Dear Mr. Williamson [Chief Executive of Nationwide Building Society],
Is that supposed to be funny?
In case you need a bit of a reminder, here's a summary of the story so far:
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I had a Nationwide credit card. I was perfectly happy with it.
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I got married. I wanted to change the name on my new wife's card to reflect her new surname.
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This process took two minutes on the phone to MBNA for one set of cards.
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When I phoned Nationwide I was told I'd have to:
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Get her to sign a letter with her old and new signatures,
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Turn up at a branch, and,
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Bring the original marriage certificate for them to copy.
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I did these things, even though the nearest branch is miles from where I work.
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Nationwide then proceeded to lose the letter and the copy of the certificate they made.
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Nationwide then asked me to follow exactly the same process again, in the hope that (despite the evidence) they wouldn't lose the papers this time.
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I pointed out how easy MBNA made it, and how tortuous they were making it, and closed the account in disgust.
You made it really easy to close the account and really hard to continue using it. That may not be your best policy - you might want to re-think that.
But now, now you're just getting insulting.
Tonight I arrived home to find some junk mail from Nationwide. I specifically asked to be removed from all Nationwide's junk mail lists, so I'm always a little annoyed when organisations like yours completely disregard what I say.
But, in addition to the junk mail to me, there was junk mail to my wife. In her new name.
So Nationwide can't change the name on the account when I bend over backwards trying to comply with your policies, but they manage to use the new name to send her dross we've specifically said we don't want?
Seriously, how clueless are you lot? Do you really think this helps your credibility? Do you think this makes it more or less likely that I'll have any dealings with you in the future? You have a good credit card - I appreciated the low costs when using it abroad - but giving it up because you made the account such a hassle didn't leave a gaping void in my life. Sending junk mail to my wife's new name when you couldn't even get the name change on the account right is just insulting.
