Just tried to access my online account and, despite the odd sticky moment, it all worked fine. Looks like they have sorted it out.

Their systems were unable to update my new address last week, so all my statements & a new bank card would still be going to my old address.

I just rang to complain that I have been unable to use my debit card! The woman said that it was due to an internet fault, or maybe I hadn't filled the details correctly. Then said try again tomorrow. Surely preventing us from accessing our money when we HAVE to have bank accounts to get paid, is illegal?

We get charged when we are overdrawn or late in making payments, I say we all charge them £35 per failed payment. There's barely a whisper on the net and yet no doubt thosuands of people are affected!

If they were updating systems, surely we should get some notice anyway?

If a customer fails to move money from a desposit to a cheque account so that the latter goes into the red (no matter how many tens of thousands you have in the deposit account), a charge of £30 is levied. Its called "free banking" in Abbey-speak.

My RBOS account had an automatic transfer to keep the cheque account always topped up from the deposit account. I was told Abbey had this but it isn't automatic at all - hence the charges.

My point is that Abbey makes so much money out of running poor service to customers that it has no real incentive to change: it is the customer who has to change. When they've had enough defections, they'll spend far more than the cost of fixing the original problem on an advertising campaign to lure more customers on board. Will they fix the fundamental problem? I doubt it. Maybe Spanish Mgmt are smarter but I doubt that too.

I've been with Abbey for years and over the last few months there have been increasing numbers of erratic problems. I have often failed to get online with them, particularly in the morning. This problem clearly goes much deeper and has been going for much longer than they are admitting.

Go ask again Reg!

I have to deal with Abbey call centre and branch staff everyday + they are the bain of my life!

Hence we call them "Shabbey National" haha!

Its not just Abbey Business systems that have failed. The past 3 months everything Abbey has touched has fallen apart. I had transactions declined on Saturday for no apparent reason. I phoned Abbey and they said it was a VISA problem which it clearly wasn't. I asked for a balance there and then, only to find out their internal systems were offline too!

I'm starting to chronicle everything of late at http://www.switchtoabbey.co.uk following fraudulent activity on my account which nearly 3 months later, Abbey still havent resolved.

Pathetic. Have never had a problem with Abbey before but this is intolerable.

A week later, they're still having problems. I can log in but can't see a/c balances.

After six days of not being able to move my money or manage my accounts online, and following several complaints to the "Complaints department" and to the CEO's office (desperate measures!) it does seem that the Abbey systems are working again.

Have they apologised for the inconvenience - no!

Have they bothered to contact customers at all or acknowledge that there was a problem - no!

I have had a letter from the complaints department acknowledging that I complained but as it is a standard letter I doubt I will hear any more.

What a shoddy and unprofessional way to treat customers.

While web access to accounts appears normal after the bank holiday (for me), Abbey has still yet to fix my ISA account despite being broken by the same cause, around the same time. Contributions remaining (set on tax year) have been reset to zero leaving me unable to transfer my funds between accounts.

Definitely no help available via phone\technical services with quotes including:

"Ring back in an hour it should be fixed then.... “(Excellent fob-off - that was a week ago)

"Caused by the problems we had over bank holiday, try back in a week...” (Answer today)

And my favorite (when asked a suitable timeframe for checking the status)

"You can ring everyday if you wish; I can give you no definite date to resolve this, or disclose the details of the problems causing this..."