Transparency decline? (Posts regarding frozen accounts removed)

Over the last 24 hours I noticed that two threads where people discussed that (a) their account was locked, and (b) support was ignoring them, got locked and deleted really quickly. Over the previous weeks I also noticed a few similar posts, that I am now not able to find again, but these two are the only ones that I can definitely prove were “de-listed”.

I understand that in some cases Monzo cannot discuss things in public for legal reasons, and that such threads must therefore be locked. But to delete those requests, and pretend these issues never existed, seems to fly in the face of Monzo’s promise of transparency, doesn’t it?

Any thoughts, or comments?

Is it possible for Monzo staff to confirm the procedure to go through, should an account be frozen, and what time lines to expect in such a case?

Please note: This should not be about Monzo’s AML procedures. If we start discussing/speculating about these, the thread will be locked in no time, as Monzo cannot allow a discussion of these in public. So please don’t!

Rather, I’d like to discuss two points:

  1. Is it commensurate with Monzo’s promise of transparancy to delete requests for help with frozen accounts, and pretend they don’t exist? Is there a more transparent yet legal way of dealing with those posts?
  2. Within what timeframe can a customer whose account may be frozen expect a response and resolution?
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Hard to comment without crossing the line here…

I believe legal reasons were behind all of this. Impossible to keep topics up in those circumstances as Monzo could not comment to offer any explanation. Unfair to keep them up in those circumstances

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Yes, I understand they cannot comment. But not commenting (aka locking a thread) and deleting a thread are two very different things?

E.g. one could leave a customer’s initial request, and Monzo’s final response (“You really need to contact us in private, we can’t help here”) up, then delete intervening responses if needed (i.e. if they contained content that’s inappropriate in a public discussion), and lock the thread.

They never ignored the last one they actually replied then closed the thread.

The deleted threads were identical replicas. Thread was initially locked but new one started, same info on an existing thread. First deleted so created another and another… Monzo did reply to 2 or 3 of them.

I suck at being subtle so I’m leaving it there :joy:. Personal opinion was it was correct as the OP wasn’t going to stop and no way anyone could help here

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I thought I had seen the same thing before.

Yeah, I know. I never said ignored, I think. (Although, saying “Our team will be happy to investigate what’s happened here.” when the person has apparently been waiting for 2 weeks, seem insensitive, to say the least!)

It’s really the deletion part, I’m not uncomfortable with, if they promise transparency …

But was it really two weeks though?

Wasn’t there an instance recently where some guy tried to accuse Monzo of freezing the account and they said they ended in hospital from a heart attack from stress? It was blatantly ridiculous. With cases like fraud as much as we want to find out if a case is “legit” or not I’m sure Monzo cannot publicly discuss it so I think it’s better to close it. Maybe take it off to avoid speculation or misinformation.

It seems a bit odd that it was closed fine then delisted by another staff nember though. When leaders used to close/ merge threads they would make a little comment about why it was closed and I thought that is something staff could do! A lot of times stuff gets merged or closed and I miss knowing where it’s been shifted to.

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Sometimes I don’t believe those sorts of threads as they are too over dramatic then they throw in the “I will leave a bad review blah blah blah” comment.

It doesn’t bother me they get deleted tbh

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Our commitment to transparency is something we consider to be a really important part of the way we work as a team and the trusting relationships we’re building with our customers.

Having said that, there are some instances where defaulting to transparency could actually have a really detrimental effect on this effort to build trust - in particular, when an issue relating to a specific customers account is raised in a publicly visible place.

When this happens, it’s our responsibility follow this up in a way which is considerate of their sensitive information, to protect them and us.

If someone’s account is frozen - there’s not much we can do here in the forum to help unfortunately, and so we’ll always try to point them in the direction of the app to speak to someone directly for help. Time frames differ greatly on a case by case basis so it would be hard for me to comment on this but we do follow each and every one of these queries up with the relevant teams for updates, so these posts don’t go unchecked or fall off the radar.

We’ve been discussing how best to deal with these situations in a way which feels more in keeping with our transparent approach, I personally think @cookywook’s response this morning will be the general position to take with these threads in future, it’s something we need to agree on but can certainly follow up with a couple of sentences on what we plan to do going forward.

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Deleting the threads is bad practice IMO. You can lock them if you can’t discuss personal details (though maybe it’s best to just not to add more details, but if the person wants to vent and includes their side of the story with personal details then so be it, they’ve made their choice) but deleting threads makes it look like you want to hide the existence of such issues.

We’re sometimes bashing Revolut about them freezing accounts all over the place due to the complaints on their forums but they at least have (had? I heard they deletes & banned such posts now) the decency of leaving the complaints there. If the only reason we don’t hear about these incidents on Monzo is because they’re quicker at deleting threads then it’s seriously worrying and disappointing.

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We absolutely want to do this as little as possible. Of course, when a user is spamming multiple topics because they’re not getting a response quick enough, or not getting the answer they want, it’s best practice to hide the threads.

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I really think if they are spamming multiple topics they should be merged into one of the topics rather than deleting all but one and then closing the thread with just a couple of posts in it - so nobody can be accused of silencing dissent if all posts are shown in the one closed thread

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Happy to stick with merging into one (locked) thread instead, unless the content of the posts prevents it.

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What a heck has just happened to the post from a guy who had £3990 frozen in Monzo account after moving it from Transferwise? It was super long and detailed, with screenshots of transactions, with a couple or responses from users. Then, Kaboom! Closed, removed, no sign of it at all! It has taken a couple of minutes to get rid of it completely! How come?!

Edit: it is back! what is going on?

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They reposted it, it’ll be gone again in a minute

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I don’t think those topics should be unlisted. Closed, yes. But not unlisted.

Liam

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This is what happened to it -

Financial crime and fraud threads

cc @liam_w

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I hope it was hidden. Those threads are normally pretty uncomfortable if they descend into discussions of fraud and veiled questions about the legitimacy of the funds.

Given that there’s nothing anyone here can do to help, I’m never quite sure why anyone wants to post them.

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