The Co-operative Bank - Ealing

Comparing to previous high street bank accounts that I have had with, the Co-Op Bank is a top in my list and I am currently with them. There is literally no queues here unlike Santander and every request I have made has been dealt with promptly. I've only had a single issue during the application process as I had send my identification copies through their internal mail as it got lost by Royal Mail.

Their online systems has improved a lot and they've finally caught up with major banks by adding Apple Pay.

The benefits the Co-Op provide as well including the bonus for joining and everyday rewards shows how Co-Op value it's members.

Once again the expereince at this branch was very frustrating today. The staff are usually friendly and helpful but there seems to be no real management skills if things are not going smoothly. Yesterday 2/10/2017 I made a special trip into the ealing broadway branch and got to the bank just before 3pm. There was a long queue and it was apparent that one clerk was stuck with a complicated issue and the other clerk had a number of different requests to deal with from the same customer. I waited for 10 mins with no movement in the queue - while two male employees appeared to be doing office work. Modern management skills are customer focussed and surely would suggest that, in the short term, someone else comes in the temporarily deal with a stuck queue. In the end I approached the office saying I could wait no longer and would be reviewing this. As a customer I don't feel my expereince is given real attention although it is clear that training does usually lead to an apology being made when you finally get seen. But this is not enough.

Compared to Barclays and Santander, the Co-op has been a dream to work with, both in the branch and online. I don't wait hours in long queues, and they deal with my power of attorney account without any bother, unlike the others. Thanks to the staff.

2/2. After a long wait at the counter I got money in my hand. I asked her whether she can write her name as I wanted to make an official complaint to the Head Office. She wrote her name in a way that I was unable to understand. It was poor cursive handwriting. I asked her whether she can write it properly as i am not able to understand and she replied 'can you not read it properly'. this made me even more annoyed. I told her that this is the pathetic customer service i have ever seen in my whole life. Manager got involved and he wrote her name down as it should be written. He offered to let me to come to the room but I already wasted an hour in the branch. I didn't want to waste more time with them. I left the branch and made a phone call to the Head Office. Customer advisor listened to the complaint and told me it should not have happened and the complaint is upheld. I know exactly what's going to happen next. No questions will be asked from her as the Head Office will internally say that she was carrying her duty. As I said earlier, this is not the due diligence process which made me upset, her attitude and mismanagement of the branch, irrelevant and annoying questions which does not make any sense has made me upset. I spent an hour in the branch answering questions when the branch was not busy at all and in the end I was insulted when she said 'can you not read it properly'.

Feedback: Please treat all customers equally whether they have different backgrounds or not. I am not happy that me and other Somalian customers were treated differently than others.Respect Customer time, acknowledge and thank customers once they have finished answering your question. If the branch is not busy, at least one person should be present in the banking hall to welcome customers or point customers in the right direction, and have some diversity among staff members and most importantly sort out your training issues related to customer satisfaction and asking the right questions, not irrelevant questions. I am disgusted with this branch and will be taking my banking somewhere. I am not surprised to see why this branch has got so many 1 stars. Thank you

Victor was very helpful, sorted our issue efficiently and was an enthusiastic guy!
Very down to earth (Y)

£909.87 missing from our business account.
Staff member working from home and has limited resources.
Claims it will take 25 working days to investigate, which is over a month.
Manager Colin refuses to come onto the phone from the office.
On the phone for over 2h 6min and counting!!!

Very primitive and outdated services.... got my pin code but then after trying to change it 12 times all over london it didnt work.
always shut on weekends and thats exactly when people are off and would like to come in to review accounts and make changes. should have gone with nationwide or barclays..... might as well do that.

The customer service here is really very poor indeed and can at best be called 'service with a snarl' I would suggest they train some of their staff how to talk to customers. As a retired senior manager of a public service company if one of my staff treated me the way that I was treated today they would have been both reprimanded and sent for retraining