thechelsea.co.uk Avis 

Mariyam was very helpful, patient and understanding. She sorted out my issues efficiently and was very kind.

Very poor. Been with them for 16 years and still have to waste 1.5 hours refixing the mortgage and have to make an appointment, SO ANNOYING

Tried to activate a Lasting Power of Attorney.
Chelsea BS want me to fill in a piece of paper, which they will send to me by post and I have to post back to them, or have me go into a branch, if there's one nearby, to fill it in.
Other financial institutions have happily accepted, by email, a verification code I have obtained from the Office of the Public Guardian with whom the LPA is registered.
LPAs and the OPG are set up to do things electronically so why does the Chelsea BS need bits of environmentally unfriendly paper, envelopes, stamps and slow polluting transport to ferry it back and forth to do the same job?

Customer service when trying to move ISA cash was dire. It's lucky my call was important to them, or I might have given up waiting for them to answer.

Our fixed mortgage is coming to its end and they sent an letter for us to chose a replacement, the letter explained that the products offered were the only ones eligible. We chose a product and sent back the form, 3 weeks later they write back that the product we had chosen was not eligible and we should contact them to discuss. Their office hours are 9-5 Monday to Friday and 9-1 on Saturdays, typical working hours for normal people. We took time off work to telephone them, the AI asks for your account number which it then tells you it does not recognise & please try again, it still does not recognise the account number but sends you through to an operator. You wait for 5-6 minutes and then find your talking to someone who can only help you be making an appointment with a mortgage advisor who would call you back sometime next week, no date, not time, sometime! Tried to get contact details to make complaint but the operator had to find a form? I assume they had to physically go and fetch it from somewhere because we waited 10 minutes while they fetched it, they could not offer a name for a manager/director only offer to get a manager to call me back sometime. So 4 weeks later and still no answer to our mortgage problem. I cannot recommend this experience and would now strongly advise against mortgages with this company, customer service is a must and there is so little of it here, on / occasions while waiting to be connected the operator spoke asking if they could help, then promptly closed the call despite me speaking to them.

I'm trying to contact their bereavement service in relation to an account my mother held. The line just continuously gives an engaged tone -that seems like an anachronism for a big company. So tried to go via their savings team, they at least answered the phone fairly quickly, and they said they would transfer me. Held on for just over a minute and they bounced me back out of the system. Very poor service.

I do not trust the YBS as given my personal experience is that they are Cruel, Heartless and Barbaric. They are not all inclusive and are not there for its members.
They are only in it for themselves hence SWITCH is the best way forward. I should be given a Gesture of Goodwill Payment for disgraceful Customer Service.
They cancelled my Membership and my Savings accounts which left me out of pocket. Hence I feel like a Victim of Hate Crime and am devastated and depressed as a result of their actions against me. Family and friends agree it's not right.

An auction escrow account attempted to transfer funds to my account but despite having the correct sort code and account number YBS rejected the payment and did not inform me of the rejection. On investigation, I’m now informed they also need a reference number to accept deposits but have never informed me of this. I have asked them to now accept the payment but am told the relevant department that can fix this are not answering the phone! Epic fail!

Well that's it , yorkshire building society have acted true to form. No compensation for houurs wasted trying to get to MY money .Total disregard for my deafness. So I am giving up bothering. The retiring CEO -Miss Susan appears illiterate as I have not received any response to my letter, merely one from one of their clerks-Mr. Dominic Whitehead. No breakdown of my final account.
No access to money which is legally mine. I have wasted hours trying to get money which is legally mine and all I get is a threatening letter from Mr. Whitehead. I cannot access my account and Mr. Witehead seems to have no consideration for the fact that I am deaf ( I wear hearing aids in both ears and my brother and sister were both born deaf.I asked for compensation fpr the time I have wasted trying to get my money but nothing.

Im an online Customer back to open large ISA and Rainy day a/c— YBS already have all of my details /information —so what could possibly go wrong in opening new accounts online??—surprise they now demand a facial video of myself-then want to sight passport @or driving licence -( through their agents clearing system)-you have 3 days to react otherwise??

Sent an email over a week ago received a reply telling me to log in and send a secure message through the app, no such feature in the app.

I was locked out of my online saving accounts using their app, I don't know why, I was using the passwords given.
I've just spent the best part of 2 hours trying to get new credentials and am told I have failed and I have to ring back later by 3 seperate Cust service people. It feels like they are fobbing me off. I answer their question correctly.
I needed to transfer funds quickly but it's too late now.
Their systems and customer service are abysmal.

I am notifying financial institutions about the death of my brother and for the first three or four the experience was frankly appalling. Long winded, endless "on holds" long waiting times to actually get through to the "bereavement team" and operators that finished with "Have a nice day" automatically. Sensitivity zero.
By contrast - and hugely relieved - the experience with the Yorkshire Building Society was quick - I spoke to a human being (sorry I didn't get his name) almost immediately, he offered condolences, took basic account details, asked my name and the number etc, explained how Yorkshire BS dealt with my data and told me the team would be in touch within days. No more than 4 or 5 minutes total. I asked him to pass my appreciation of the process up the line and explained why. 5* rating indeed. Why can't all the others be the same.

‘Faster Payments’ righto. It’s 2023 and it still takes them a whole day to transfer money into my account.

All my other accounts instantaneous. Get with the programme YBS….I’d rather have IBS

I opened an account with YBS but have reluctantly felt obliged to close the account.
This is because: 1.When trying to open their app I started continually getting an unwelcome message. This was:
'Something went wrong, please try again'
I had successfully gone into the app many times previously.

2. I had tried at length to set up the app again under the guidance of one of their head office staff.
This was unsuccessful and after considerable time, stress & frustration, I requested to speak to a manager so that I could voice my dissatisfaction.
This was denied to me and is my second reason for closing my account.
I told the agent that I would go onto social media regarding this.
My contention is that if managers are not willing to speak to the customers who are the basis of their business, then such companies are not worth dealing with.

3.My third reason is that I have found a better deal with Zopa.
They give a higher interest rate and most importantly interest is paid monthly.
Online operation is also easy and straightforward.
My dealings with YBS were previously satisfactory.

Appalling customer service -went to branch presented ID and power of attorney documents ie letters from OPG , after month YBS decided wanted sight of the original POA -obtained access code for them to check online which lady in complaints never heard of, now YBS insist utility bill, which was fine on the day now out of time and need another -stupid vendetta because i complained , whole business rammed with thick jobsworths sole aim block access to money not theirs will go elsewhere ASAP where staff do not treat customers with comntempt and realise it is not their money

Despite many negative reviews of YBS, which made me a bit jittery about opening the Account, the Account Opening process was quite quick and smooth and took very little time (including credit checks) and was all done online.
I used their chat service to ask about their withdrawal facilities. It was promptly answered.
Then I test deposited £1 to see if that reached the Account and had to use their phone line to check and after going through all the security questions, they confirmed it's arrival within a few hours (Faster Payments). And I received the login details today (within 3 days). So, pretty good so afr. Yet to try a withdrawal, but I've no reasons to believe it'd be problematic.

Edit : One can't withdraw for the first 14 days of Deposit, but it actually is the 16th day when you can actually withdraw.
Also, it is not a Faster Payment for Withdrawals - the amount arrives by the end of next day. Hence making it 3 *.

I have had my offset Chelsea mortgage for 5 years. Last year when I moved house The Chelsea persuaded me to transport my mortgage to the new property. Firstly they took 2 mortgage payments 2 weeks after the first mortgage was closed. Then wrote to me telling me I was in arrears. They have completely failed to link my savings account to my offset mortgage. Failed to return my calls 6 times. Now have written telling me that my mortgage offer is to expire on a mortgage I took out 3months ago. Still not resolved.

Absolute nightmare dealing with this Building Society from abroad.
Expensive phone costs .
Intractable rules and unbending staff.
All in all very inflexible.
I will never ever use them again.
Very poor service