Those donuts at A&L really got my goat up today… Today is national “get my goat up” day in my house. So be warned, don’t do anything to piss me off today because I am liable to throw my goat at you…
Many weeks ago, I thought, it was about time I got another savings account (my secret slush fund account). And because I am a lazy so and so, I thought I’d read up on who has the best online accounts. A&L seemed to be quite near the top and so off to their website I trundled and duly filled in their online application.
Now because I put my wife down as a joint account holder, I was sent a letter through the post saying that they needed to verify her identity due to the changes in the Money Laundering Rules. First off, why didn?t they need to verify my details?
So off she pops to the local A&L, shows them the form. They take a copy of her driving license which has a photo ID and her address on it. The A&L girl completes the form and even posts it off for her.
Two weeks later on I am wondering what is happening with the status of the account application and a letter from A&L arrives. Woo Hoo thinks me as I am opening it up, wondering why if it was meant to be an online account, why could they not have emailed me.
On opening the letter it contains the application form, and the signed statement from the local A&L branch. Its not the original methinks, so why are the returning it?. The attached letter does not make sense, since it merely repeats the original request of there being a requirement to verify the identity. It does say however that they need an item from Group B to verify the address. So I check the Group B list and sure enough, the driving license is there, and as it is one of the new photo ID licensesand it has her address on it?
So I phone up the helpline saying that we did supply information from group A and B and that the local A&L branch was the ones that completed the forms anyway and sent them on our behalf.
I then get berated by some snotty nosed tw@ who tells me I should have read the form before posting, even after I explained that the local A&L office read the form, completed the form and posted the form. He then went on to say, well its up to me to verify the information? Erm? so why does it suggest going to your local A&L office to get your ID checked, so you don?t have to send original documents and the website even states it will speed the process up.
The actual line on the application form states “We need one item from Group A, plus one item from Group B; a photocopy of both will be taken and retained for our records?.”
Group A documents are used to identify you, and Group B documents confirm your address. So I guess the local A&L office assumed that the new driving license having both a picture and an address would suffice. (As I did). After all, we are trying to prove my wife?s identity, not her ability to count!! No where on the form does it ask for TWO items, and that you cannot supply one item from both sides. (Geesh, this is really making me sound so anally retentive!)
Admittedly, the girl I spoke to on the second call I made to the A&L Customer Service Advisors was not as impolite, but by then they had burnt their bridges just as I had thrown the application forms into the fireplace and watched them rise up the chimney with great satisfaction.
Sanctimonious git that he was ? no one repeat no one upsets my goat!!!
