Some Barclaycard customers have been locked out of their accounts for two weeks
Barclaycard site buckles under the strain
/v3-uk/news/1974497/barclaycard-site-buckles-strain
03 Oct 2008, Rosalie Marshall , V3
Barclaycard's integration with ex-Morgan Stanley firm Goldfish has caused severe disruption to customers trying to access their online accounts.
Some customers have been locked out of their accounts for more than two weeks, according to a Barclaycard call centre agent. This has driven users to register their frustration with the service in a web forum on MoneySavingExpert.com.
A Barclaycard spokesman claimed that the site's capacity was increased by 50 per cent last Friday.
"There is no intention to increase the site's capacity more than that," he said. "As customer demand reduces, more users should be able to access the service again."
The spokesman explained that Barclaycard had anticipated an increase in customers using the online service but had not expected the demand to be so huge. He insisted that there had not been a lack of forward thinking.
Barclaycard's call centre agents are informing customers that they will be notified in writing when services return to normal, although the Barclaycard spokesman said that this was not the case.
A spokesman for the Financial Ombudsman Service advised customers to make an official complaint with Barclaycard.
"This triggers a formal legal process and the bank has to respond in eight weeks to address it," he explained, adding that if the bank does not respond within two months, customers can then complain to the ombudsman.
To make an official complaint to Barclaycard, customers need to call a 0844 number that charges a minimum of 8p a minute for BT customers.
The Barclaycard web site's log-in page currently holds a service status update which reads: 'We are currently experiencing high demand, which may affect the speed of service. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.'
The news follows the Bank of America web site downtime in September 2008 which lasted for nearly five hours.
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Posted by John O, 03 Oct 2008
Down for over a week
There was no warning this was going to happen, no information from Barclaycard as to why it happened, and I haven't been able to login for over a week. It's ridiculous and they should have planned for the extra demand BEFORE they did the integration.
Posted by Matthew, 03 Oct 2008
Barclaycard customer service is appalling
I was a Morgan Stanley card holder and always had excellent service from the call centre in Glasgow. Since Barclaycard took over last month I have lost several transactions in the migration to my new account and the call centre which seems to be India seem unable to understand my simple queries and just fail to deliver basic customer service. I will be closing my account with them.
Posted by Simon Heather, 03 Oct 2008
Terrible
I was a MorganStanley customer of a number of years and I had always received very good customer service, including a good relationship with their Glasgow call centre.
The transition to Barclaycard has been appalling and I would have expected better from an unknown name, let alone Barclaycard.
My information letters never arrived (including the letter saying we were being sold to Barclaycard and the PIN for my new card).
I have lost all details of my previous transactions with no warning that the old MorganStanley web site would be removed immediately.
I have no problem with a call centre being in India but the operative could not understand my question and kept trying to transfer me to another department (when I didn't need to be). I hung up rather than try to work it through.
I doubt I'll be staying with Barclaycard for long unless things vastly improve.
Posted by Alison C, 17 Oct 2008