I am so glad this is getting some press attention.

It's been going on for longer than just a week though. My Alliance & Leicester online saver account has been 'unavailable' for over two weeks now and despite repeated requests, nothing has been done to fix this (although mindbogglingly they reclassified it from an issue 6 account to issue 7 which pays less interest after my first access request - quite how they can do this but not make the money in the account available I don't know).

Posts on personal finance forums suggest that other savers have been unable to get at their money for over 2 months now so just how accurate it is to say that it's only affecting a few people I'm really not sure.

It's all very well for them to say ring if you are having problems - waiting times on the phone help line are insane and then the call centre staff can't do anything as they have no access to the accounts either. All they can do is say that it will get sorted - and then it doesn't.

I'm quite infuriated by Santander and will be shutting all my accounts with them just as soon as I get access to the money. The cynic in me wonders if this is something to do with capital ratios but it's probably just crashing incompetence.

I have been trying to access my savings account online for over two weeks. Current account no problem. Have spoken to Alliance and Leicester three times. Firstly to enquire why I cannot access my savings account online and twice to conduct a quick money transfer. First time, the reason given was technical problems. Second time ...no we cannot transfer over the phone, it will be back on line by the weekend. Third time, Sunday just gone....apologies of course we can transfer some money for you. Ok....change of rules or what ?....Excuse given as to why I couldn't access account was that I had conflicting log in details. Urm..?. Anyway was promised it would be back online within 48 hrs. 72 hours later, still waiting.
I think I can honestly say I will be towards a change of banks. Although reluctantly, after been with Giro / Alliance and Leicester for well over 30 years. A shame it has to come to this.........

They have been absolutely shocking with me. I changed bank earlier in the year and A&L have made Halifax seem positively competent. Issues include:

- No notification of the possibility of disruption;
- Took weeks to set up an account;
- Problems online including not being able to add accounts or view details of old accounts;
- Received no confirmation that my ISA application had been successful
- Attempted to transfer my old ISA ... I'm still waiting for news on that one 4 months later
- Branch staff don't have a clue. When I visited the branch they said it was an address issue despite the on screen error saying 'incorrect sort code' (which it wasn't). I had to visit the Reading branch three times before it was resolved with the service verging on impolite;
- A friend of mine was waiting 6 weeks for them to return his money lost due to card fraud only to find out his case hadn't been transferred to the new system and forgotten.

You didn't know about Abbey/Santander's service beforehand?

Write to the UK CEO and make up your losses in compensation requests.

I have dealt with Alliance Leicester with no problems for 38years until Santander took over.I have not had access to my on line Premier Direct Account for six weeks.I have been told on three occasions that it would be sorted out in 48 hours have been offered £20 as compensation,I cant recall how many phone calls I have made and passed from one person to another, customer service in my opinion does not exist!!! The final straw came when I thought I would try to access my account once again to see if it was working, I entered my pin 3 times which I am convinced was right every time only for a message to come up that I had been locked out because I had entered the wrong pin.that meant another phone call! they offered to send me a new pin number I told them not to bother and am in the process of transferring my buisness to another bank, by the way I am still waiting for a new credit card which I was promised within 10 days that was nearly 3 weeks ago. In these days of fraud etc. I used to check my account regularly to keep track of outgoings which I can no longer do thus feeling I have lost control of my money.

None of this is new. A few years ago Santander put Abbey through a massive IT upheaval with similar levels of disruption inflicted on its customers.

What is the FSA doing? It was active in policing year 2000 compliance so why is it not active in supervising a bank that has a track record for botching IT system mergers?

The stakes are high here. IT failures could conceivably wreck the integrity of a bank's data and force it to close. There would be no quick fix. The Bank of England can't magically fix bad data. The compensation scheme can't pay out if it does not know what is owed!

The FSA needs to take action before a crisis - not wait until it's too late and then hold an inquiry.

In theory, it used to be possible to sue a bank for "detinue" - that is: the wrongful detention of your money, or as the OED puts it "the wrongful detention of a personal chattel". I am no lawyer, though I used to work in banking, and it sounds as though some of you could have a legal case for action here.

I have recently had the same problems. Cannot access on line to transfer some cash to pay a bill. It kept telling me the sort code was incorrect.
I could not get through on the helpline at all.
I finally went to a local branch where the Customer Service team, told me they would get me through and handed me the phone only to find I was in the same waiting loop that I could have done from home.
I was then told to go to the counter only to be told I couldn't transfer cash there as it was an on line account.
I got home that evening and had a letter from Santander asking if I wanted to open a current account - I rang the number given on that and funnily enough I got through! They couldn't help me either, but gave me a number to ring with a complaint.
After speaking with the complaints department yesterday, they could not do close my account over the phone as my contact details were not up to date. When I checked on line for my mobile number it was a number that I have not had for 8 years. I have only had this on line account for 18 months. It then transpired that when they migrated all account details, my old account details from another account with Abbey National (which I am also trying to close- unsuccessfully) had been migrated!
I have now been told that my local branch has full details and are expecting me there today where I will be given cheques in respect of closing these two accounts due to the lack of service.
We shall see, somehow I do not expect this to go smoothly.

I work in IT in the banking industry, though not for Santander. I've been in the business for nearly thirty years, and I can honestly say it's never been as bad as as it is now.

IT used to be a profession in which one could take pride. Now it's thought of as something anyone can do, and paid accordingly. The level of competence of most designers and programmers ('software engineers') is frighteningly low - and nearly all of the work is outsourced to third-world countries where the understanding and interpretation of specifications is rudimentary at best. India and China may be churning out IT people by the million, but they earn little more than the garment workers do, and most of them are not up to the job. Never was the maxim 'pay peanuts, get monkeys' more apt.

Santander are no worse than anyone else, by the way.

Move your current account and credit cards to Smile. You get crap rates on your savings, but the IT system works reliably and consistently and has done so for ten years and more.

Oh! And of course with Smile you have to tolerate a bank, cards, facilities etc. with a childish stupid name. I cannot wait for the Co-op to transfer all its accounts on to the Smile systems, then re-brand Smile as the Co-op. Nearly eleven years now and we are all still waiting.

Santander are incompetent. They never return phone calls and do not have the good manners to even acknowledge correspondence.
I question if their banking licence should be withdrawn.

The quality of customer service you receive is a matter for you, not the banking regulator. All the banking authorities are really concerned with is the likelihood that the bank will default and fail to pay out savers, as was threatened in the Northern Rock case as well as others. If you cannot extract a decent service from your bank, you have a market remedy at your disposal - take your business elsewhere. The mutuals appear to be better, on the whole.

Yes, shifting your bank account is a nuisance, but in this particular case, judging from what's being written online, it is time to move from Santander, which may well be exposed to losses on Spanish property which it tries to cover from profits elsewhere. I recall paying the charges to finance Lloyds' South American adventures in the 1980s, that extra fraction of a per cent on the mortgage. On the other hand the online commentosphere has an inherently critical bias, because writers are much less likely to post ife.g. the Santander service is working according to expectations.

PS - I went in to my AL account again today, through the old AL portal. Looks fine to me, all is hunky dory, though I did not try any new transactions.

At last someone has picked this up apart from blogs.I live in Greece and have a current account and. two savings accounts with Alliance & Leicester and rely heavily on internet banking.

Eight weeks ago, since the Migration to Santander , when logging on to my account, I got a message saying the site was down for maintenance and I could not access my accounts. After a long phone call they did acknowledge that it was their fault and it would be rectified soon.
About a week later my accounts appeared again but my current account was still inaccessible and all my payees, standing orders and direct debits were not available. Another long phone call to be told that the matter was in hand and all would be OK soon. The scenario has been repeated several times. Once I was told "It must be very frustrating for you!"
I had to go to England four weeks ago so I rang the bank to make sure I could withdraw money from ATM in the UK with my debit card, no problem they said but on arrival I was denied access. Phoning I was told my account was locked, wait 10 minutes and try again. I did this, still not joy. "Try another ATM" they said and this went on most of the day. In the end I was told I needed and new pin number, still waiting.
One week ago I phoned the complaints department of Alliance and Leicester to be told this was a technical matter and should be phoning internet banking, and “speak to a manager to escalate your complaint”. So now on to Internet banking to be told the same old story "We don't know what it is, be OK by Monday 9th August"
"Can I speak to a manager"
"No managers available"

I’m told I can phone to access telephone banking at anytime – 0845 from Greece, but with having to wait up to 30 minutes for a reply this is proving quite expensive after all this time.

So I am still left after almost 8 weeks high and dry, If I contact the bank by email the reply is just a bland assurance that the problem will be solved soon, nobody seems to be bothered at A&L, I wonder how many accounts they have lost. However I have received two messages (8 July and 22 July stating:

“We're delighted to inform you that your personal Alliance & Leicester savings and current accounts have successfully been transferred onto the Santander system. Please be assured that you do not need to take any specific action as a result of the transfer. You can continue to use your account details, manage your accounts and contact us in the same way as before.
I do hope you can help.

There's nothing for you to do. You can continue using your internet banking service in the normal way and if there is a change to a process, we'll provide guidance along the way via information buttons and on screen instructions.”

I'm at my wits end, I can't access my account, don't know what's going in and coming out unless I phone (expensive from Greece) and they DON'T SEEM TO CARE A DAMN.

I have been unable to access my A&L Internet accounts since 20/07/2010. The same day I received an email from Santander telling me that my accounts had been transferred successfully.

I wrote to A&Ls complaints department and received an acknowledgement addressed to "Mrs Harrison" whoever she is!!!

When I phone A&L, there tends to be an average call duration of about 20 minutes, during which I am reminded how much easier it would be for me to access my account on line and that they are experiencing unexpectedly high levels of calls and that their operators are busy helping other customers. I have been getting this message for 3 weeks so I don't think the volume of calls should be unexpected!!!

I am also unable to use the telephone automated banking service as my Telepin number is rejected and I am always transferred to an operator.

On losing my cool today, I asked the operator to put me through to his manager, "I can't do that sir" - "why?" I ask, "I can't tell you that sir", "Can I have your full name?" " No Sir" "why?" I ask "I can't tell you that sir"

In my view A&L have not taken any responsibility for this problem. I am advised to call on a daily basis to check the status of the problem. The bank should be keeping me advised not the other way round.

its midday , Friday 13th August - still no internet access, I feel my resistance starting to weaken, no bank details for 25 days, morale low, tempers running high, feeling delirious, light headed. I don't think I'm going to make it. Arrrrrggggghhhhhh....................................................

I have to say that the staff at my local A&L soon to be Santander are really excellent however as an A&L customer with a debit card which expired in May I have to get this off my chest! My card expired in May and my new one never arrived, so I went down to A&L and re-ordered a new one - only for it not to arrive after a month. So I go back and they re-order it to be delivered to the branch - a month later (exactly to the day) it arrives, wonderful. The Manger hands it over and says 'Pin and Chip still the same you're good to go', so I stick it in the cash point and ooooooh invalid pin number - so a new pin has now been ordered - I guess I will be waiting another month. I have spent 3 months having to withdraw large amount of 'cash' to pay for everything plus tranfer money to my partners account to pay for basic things like our holiday flights - it's just ridiculous and as an A&L customer I really am at the end of my tether. There are no words to describe the chaos and I really do feel sorry for the local branch staff and do hope they get a decent bonus after this as I'm sure they must have had to deal with a lot of frustrated and less understanding customers.