Re: Arrrgghh! Banks
 

+1 to that ... I used to work for a retailer (for almost 12 years), and the change in overnight "batch" processing, and to weekend maintenance slots over those 12 years was astounding.

When I first started, the business would get sales figures for the previous week (most of the work was done overnight, and reconciled and published during a weekend "batch" run).

By the time I left, the business was producing sales figures for the previous DAY, and there was even steps being looked at to "trickle feed" central systems on a more regular basis so that sales information was "almost live", and so that the overnight batch windows* were squeezed down to a bare minimum so that the company could operate outside of normal retail hours!

It was great for the business to be able to see what they'd sold of a particular product line the day after it had gone on special offer.

Not so great when the system crashed and they asked where the "backup" was :rolleyes: (Computer Operator: "What backup? That was cut from the overnight process in favour of weekly backups plus a rolling log. You can have your data back but it will take 5 times as long").

Oh and they very rarely backed up e-mails ... quite convenient really when the then chairman and finance director were then accused of "dodgy share dealings"** and the police and FSA asked for access to their e-mail accounts (which had also mysteriously been "housekept", despite the fact that the users had been suspending pending the investigation).

* the overnight "window" is the time between the retailers closing (and therfore ending till operations) and the time when they re-open in the morning (and therefore require the till operational again).

** apparently they each sold several million ££££'s worth of shares immediately prior to a "profits warning" ... and apparently the rules are that no share dealing can take place 6 weeks prior to such a warning being issued.

Re: Arrrgghh! Banks
 

I had exactly the same thing happen to me, a late payment hit my account meaning my rent standing order put me into my overdraft. I got charge £88 in total for it! I got very angry and wrote a letter to the branch manager. They wrote back saying it wasn't them, you have to write to blah blah blah, so I did, and then they wrote back and said it was all my fault but because they were nice (read: didn't have a legal leg to stand on) they were giving me a full refund! So write off and tell them so, thousands of people have successfully claimed.

This was all down to this 3-5 day cyberspace money thing, just so that banks have millions of pounds for extra days invested in the stockmarket etc! But seriously, if this is such a rip off, what can we do? Complaining doesn't do anything. We need to form a group and lobby. Anyone know of any groups concerned with this?

Re: Arrrgghh! Banks
 

PLus, my girlfriend sent a change of address off to Natwest with the dates we were moving. They sent a confirmation request to our old address after the date we had moved! How dumb is that!