Kent Reliance

I recently spoke to one of the staff regarding opening an account and received helpful information and the paperwork arrived promptly. The employee was polite and efficient.

Thank you.

If you don't mind waiting an hour or more to get served then you'll love this throwback to banking in the 1950's (Hand written passbooks along with all the mistakes that come with that system etc.). Queues inside this very small branch are ridiculously long - I've ended up queuing around the counter, past an (unmanned) desk and into (another unmanned) back office. A sign that has been up for more than six months saying they are looking for bigger premises doesn't really compensate for that.

Sadly for Kent Reliance, the world has moved on since this level of service was acceptable and so has my custom.

The new offices are great and no problem for wheelchair users. The old office was very cramped even for able bodied customers.

The staff are always very friendly and efficient. Just wish there were more branches in the county.

Not the level of customer service I expected

This refers to the online system: I opened a savings account here because I read that it had very good reviews for customer service. Unfortunately, this has not been the case for me. Every time I called, I had to give up waiting to speak to someone and wait for a callback. Despite having to leave a message to receive a callback, the person who called back had no idea what my call was about, so I had to go through it all over again. I found it hard to understand some of the advisers (they are Indian - despite there being a KR office about a mile away in my home town) and there was often a lot of background noise which made it very hard to hear what they were saying. They gave me the wrong information about depositing the money and spent over a week sorting themselves out on this issue, causing me to have to pay my bank twice for the transfer. A number of the letters they said they had sent me never arrived; this may not be their fault but I haven't had a problem about missing post before. I also had a problem registering for my online account, although this has finally been resolved and the message system online appears to work better. However, it has taken a month for the whole operation to work correctly, which is not good enough.

Helpful friendly service . So many people use in person banking here that you need to avoid the first day or two of the month if at all possible or be prepared to join a queue of sometimes grumpy "seniors" (including me by the way(as senior but not i hope a grump :-) )
.
Another drawback is you cant make deposits by debit card in branch ( in a bank??) and must deposit by cash or cheque.
Also accounts you open in branch cannot be operated online and vice versa which is really inconvenient.
As there are lengthy waits sometimes in branch free wifi would be helpful .

I could not apply for transfer of I S A to K.R.I could not get an answer on phone I pressed 1 and waited 2 days for a call back. This meant I would get a reduced rate.When I requested politely why I had the issues the phone went quiet for 11 minutes.I have since raised a complaint by E-mail
which has not been acknowledged. Customer Service In My opinion is non existent.
Keith

Surprised to see only 3.5 rating overall.
5 star service from Sara, I phoned, this morning. Thank you.

The branch recently moved from very small premises that were more like a cupboard than anything else. Anyway, the new branch building is much larger, light and airy. I always find the staff to be courteous and helpful. Overall, Kent Reliance is a rather unusual set up - half a 1970s traditional building society and half a contemporary service offering on-line accounts. I suppose over time the latter will overtake the former - and what a sad day it will be when eventually some hideous management consultant recommends closing the branch and moving everything to the internet.