I’ll be honest, my view of this digital bank, Monzo, is rapidly going downhill and your case is a prime example of why. Its offering of digital convenience above all else is really starting to wear thin, especially since other banks with better customer service are now offering similar bells and whistles. You say you only used it for the free foreign cash withdrawals, but now you’ll be cutting up your card, and frankly after this, no one would blame you. I wish you all the best. Monzo should hang its head in shame.
Monzo was mentioned by Stephen Bartlett on last nights Dragon’s Den (along with Revolut and Starling).
7mil customers and increasing, doesn’t seem to be wearing thin for me.
Could argue how many of those are active users I guess (spending daily/weekly).
I see that The Telegraph are still trying to fill their Fintech-bashing quota…
The quote is the view of the Telegraph journalist in the article.
The article makes terrible reading about Monzo’s customer service in this case though. Worth reading in full rather then just concentrating on that text.
While I may agree with you on some stories, did you actually read the article in full?
I read the quote you provided to us to read which I assumed was the main focus therefore responded accordingly (aside from the customer issue).
Sounds like a good customer to lose it they’re only using it for travel spending, so I see this as a win. Frankly, if I were Monzo I’d be happy to write off all Telegraph readers.
I also love their use of the term ‘digital banks’. Are Barclays & Lloyds still using pneumatic tubes to run their banks? Or street urchins to run written instructions between branches??
Some more from the article:
Waking up alone in a foreign hospital like this with no memory of the night before, all your possessions gone, and not knowing where your boyfriend was, would have been the most terrifying situation of your life.
You suspect your drink was maliciously drugged in the bar, and although you have no hard evidence of this as nothing was found in your blood by hospital tests, I think it seems highly probable. You say you’d had one glass of wine with dinner and then a few drinks at the bar, which doesn’t strike me as enough for a complete alcohol-related blackout.
Thankfully, for reasons I won’t go into, you are confident you were not raped, though whoever did this removed all your jewellery including a thick necklace which they would have had to get close to you do. I shudder at the thought of you unconscious, and so vulnerable, at the mercy of this cold-blooded attacker.
As soon as you came round in the hospital you phoned your mother, who managed to get in touch with your partner. He had been up all night frantically searching for you, and was at the police station reporting you missing when you finally spoke to him. Later that day you informed your banks about what had happened, providing them with what should have been sufficient evidence that fraud had occurred. And yet, while Starling refunded you no questions asked, Monzo refused.
The amount in question, £40.94, was relatively trivial, and despite you having a solid case, Monzo still knocked it back. I asked it to urgently investigate what had gone wrong. I was expecting it to blame the decision on an algorithm gone rogue, but was shocked when it said a person had been behind it.
This person refused to believe your version of events, it said, because a genuine payment to Easyjet for an in-flight refreshment was sandwiched in between the two fraudulent payments on your statement. This staff member should have been (but wasn’t) aware that in-flight payments are often several hours delayed, meaning they can pop up several hours later than the transaction actually occurred.
Based on everything you provided to back up your story, and the sensitive nature of the situation, I’m genuinely shocked that a member of Monzo’s team made such a bad call. It was so dreadfully insulting to you as a customer having your integrity called into question at a moment like this.
Having reviewed your case and decided that you did make the payments, it follows that this person must have concluded that your story was fabricated. But could they seriously think you’d gone to the effort of forging the police report and hospital letter for the sake of £40.94? It made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Perhaps this quote will make it clear that, unfortunately, it was really poor customer service from Monzo.
I hope lessons have been learned and no-one else will be subject to the same treatment.
Sure did. Monzo appears to have dropped the ball in this case but it doesn’t change the fact that the Torygraph seem to rub their hands with glee when a Fintech-bashing opportunity arises.
Good that Starling refunded without question, though.
Imagine a bank being so broke they need to argue about £40 in the first instance …
I can take that.
The original post, fine, then the whole story copy and pasted isn’t fine, but yours picking out the main point, also fine.
dont you lose the right to go to the ombudsman if you have already accepted the 125 quid compo ? unless of course you think you should get more compo, in which case you would gamble and refuse it in the first place - think its worded as accepting this amount in settlement of your complaint ?
No, you can still take the money and go to the ombudsman.
But it does need to be within the timeframe noted in the final response from the company.
Bank makes a (IMO) mistake. After media pressure refunds the transaction and gives £125. I wouldn’t be bothered going to the ombudsman. Is that only me?
Instead they went to a paper with 4 paragraphs of a terribly written story before they got to the point.
Lack of knowledge from Monzo, but it was a mistake they’ve rectified. This is why everyone gets passed around, because when they don’t, someone makes decisions like this.
The usual blistering journalistic talent at work at the Torygraph I see. I’m surprised they didn’t italicise person when referring to the Monzo contact.
Don’t see what is wrong with how they reported it
They got across what happened to the person, how they were feeling, and then the issue at hand.
Terrible support from Monzo. Glad to see Starling do the right thing.