up my email address), or call (again written to stop spambots from getting my info): Zero Seven Five five three 495 648 (although not between 9am - 5:30pm, Monday - Friday). Maybe by highlighting this in public Barclays might finally do something, but then again, nothing has been done so far. I am at the end of my tether and in despair in ever trying to access my account with Barclays without taking time off work and an unnecessary trip to the branch, therefore I am presenting the events in public on this site, in the hope that someone might read this and see how bad Barclays treats visually impaired customers.
Click here for the 10 May 2012 update
Click here for the 15 May 2012 update
and 
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