Be Excellent To Each Other

A similar thought had crossed my mind.

To be honest GazChap, you might do well to contact the Independent (or a newspaper of your choice) if you can't get a satisfactory response out of Lloyds. You can shout at them all you like, but once it looks like bad press might be coming their way they'll probably be spurred into action.

I wouldn't have thought it'd really do any good at all, you're just a number to them in the same way that "I" am, really.

Cheers for the thought, though.

But on a serious note Gaz, I think it would be worth writing the letter anyway, because the argument isn't just for your benefit. If they can't show themselves to be a bank worth banking with, why not tell them to get fucked anyway? At the very least it would force a formal response out of them which would be interesting to read.

Well, if you want to write a letter to them about this then that's entirely up to you guys I genuinely don't think it would help at all, and I also think you'd be unlikely to get anything but a copy-pasted form letter back.

But yeah, if you want to then go for it. Please try and avoid UNLEASHING THE FURIOUS ANGER OF THE GNOME though, that probably won't help

I'm going to call the solicitors tomorrow and explain the situation. I'll tell them that Lloyds are supposed to be investigating the matter after blocking the account. I'll also tell them that I'll be speaking to Lloyds in-branch again on the Saturday, as well as seeking legal counsel from my own solicitors. The upshot being that if an acceptable resolution isn't arrived at within 7 days, I'll be taking legal action against them myself.

If you get nowhere with the solicitors, let me know, and PM me some relevant details about you that I can cite when I write my polite but firm (I am capable of this) letter advising them to take better care of their non-customers

Are these guys any help?

Incidentally, can anyone get onto LloydsTSB's online banking thing? It hasn't worked for me for a few days and I'm starting to assume it's my shitty ISP.

I logged in earlier, works fine for me

*starts sweating profusely at the thoughts of calling the Virgin Media helpdesk*

I think I'd rather just open another bank account.

Edit - Or I could just unplug my modem and plug it back in.

I think they may be, yes. Thanks. From reading their Banking Code PDF, this immediately sticks out at me:

I can't see how this situation is covered by any of those bullet points which, to me at least, says that they've violated the Banking Code.

This does of course assume that Lloyds TSB follow it, it's a voluntary code after all (I suddenly feel like I'm in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie).

Well, that's handy Cheers.

As a holder of a Lloyds account I'm following this with interest and may be writing my own letter shortly. They've been nothing short of ace for the last 20 years I've been with them, but the last year or two has seen them fall a bit. They threw a wobbly when I went to go and pick up Aus Dollars with my Passport as ID claiming I should tell them how much is in it because it didn't have my name on. Not wishing to shout "There's a grand there, love" over the counter thingy I said "I'm not telling you that in public, besides, I've shown valid ID and only I know I ordered it to this branch, AND IT HAS MY NAME ON THE PACK." "Oh yes."

They also opened a credit card in my name without my authorisation and had the cheek to charge me for not using it. It was when I cancelled the AmEx card for generally being a bit useless instead of cancelling it they changed it to "Airmiles Duo". Only slightly illegal, then, and did I get an apology? Did I *balls*.

I'd change bank but as you know my employer is as thick as two short planks and it's not worth my while getting them to pay in to a different account.

Right that's it, I'm closing all my accounts and my money is going back under the bed with my shotgun!

Isn't modern life just awesome!

I'd just write to their lawyers saying "Still not me, sorry" as a first step.

Well ideally I suppose you'd get your lawyer to do it but only if you'll be able to claim it back from Lloyds.

Unless I misread, don't they still owe you huge piles of info that you requested?

I'll be phoning them tomorrow and will probably follow it up with a letter stating the same.


I can't envisage any situation where I wouldn't be able to claim back any costs incurred from Lloyds.


Yup. Haven't had a bean from them. It's been almost a month since I first complained to the branch (13th June) so when I go in on Saturday I'm going to be very angry.

Not quite Comical-angry, but still.

If it helps, they are almost certainly not solicitors, but in fact a different office at Lloyds TSB's head office. If you were to do some digging, you'd probably find that their email addresses are Lloyds TSB addresses, and that their registered office is probably a PO Box. At Lloyds TSB.

And court proceedings are ludicrously unlikely to be issued; banks very rarely bother with this kind of thing, as the costs outweigh the likelihood of recovery.

The fact that you have a crime reference number means that they really should have stopped pursuing you for the debt at all and referred it to their fraud team.

(There's no DPA breach involved if they've passed your details to another agency to recover a debt, by the way; it's a standard clause in all bank T&Cs these days that they may appoint somebody at any stage to deal with your accounts on their behalf. Obviously as this isn't your account, you won't have seen that clause in the first place, but that's what they'll be acting by.)

I can't envisage a situation where they would illegally open an account in your name, allow it to go into massive debt then try and sue you for the money.... but there we go

He requested them to stop processing data, and they continued, then handed known/suspected incorrect data to a (potential) third party. Surely this is a breach of the DPA?

Sorry, not a solicitor, just trying to remember from when I had to "know" it.

Depends on the branch. When I first moved here with my wife, who's Icelandic, we had massive trouble setting up a bank account for her (until we stumbled across the total non-idiots at Abbey, who were fab). I've banked at Lloyds since I was 5, and so thought that'd be a good first port of call. One branch lied through their teeth, saying that, at best, my wife would only ever have the most basic account for at least three years. The other ushered us into an office as soon as they realised my wife was a foreign, and then started rattling on about terrorism and money laundering. My query about 'introducing' my wife with me being an existing customer was, against company policy, shot down. I was also told that, no, I couldn't just add my wife to my account "for security reasons".

Understandably, we were both furious, and by a stunning coincidence, I was then phoned by Lloyds marketing regarding taking on some new service or other, which required a trip to my bank manager of my official local branch. That meeting turned into me complaining about the shitty service we'd received, which the guy duly noted down. He penned a complaint letter himself, which I read, and sent it off to both branches. The first one (in Reading) did actually apologise and sent us some bottles of wine. We never heard from the Fleet branch.

I've just called them this morning and although the pre-recorded message at the start does say Sechiari etc. all of the options on the phone are related to Lloyds TSB, so you're probably right.


Yeah, but there does seem to be a breach in that they're passing my details (which, remember, they shouldn't have) on to a debt collection agency for no good reason.


Yeah, good point

Anyway, the upshot of the phone call was that they couldn't help me over the phone but that I would need to speak to my branch (even though technically I don't have one) to get them to sort it out. So, that's my Saturday afternoon wasted then. They've said that they'll put a note on the account to prevent further correspondence and any action being taken against me.

Yeah, you're still being kinder that I would, I'd have said "I don't have a branch, I'm not your customer. If you wish to talk to me about this matter, please arrange a time to visit me in person".

But then fear they might actually win does cause you wimp out on these things, ask Gnomes.

Fuck off Dudds

You wuss, you should have gone down there and roundhouse kicked Viacom.

I'm not frightened they'll win, they don't have a snowballs chance.

Then you're being astonishingly nice to them.

Well, unlike Comical, I find it virtually impossible to get truly angry.

Even my brother commented on it last weekend after I went to the Toyota dealership only to be dicked about. He said that I was very confrontational and displeased, but I was always polite.

Oh don't worry, for all my infuriation there are very, very few occasions that I'd resort to shouting or otherwise acting like an angry loon. Much like you, if I encounter a situation where I'm being fucked around I'll be visibly annoyed, but generally polite. Things make me angry, but I'm not sitting here punching my desk at the injustice of it all. It's a quiet, seething anger that may one day manifest as a killing spree, but until then I'm almost quite congenial.

Well I don't even mean angry, but you're going out of your way to make it easy for these cocksticks who are trying to ruin your life.

When I go to the branch tomorrow I will be delivering them with an ultimatum anyway, the "nice" part of it all ended the moment they threatened me with legal action.

I'd not be too worried about the court thing. If they insist on taking you to court, you go along with all your bits of paper, they go along with theirs, and it's as plan as day you didn't open the account. Judge kicks them out. Alright you have to spend a day in court, but it could be a laugh.

Now I'd give up a Saturday for




Except for the bit where you're going into the branch on your own time

Well, then you send them an invoice for your wasted time. At £50/hr obv.

Er, up until the court summons obviously
Still, so far so typical really. They're digging the hole, make sure it costs them.

As Craig says, I'll be invoicing them for any lost earnings while I've had to sort this out. I've already given them fair warning of this as well, on the written statement I made at the branch on the 13th June I went to great pains to point out that any financial losses I incur will be recovered from them.

Just remember to pull the pin out of your ultimatum first.

You should write a letter of complaint to the FSA today, and take a copy of it into the branch tomorrow. Make a show of folding it and putting it into a stamped, addressed envelope and sealing it up during the meeting.

For comedy value, ask the manager if they'd like to wander down to the postbox to watch you post it as well.

Seriously, do this and try and get the manager's signature on it. If he refuses to sign, make a note of that on the letter.

Also, make sure you take a tape recorder to record the meeting. Ensure the manager knows it is there though, start recording (IMPORTANT) and just ask, "You don't mind if I record this do you?" That way you have his answer on tape. And if he says he does mind, then that is always useful to have on tape as well.

I don't have a tape recorder, but I always ensure that the manager/whoever creates a written statement of everything covered in the discussion and signs/dates it.

I had a letter from Lloyds TSB yesterday telling me that they're very sorry to read of my complaint, and then went on to explain the situation.

As I suspected, some guy with my name and date of birth was one of their customers and he did a runner after getting into debt.

Lloyds TSB, in an attempt to find the guy, contacted a "tracing agency" who pulled my details (from where, they did not say) and flagged me as a possible match. They then added my address to the account but marked it as "for correspondence only" and sent me the initial letter in an attempt to gain confirmation that I was the guy in question. Apparently.

Anyway, they've finished their investigation now and decided that I'm not the guy after all, and by way of apology have offered me one of 6 gifts (from memory, either 6 bottles of wine, a bottle of Moet, a bottle of Glenmorangie, a DAB radio, and two others that I can't remember).

If I want to take him up on the offer of a gift (which I don't) I've got to write back to him within a month, as he'll "only hold the offer open for one month from today".

Oh, and they also said they couldn't give me any of the information I asked for (about the account) because it's not my account and therefore not my data. They cunningly skipped past the request for ALL of the information that they hold about me.

Personally I'm not happy, and I'm going to write a letter back to the guy saying that, as far as I'm concerned, this is a big fuck-up on their part and I won't be "bought" with wine and whisky.

Accepting a gift would be used as evidence of agreement/understanding/accord being reached, should you later find out you're entitled to compensation for this fuck-uppery, so possibly a good choice - if you want to go that way.

Got your complaint to the information commissioner and FSA in yet?

Still, at least they now accept that you're you, and the other GazChap isn't, despite their loudest "LALALA"-ing.

So basically what happened is what we all said happened right at the start?

Shocker.

That is a bit tawdry isn't it.

Also, possible other things to do and consider:

1) Did you give them money with your DP request? If so, they're even more in breach of the DPA.
2) Letter of complaint to their DP Controller, if the previous one wasn't addressed that way.
3) Letter demanding that any footprints on your credit file be expunged, or if that's not possible that notes be filed saying it was their fault and you're not a FILTHY MONEY-STEALING TERRORIST sorry, also the details of any credit agencies used so you can send them letters on the subject yourself.

Yeah, I thought as much. I'm tempted to go to a solicitor and hand them the envelope with all of the correspondence in, ask them if Lloyds have broken any laws and if so, whether they'd be prepared to take the case on a "no win, no fee" thingie and see if I can't make an example out of them.


No, but now that I've gotten Lloyds' admission that they're wrong, I will be writing to both.


No, I didn't. They haven't asked for the "nominal fee" to retrieve the data though either, they've just ignored the request completely.

I'll be getting my Experian credit report now and that'll let me find out if they've fucked it up or not. They claim that there'll be no effect on my credit record full-stop as it was never my account, but we'll see.

Thre's a requirement under the DPA to respond to a subject access request within a certain number of days. If they don't, they're breaking the law.

Yeah, that's one of the main angles I'm going to be... err... angling for

So basically, just like in the link you posted on page 2, Lloyds are still employing the use of "traceing agencies", who pick a name out of a hat and go "yeah, it's probably this guy, can we have our money now"?
Still, at least you've got them to admit it's not you now, so it's up to you where it goes from here.

Looks like it.

I'd totally forgotten about that link - how come that woman in the article was offered £150 compensation (even before getting the papers involved) and I get a bottle of champagne? I remembered another one of the gifts they offered me - a goddamn fountain pen.

Some people would suffer a lot of EMOTIONAL STRESS AND UPSET as a result of receiving a threatening solicitors demand. You could be a very sensitive sole, GazChap, whom this has affected very much. Lack of sleep, inability to concentrate, loss of appetite, and feelings of anxiety.

Sounds like you've had a really rough time, but nothing that a couple of hundred quid wouldn't fix.