Customers face another day of chaos as Natwest’s Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is still unable to confirm as to when its systems would be up and running, after a systems failure that occurred six days ago made financial transactions come to a standstill.
The system failure has left wages unpaid and customers are unable to withdraw money, pay bills or use credit cards. RBS had said on Sunday that most of the Natwest and RBS accounts would be updated and begin functioning today, but the bank has not disclosed as to how many of its 17 million accounts remain effected this morning.
Yesterday, account holders queued as 1,200 branches opened for the first time on a Sunday to clear the backlog of payments. However, many complained that the banks were open only from 9 am to noon, which did not give them enough time to take money out to pay for food and other essentials. Those moving home were also left unable to complete their purchases.
Around 7,000 employees were on duty in branches yesterday and staffing levels were doubled at its call centres, with technical and head office staff also working overtime to cope with the crisis. Some branches will be open for 11 hours today, from 8am to 7pm.
The bank’s website was flooded with complaints and appeared to crash several times. The bank said all fees and charges resulting from the problem would be fully refunded.
RBS said it was ‘making progress’ to clear the backlog but has not ruled out further disruption. It said it had solved the initial problem, which was triggered by a faulty software update on Tuesday night that stopped payments going in and out of accounts on Wednesday.
After I discovered that all of my standing orders have dissapeared I am still waitng for my salary which was paid in the RBS back hole on Friday. Just have to borrow money until it gets fixed. What a disaster, time to switch banks!
I guess they must have lost a huge number of clientele with this negligence. I’m one for sure. Will never step into that place again!
A tech-savvy institution citing such a lame excuse which extends up to six days is a bit too much to digest. RBS, you guys need to get your act together.
RBS sucks!!! You guys should put more pressure on them so that we get hold of our money
I have been unable to pay my bills which have been due since a week. The time has lapsed now and i have to pay the penalty just because my credit card doesn’t work. These guys need to refund all the amount.
I had been to the ATM today and it still doesn’t work. I cannot even purchase groceries as all my money is stuck in the account.
I haven’t received my wages yet and i gotta run my house. I got a wife and three kids. What am i supposed to do if a computer glitch cannot be rectified in six long days?
I’ve been unable to make any online payments as the internet banking doesn’t work. I need to wire some money to my son in the US towards his tuition fees and this systems haven’t been working since the past six days!! This is called heights of inefficiency!