Abysmal Customer Service
Their poor customer service quickly became apparent during the application process. I applied for a 2 year bond online. I received a confirmation email to say that a second email would arrive with instructions to upload my ID etc (bank statement, passport and driving licence) as I was told there was a name mismatch with my nominated linked account (I was confused as there was no mismatch - all the name information I supplied was a perfect match). However, that second email never arrived. I phoned up and was told to ignore that information and email my documents instead of using a secure portal. I was also told that the name matching system could be extremely pedantic and sometimes made no sense). Reluctantly, I sent the documents by email but 3 days later I had heard nothing. I phoned again and was told a button just needed to be pressed at the GB Bank end and this would be done shortly. I waited a further 5 days but heard nothing. I phoned again and was told that my application was now in the hands of the Compliance Team. I was told that this team are a law unto themselves when it comes to timescales and there was no guarantee they would complete the security processes before the first deposit deadline (failure to make a deposit within the deadline period would close the account). I ended the call with no idea how long the Compliance Team might take. Fed up, I applied for a 2 year bond with an alternative bank and I was able to have a fully setup account with 10 minutes with no documentation having to be sent in. What a contrast. If the alarm bells are ringing during the application process with regard to abysmal processes and non-existent communication then I was going to take no chances as to what the bank would be like to deal with further down the line. I will not use them again. What a waste of time. If GB Bank's procedures introduce delays into the application process then good, clear communication is all the more important. Their communication was anything but that.
