So, no writ from Sorrell and co yet so I am thinking that maybe, just maybe, there was more than a little grain of truth in last week’s column after all. Well, that’ll be a first, then. Not that I have had it all my own way this week…the bank that likes to say “Yes” anyone?
That’s right, I too have been caught up in the ongoing TSB fiasco, although unlike the bloke who found that he had access to £46,000 from someone else’s account, I still haven’t been able to access mine since last Friday.
Now my esteemed boss assures me that I have been paid, and although he does cough up on time now and again, I have been tied to this laptop all week so I simply haven’t had a chance to go to a branch to check.
But, dear readers, I ask you to spare a thought for the usually ubiquitous TSB marketing director Pete Markey, who has gone quiet as a mouse in recent days. Now some might snipe that he spends more time talking to the Drum and Campaign than he does at work, but I wouldn’t be so mean.
Yet this the man who has been banging on about how great TSB is, ever since he joined from Aviva last year. He was certainly very bullish when the company launched its new ad campaign back in January.
At the time, Pete said the activity was leveraged on the insight that over 70% of UK adults believe their bank is taking the piss – and – 79% feel their bank profits at their expense.
And I quote: “People feel taken for granted. The big banks aren’t looking after them. Millions of people may be missing out of hundreds of pounds, so we want them to re-evaluate their banking relationships. This is a wake-up call.”
Er, that may be so Pete, but at least rival bank customers can actually get to see how much money they have in their accounts.
Still, with a bit of luck, TSB might just have cocked up my account so badly that my massive overdraft will have been given to some other unfortunate soul. Well, a girl can dream you know…