Disgruntled call centre worker 'froze customer's bank account in revenge prank'
A bank customer who criticised an "unhelpful" worker at an Indian call centre has alleged the clerk played a revenge prank on him by freezing his account and changing his identity to that of a Ugandan divorcee.
George Bates, 23, said he found the operator at Abbey's call centre to be "rude and arrogant" and gave him a low rating in a post-call customer satisfaction survey.
However, when the self-employed carpenter later rang the bank he was unable to access his account for "security reasons".
Mr Bates, who is single, then visited his local branch and discovered his identity had been changed to that of a 33-year-old Ugandan divorcee.
Mr Bates also found his overdraft facility had been withdrawn and direct debits totalling £750 had been cancelled - resulting in £60 worth of bank charges.
Abbey has since cancelled the charges, apologised, and offered Mr Bates £200 in compensation.
Mr Bates alleged that the operator had "obviously seen that I have given him bad feedback and has decided to change all my details in revenge."
He added: "When I heard my details had been changed to Ugandan I was terrified that my account had been emptied by somebody else and I would never get my money back."
Mr Bates said the episode began when he contacted Abbey's telephone banking service on September 23 to extend his overdraft to cover direct debits.
The operator, who spoke with an Asian accent, extended the overdraft from £1,500 to £1,700. But when Mr Bates later asked to extend the overdraft further, the operator refused as the limit could not be changed twice in one day.
"He was really unhelpful but he had the cheek to pester me to give him a good rating after the call," he said.
Mr Bates, from Bristol, said that as a result he gave the operator a bad review in a questionnaire.
When he found out he was locked out of his Abbey account, his manager at his local branch corrected his details, and his overdraft and direct debits were reinstated.
Abbey agreed to pay the charges for cancelling his overdraft and for non-payment of the direct debits.
Mr Bates said, however, that he planned to change banks.
He said: "I am not happy with the service and the fact that the call centre Abbey uses is in India.
"I've been forced to take lots of time off work which has costs me several day's wages and the stress of it all is really frustrating.
"Even though they did eventually sort everything out I am still unhappy and I will be switching back to a bank with call centres in Britain."
Abbey said it had "fully investigated" Mr Bates's claims but it could not say whether any disciplinary action had been taken.
A spokesman said: "An error occurred on Mr Bates's overdraft. We have since returned his account to the correct position and refunded any charges relating to this error.
"In relation to Mr Bates's other claims, we can confirm that we have fully investigated these complaints but we do not comment on individual employees."
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