Barclays says that it treats customers fairly

An undercover investigation by BBC One's Whistleblower programme has exposed serious customer service failings at a major High Street bank.

BBC reporter Amanda Egbujo got a job at a Barclays bank call centre in Sunderland, then a branch in Surrey.

While at Barclays, Ms Egbujo witnessed mis-selling, employees lying to customers and security failings.

Barclays said the programme's findings were not truly representative of how it treats its customers.

The Whistleblower programme launched a nine-month investigation after it had received a tip-off from a former Barclays employee.

The employee had been disgusted at what she had been asked to do when working at a Barclays call centre.

Bank failings

During her time undercover, first at the call centre and then in the branch, Ms Egbujo found:

• Bank employees lying and cheating to make a sale
• Customers being misled and sold products they did not even know they had bought
• Customers forced to pay charges deemed unlawful by some experts
• Serious flaws in security and fraudsters at work.

In addition, while working in the call centre Ms Egbujo soon learned what were called "the tricks of the trade".

She was coached by a workmate on how to spot good customers, involving potentially offensive stereotyping.

"You can tell straight away, people like called Susan or Patricia, who are usually from Liverpool and have really rough accents, as soon as you hear their voice on the phone, 'hello', debt, she is going to have loads of it - or they want a new kitchen. Welsh men always want a new car or home improvements, Scottish people don't want to talk to you at all," the Barclays worker said.

One bank trainer confesses to being a "right git" to customers complaining about the levying of bank charges.

"They will start shouting, being abusive, crying, start blaming you, (saying) my kids are going to starve. 'But my attitude is I don't know you, I don't care," the trainer said.

In response, Barclays bank said in a statement that it was a trustworthy institution.

"We are not in the business of encouraging or condoning mis-selling or inappropriate sales in any way whatsoever, and we stamp on that when we find it because it is completely inappropriate behaviour for a bank," it said.

"We pride ourselves on being a responsible institution that puts its customers first. I don't think what you've seen is any way representative of the way in which Barclays does business, and I'm sure our millions of customers would tell you exactly the same thing." 

這兩星期的網路每至下午五點開始就不好連上線，
老公寫了多封emails詢問如何解決連上網站，也依照其指示步驟
但仍不見改善，後來經我的提醒可能寬頻網路對某些網站有限制

Unbelievable!!!看到今晚Channel 4新聞播出這則即將漲費消息
第一個就先瞄準明年要申請英國公民的費用
naturalisation fees: increase from £200 to £575 
後來乾脆直接上Home Office去讀詳細新聞