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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Graeme Wearden

TSB crisis: customers count cost of IT meltdown as problems continue - as it happened

A TSB branch on High Holborn, London
A TSB branch on High Holborn, London Photograph: Jill Mead for the Guardian

And finally, here’s our latest news story on the TSB IT crisis:

In theory, TSB customers have another hour to call the bank for help before customer services closes for the day, at 11pm.

In practice, there’s a long queue, and no certainty of getting through eventually....

Radio producer Amanda Redman is just one of many customers to report that TSB is giving her inaccurate information when she logs in:

This whole IT migration fiasco is a setback for TSB’s attempts to challenge Britain’s larger banks, says the Financial Times tonight.

The FT adds:

A person briefed on the TSB board’s plans insisted the platform had not been rushed out, and said questions over who was responsible would have to wait until the system was running smoothly for all its customers: “Given the testing they didn’t think this was where they were going to end up — they never would have pushed the button otherwise,” the person said.

“It’s getting a bit better but there’s still some way to go . . . we’ve got to get to a point where things are stable, the backlogs are cleared, and then we can start an inquest.”

TSB is facing more criticism from MPs tonight, over its failure to migrate smoothly onto a new IT system.

Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake told the Daily Telegraph:

It doesn’t seem sensible that TSB took a big bang approach to this switch.

This is simply not acceptable. If they’re going to do an upgrade they should have been prepared and have contingencies in place. This is like when KFC ran out of chicken.”

And still they come....

TSB customers are still reporting a litany of problems tonight:

TSB: Internet banking running at 50% capacity

TSB has now revealed that its internet banking service is only running at 50% capacity.

It admits that half of the customers who try to get onto its internet banking system are still facing issues - despite CEO Paul Pester announcing 16 hours ago that things were up and running.

TSB also says its mobile app is now operating at 90% capacity, meaning one in 10 users are suffering problems.

Pester also conceded that customers still aren’t getting a good enough experience.

In a curious statement - he says that ‘everything is working’, but not in a way that customers can see (!!).

The challenge we are facing at the moment is that while we know everything is working, one of the main ways that our customers see everything is working – through our internet banking and mobile app – isn’t functioning as well as it should be, and for this I’m truly sorry,” he added.

“I can appreciate how frustrating this must be for our customers.”

Updated

Penny Simpson has got back in touch, to report that she still can’t log into TSB’s internet banking service.

She adds:

Can we not dispel the myth that the online system is working, because if you have to spend hours everyday attempting to get in, then it isn’t working.

TBS insists that things are running smoothly for the ‘vast majority’ of customers.

Some, though, are still experiencing problems - such as Andy Sharps of Shropshire. He says TSB’s site crashed this afternoon as he tried to withdraw his money:

TBS say they’re ‘working around the clock’ to put things right:

TSB also warns that some customers are experiencing a delay in receiving text alerts, or may not receive them at all.

It’s also taking longer than usual to isssue replacement debit and credit cards.

Both these problems might not be fixed until the end of April.

The latest problems at TSB

Despite CEO Paul Pester claiming that TSB’s internet banking is “Up and running”, some services are still in the “down and out” category.

According to TSB’s service status page, there are still several problems.

For example, internet and mobile banking customers still can’t view their mortgages online (which explains why some people found their loans had vanished this morning)

Business banking customers are seeing errors when they try to reset their log-in details, and some also can’t see their standing orders in their banking app.

DJ stranded by TSB's computer meltdown

Neil De Silva, a DJ and part-time model from Glasgow was unable to pay for additional luggage because he couldn’t get his TSB card to work, leaving him stranded in Thailand:

“I ended up missing my flight to Singapore after my card was declined. Things then went from bad to worse as I couldn’t log into my bank account to transfer some savings to pay for a new flight.”

Stacey and Louie Brown, who have recently been married in Thailand, had to borrow money from weddings guests to cover their costs.

“My husband’s card was blocked but luckily we had friends and family with us who we borrowed from to pay for food and accommodation. We would have been sleeping on the beach otherwise,” says 31-year-old Stacey from Dorset, adding:

“We’ve been trying to sign up to a divemaster course as part of our honeymoon, but now the internet banking is down we can’t transfer any money. We’re now living on water and toasties and down to our last £40. Hopefully we will have access to our money again soon.”

This is similar to the case of Matt, covered earlier in the blog.

Updated

TSB’s online banking system still looks like a lottery, 11 hours after CEO Paul Pester tweeted that it was working again.

Some customers, such as PA Liza Young, have managed to overcome its problems....

..but others, such as historian Guy Walters, are still frustrated.

Persimmon roasted over huge bonuses

Breaking away from TSB briefly, UK housebuilder Persimmon is being given a bloody nose by shareholders.

Investors at its AGM are angry at “totally and utterly unjustifiable” multi-million bonuses paid to its chief executive and senior managers, including a £75m award for CEO Jeff Fairburn.

Around 64% of shareholders refused to back the package - either by abstaining or voting against it.

Euan Stirling, head of stewardship at Aberdeen Standard Investments, one of Persimmon’s biggest shareholders with a 2.3% stake, said the “enormous sums” due to Fairburn and other senior managers were “grossly excessive” and have “tarnished” the housebuilder’s name.

Stirling said that Fairburn’s offer to reduce his bonus from his legally entitled £110m to £75m “does not even get close to acceptable”.

Stirling declared:

“The important point I referred to is that regardless of any moral or societal duties, company directors have a legal responsibility to act in the best long-term interests of the company that employs them

Today’s remuneration results suggest that the executive directors at Persimmon have lost sight of that because the long-term success of the company is being endangered by the reputational damage associated with grossly excessive pay!”

The Church of England has also weighed Persimmon in the balance, and found it wanting:

Updated

Lingerie firm unable to pay staff thanks to TSB

The owner of the UK’s first and oldest luxury leather lingerie brand is also caught up in the TSB IT crisis.

Jules Hawkins, 54, who owns Bristol-based Lux Tenebrae, has been unable to pay her staff through her TSB accounts. That echoes the problems reported earlier this morning (here and here)

Jules tells us:

“I’m going to have to pay them out of my First Direct personal account, which will look to HMRC like I’m paying myself a huge amount of money when I eventually manage to reimburse myself.

My staff don’t have TSB accounts so why should they have to bear the brunt of this mess by going overdrawn and having to wait to claim back? It’s the end of the month and they have rent and bills to pay. Also, are my automated payments still going out? Did I just pay my tax? Don’t even get me started on trying to input my end of year tax return.”

Updated

How TSB IT fiasco ruined a holiday

Los Cristianos beach, Canary Island

Matt from South Wales is on holiday in the Canary Islands and has been unable to pay for goods and services thanks to TSB’s botched IT migration:

“I arrived on Saturday for a five night break and this has totally ruined my holiday. My card was declined in a restaurant I went to and I had to walk 50 mins back to my hotel as I didn’t have enough money to pay for a taxi. I tried to contact TSB via email and on the phone but after waiting for 40 mins I couldn’t wait any longer. I feel for everyone that’s having these problems and I can’t wait to get home to speak to someone from in person.

They are not keeping their customers updated and they will lose a lot of customers due to this terrible service. How can we trust them after this?”

Louise (not her real name) is a sole trader who holds both a business and current account with TSB:

“The whole thing is a fiasco. I knew that the site would be down as TSB said they were ‘upgrading’ the business banking and instead of the trusty card reader that I’ve been using for years they would be introducing a system which uses an app instead.

“Although I’m a web designer and tech savvy I didn’t want to install the app for various reasons (size, privacy, just don’t want it on my phone!) but did so reluctantly. The amount of permissions the app wanted was outrageous so I emailed them to say that I wasn’t happy and that from 25 May when GDPR comes into force I’d be contacting them every day to delete the unnecessary data that they were collecting via the app.

“A very rapid response suggested that I order one of their basic devices instead, which I did. Credit where credit is due, it arrived promptly yesterday, just in time for the new system to be live. Except of course it’s not live. The system is still down. Also the basic device seems incapable of doing anything at all. This is one of those ‘upgrades’ that seems completely futile and designed to annoy customers.”

TSB customers: It's still a mess

A stream of TSB customers are reporting that they can’t get their TSB internet passwords to work.

Penny Simpson tells me that she has been frozen out of her account, because the bank’s new IT system isn’t recognising customers’ existing passwords and memorable information.

She says she’s not alone:

I have spoken to more than a dozen people and nobody has managed to get through. Have we really gone through all this pain to install a system that can’t cope with 1.9m customers?

Penny was eventually forced to drive eight miles to her nearest branch, Gillingham in Dorset. Staff looked like they’d “been in an earthquake”, she says.

To take money out they have to use handwritten slips like the old credit cards. I wanted to know my balance which, after two or three attempts they were able to access.

My direct debits have been going out - what a pity Paul Pester couldn’t have reassured customers that despite the problems, standing orders etc were being processed.

However, I was told that this branch will be closing in May. My next nearest branch will be 26 miles away. Totally unacceptable.... I will move banks as soon as the system is running again.

Another TSB customer, Louise Pennington, found herself at the back of a long queue:

Other TSB customers are also reporting similar problems when they try to log on:

Another dissatisfied customer:

Clean Sheet, a charity that helps former offenders to find work, can’t log into its TSB account to pay staff -- another sign that the IT meltdown isn’t fully fixed yet.

TSB customers worry about holidays, mortgages, and food

A man uses a TSB cash machine in Ashford, Kent.

Guardian readers have been in touch about how they’ve been affected by the TSB IT failures.

Angela from Kent is concerned about her upcoming holiday:

“We are going away on Saturday and can’t transfer money from our savings to buy holiday clothes and travel money. We didn’t bother trying to contact TSB as their phone call waiting time is over an hour!”

Mark, 54 from Birmingham was on hold for three hours after seeing his account was showing in US dollars:

“My account is showing £40k in arrears against my mortgage and the whole account shows in dollars. I can live with all of that but yesterday my son couldn’t eat as I couldn’t transfer funds to his Parent Pay account.

Everybody can have issues but the true measure is how you rectify them. TSB’s contingency has been very poorly thought out and will undoubtedly cost them long-term loyal customers.”

Jos is on a low income, with no credit cards or savings accounts and unable to use his debit card:

“I have £3.14 in my pocket, my wife is disabled and we can’t shop for food. I’ve been able to see my account details twice on the app since Sunday - both times the balance was wrong with credits and debits to the account missing.

I have been particularly infuriated by TSB’s claims of “intermittent” problems which is entirely untrue.”

You can get in touch with your experiences, here.

Updated

Will TSB's problems prevent staff being paid?

TSB’s IT chaos is threatening to prevent some small businesses from paying their staff.

Scottish domestic cleaning service Good Fairy Clean couldn’t access its account this morning, which is very problematic as it has wages to pay.

This accountancy firm also suffered problems:

Here’s Press Association’s take:

TSB is continuing to limit access to its mobile banking app and online service after days of delays that saw customers unable to use their accounts.

Chief executive Paul Pester announced on Twitter on Wednesday morning that the services had been restored and thanked customers, many of whom had been left furious by the outage, for their “patience and bearing with us”.

However a spokeswoman said the bank was limiting the number of customers to ensure those able to access the app received a normal service.

She recommended customers continue to try to open the app, but to close it down and restart if they encounter problems.

Those continuing to experience issues should contact TSB’s telephone banking service, she said.

If you’ve been affected by TSB’s online banking failure and would like to share your experiences, anonymously if you prefer, then please do so via the form here. Your responses will only be seen by the Guardian and we’ll feature some of your responses in our reporting.

More reports of vanishing mortgages:

Updated

Five hours after CEO Paul Pester claimed things were ‘up and running’, the complaints are still rolling in:

Chris Hodgson, director of education technology provider @discoverelearn, has managed to get into his TSB account....only to hit problems making a payment:

TSB’s services may be ‘up’ at last, but - at least for some users - they are shuffling rather than running.

That’s because TSB are restricting the number of customers who can get online at once, in an attempt to avoid being overwhelmed by demand.

So, many customers are still being blocked from internet banking, and told to ‘keep trying’....

TSB online banking page

At least two TSB customers have found that their mortgages have vanished this morning.

TSB users: We still can't access our accounts

Scores of TSB users are reporting problems getting into their accounts this morning, suggesting things aren’t as ‘up and running’ as the company claims.

Translater Adam Ramsey was thwarted when he tried to get online:

Actor Annabel Taylor has similar problems:

And they’re not alone either...

TSB crisis: CEO claims service is 'up and running'

TSB chief executive Paul Pester
TSB chief executive Paul Pester Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA

Good morning.

After days of disruption, is the UK bank TSB finally getting to grips with its IT chaos?

Staff at the bank have been working through the night, after its botched technology migration left around 2 million customers unable to access their money online since Friday.

TSB had reassured customers that services should have restored yesterday afternoon, once it had tackled the blunders that meant things weren’t working properly when the migration officially ended on Sunday night.

Instead, it took until 3.40 this morning until CEO Paul Pester could declare that services were “up and running”, and thank customers for their “patience and bearing with us”.

Mission accomplished? Perhaps not. Some TSB users are already reporting that they can’t get into their accounts, as the bank struggles to cope with the pent-up demand.

TSB really needs to address these concerns quickly. The Daily Mail has given the bank a rollicking this morning, and there are already suggestions that Pester should lose his bonus over the fiasco.

Also coming up today

European stock markets are expected to drop, following a bloody day on Wall Street yesterday.

In the City, Lloyds Banking Group is reporting results – and Whitbread is announcing the spin-off of its Costa Coffee chain.

Updated

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