COVENTRY Building Society customers have branded the company’s systems a “fiasco” after a second day of problems.
Problems started yesterday morning (August 1) at around 6am, with users reporting issues with online banking and payments.
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Coventry BS is the third biggest building society in the UK, with around 2million customers.
Yesterday it posted on Twitter that its online services were unavailable and that branches and its call centres were also affected.
Today it provided an update to angry customers.
It said: “We’ve made good progress overnight and expect to have all services, inc. standing orders ,direct debits and cash cards, restored later this afternoon/eve.
“We’ll do this carefully but as fast as we can. We know this has been very disruptive and we’re very sorry for the inconvenience.”
But customers are fuming at the technical problems, which have rolled into their second day.
Taking to social media to complain, one said: “Systems down for the second day. Chaos all round. Unacceptable.”
Another said: “Systems down for more than a day. Bills not paid on the first of the month.”
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A third customer said: “Coventry Building Society’s systems went down yesterday and they have no idea when it’ll be fixed.
“I’m £££ overdrawn (and being charged) thanks to a payment that hasn’t gone in.”
Coventry BS has advised customers to call its customer service team on 0800 121 8899 if they are having problems. The line is open from 8am to 7pm on weekdays.
A spokesman told The Sun: “Unfortunately, we’ve had an internal technical issue that caused disruption to some of our systems yesterday.
“We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience and stress that this has caused and are committed to putting this right for our members.”
The building society said regular payments, standing orders and direct debits that were scheduled for yesterday and today were starting to go through.
It added: “Members can still withdraw and deposit cash at branches, and the teams in our call centre are continuing to take calls and support members. We’ve been able to complete all house moves as planned.”
Can I get compensation for a bank outage?
Banks are not automatically obliged to give you compensation because of an outage, unlike telecoms firms and other industries.
However, if you have been left out of pocket as a result of the issues, you can make a complaint.
For example, if a bill payment didn’t go through as a result of the outage and you’ve been charged a fee for missing it, you should be able to claim that money back.
Money.co.uk personal finance expert James Andrews said: “If you’ve lost out as a result of the service interruption, contact your bank and tell them what’s happened and what it cost you.
“Provide as much evidence as possible of any charges you’ve incurred as a result of not being able to access your bank account to have the best chance of a refund.”
You should make a complaint to the building society first using its official complaints process.
However, if you’re not happy with the outcome you could then go to the Financial Ombudsman.
