A Nationwide Pain

Nationwide. Like this bank? Have you used the Romford branch. I have and well what a show of service. I was working on an article about some of the bad service that banks give out and I must thank Nationwide for providing me with some more material to add. The article will mention how hard it was made for me to open up a basic bank account.
 Yes, so it's the Romford branch I have to thank. Romford's not doing so well for the companies featured in this blog currently, what with the Romford branch of Job Centre Plus, Tesco and Nationwide appearing in the space of a few weeks for bad service. Don't worry, their are some very good organisations and companies that operate in Romford, I can vouch for that, and hopefully we can get on to them soon. But unfortuntly we have another bad service from a Romford store.
So this is how it went. I run a company called Stuff! (the company that works on the blog you are currently reading) and because of the way this company operates and earns it's money, I found I was best suited to payments been made on to a cash card online account with Mastercard, and the use of Paypal, it best suited the buisness at the time. Also, I did not have a passport (needed a new one) or a drivers license (hadn't yet applied for one) and I knew that would make it hard to have even the most basic current account-and believe me it does, I know as I have been trying to get an account for almost 3 Years.  However as the buisness evolved and some new oppurtunities came I needed a bank account, not only that our friends at PayPal suddenly decided that I needed a bank account and put a block on my account untill I got one. This meant I had fees that I was unable to pay (and were due in a matter of days after PayPal did this). It also meant, with a buisness that's payment system uses heavily PayPal, it stopted a lot of earnings through. So thanks PayPal for that. So off I go to try and apply for a bank account. Nationwide was the only one of the high street banks I hadn't tried, so off I went to see about opening a basic current account. By the way, before I had entered the branch, I had rang a number of staff members of the Nationwide phoneline, as well as the particuler Romford branch that I planned on trying for the account. I did this to check if the ID I had was appropiot to get myself account. Now some staff members said it would be, some said it wasn't and some said it could be, depending on what staff say. Well that's consistant, Nationwide. OK so back to visiting the branch. I waited at the help desk, for a staff member to stop being busy and see me. It wasn't to long before she was able to see me (in a not very busy bank for late afternoon) and I explained about the acount I wanted. The account was the most basic and least fees (but still remember that does not mean they will not try and charge you fees, I'm sorry heigh street banks but you want the trust, you'll have to earn it)-this account is called the Flexi current account. I explained that this was the ID I had. After she took all the ID she went at the back somewhere, I'm guessing to confirm with a member of staff if my ID was acceptable. Well she came back and informed me, that with a statement from my cashplus card and the letter from the DWP I had already given, I would be allowed to open my account. She mentioned a statement through the post, but I explained that Mastercard do not send them through post, fair enough some companies do not, all my statements are through my online account. After thinking it through she told me a print of statement would be fine, and if I came back with it the next day with my DWP letter she would open up the account. So I did. I thought that I should hopefully finaley get a basic current account. Well I turned up, and waited to be seen by a member of staff. The lady one the helpdesk who informed me to come back the next day with the ID to get the account open was not working that day, so another member of staff saw me instead. I explained that I had come back in to get my account opened and about the ID I had and that I did need the account as fast as possiable, by the next day as it goes. The lady took my details, but then started to suggest my ID was not enough. Your are joking right? No she wasn't joking, she said the statement could not be accepted in the way I had given it to her (a printed copy as the lady I had seen the previous day had asked me to bring in). She insisted that she new for a fact my ID would not be accepted, one of the reasons been that it did not have my address on it (the address which is on the DWP letter.......), I tried to reason with her and explain that this ws the ID I was asked to bring in, no one told me it had to have an address on, and as it was an online statement they would not usually. So the staff member went to discuss this with another co worker. The lady who had seen me returned with another staff member who I explained the issue too. She said that she knew for a fact that my ID was not acceptable, and went through the list on the computer saying these are the ID's that can be accepted, checked if I had anything else from the list I could offer (I hadn't) and then said she could not accept this ID. I explained about the member of staff from the previous day to which she replied that she knows for a fact that her co worker knows what ID is required and would not have asked told me that the ID was acceptable. Except she did, and I have witness' who could prove that, thank you very much. After a while she said OK, she would talk to the member off staff about it. But why could we not have just gone with the member of staff who said I could use the ID I had brung in, she was the one who was right, I should be able to open up a basic account with this. This gave proof of name and address perferctly. What else do they want? They might as well ask me to wee in a cup and be done with it. Honestly Nationwide. The least complained about bank? Sorry but I'll be adding to the complaints against that.