Ulster Bank Systems are down *READ* Mod post #291

JONJO THE MISER

Hi Guys i have over 1k in Ulster bank, dont have a ATM card usually Just go into bank to withdraw, is my money safe?
Ive heard people say all balances are wiped out
Either way im never trusting that bank again, going to have to open a new bank account now i guess.

Ally Dick

superscouse wrote: »

This stemmed from the UK, not Ireland.

Wrong. It stemmed from Chennai in India. RBOS own Nat West and Ulster Bank. Their IT support was done in Parkgate St Dublin and London. The workers were all made redundant and all the work went to India three years ago. The Indian IT people are cheaper to employ, but they over-exaggarate their abilities in order to "grab" the IT contract. They cover up mistakes all the time. When the outsource is complete, the duty of care goes out the window, and there is nobody in the Indian company with the knowledge or the experience to fix the problem, unlike the dedicated permanent staff in Dublin and London who the bank got rid of.You'll see plenty more of these problems, as Irish banks are all looking to India as the solution to their IT costs. Sure, the bank are looking to save money, and why not, but SKIMP ON YOUR IT COSTS AT YOUR PERIL

waster81

Mr E wrote: »

This is only the start of their problems. It's hard to see how they're not going to lose customers (both businesses and consumers) next week. They'll have to come up with a serious incentive to stop people leaving.

Nowhere really for small customers to go - ulster are the only bank offering free banking without any conditions imposed

AllGunsBlazing

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

Hi Guys i have over 1k in Ulster bank, dont have a ATM card usually Just go into bank to withdraw, is my money safe?
Ive heard people say all balances are wiped out
Either way im never trusting that bank again, going to have to open a new bank account now i guess.

Well, I checked my accounts online via anytime and my money is still there, so I think you're safe. I just cant shift it between my savings to my current account, and my upc direct debit has not been paid either.

I'll be ringing the upc billing department on monday to see if I'll be penalised. I'm sure they know the score as regards ulster bank but all these thing are computer automated now. So I could still get the shaft.

Mind you, my problems pale into insignificance compared to the poor sods who still haven't received their wages/welfare yet.:(

Pa Dee

Ally Dick wrote: »

superscouse wrote: »

This stemmed from the UK, not Ireland.

Wrong. It stemmed from Chennai in India. RBOS own Nat West and Ulster Bank. Their IT support was done in Parkgate St Dublin and London. The workers were all made redundant and all the work went to India three years ago. The Indian IT people are cheaper to employ, but they over-exaggarate their abilities in order to "grab" the IT contract. They cover up mistakes all the time. When the outsource is complete, the duty of care goes out the window, and there is nobody in the Indian company with the knowledge or the experience to fix the problem, unlike the dedicated permanent staff in Dublin and London who the bank got rid of.You'll see plenty more of these problems, as Irish banks are all looking to India as the solution to their IT costs. Sure, the bank are looking to save money, and why not, but SKIMP ON YOUR IT COSTS AT YOUR PERIL

You are correct

eoinglancy

As this drags on into next week, are employers/dept social protection going to pay their recipients via the Ulster bank, or are they making alternative arrangements to guarantee payment next week?

whiskeyman

Looking ahead, what will happen to UB as a result?
Apart from losing some customers, will Central Banks / regulators impose fines?
As millions of Euro has been involved, has UB actually profited to some degree by earning additional interest on this money?
I'm sure they've incurred massive costs anyway, but I would expect that point still to be picked up on.

moany fuc

1. Their has been no public apology, we are hearing reports of an apology, But no one has shown face on TV to apologise.

2. Where are the off site back up systems???? My girlfriend test's her banks back up systems every few weeks with a technical shut down scenario.

3.What happened to the banks opening on Saturday? From what I see the only banks that where open where the ones open any way on a Saturday with hours extended by a couple of hours. My local branch is Coolock.....Not open. Oh yes sure Coolock is only a small country town. Population 50.

4. We are waiting for 3 Salaries into this home since Thursday. Still no sign of them. Yet I just paid for a pizza with my Ulster Bank debit card. Guess what payment showed up instantly online.

There is something more to this then a simple IT fault. There has been no respect to customers at all.

Remember Ulster Bank, We could shut you down next week, with a mass withdrawal of funds. So get your act together and make a public apology to our faces.

GismoBaby

New update since 6.30pm, looks like whoever said it wouldnt be sorted by monday was right

We appreciate that this technical issue is having a significant impact on many of our customers, their businesses and the customers of other banks and we unreservedly apologise for this. We are continuing to work around the clock through the backlog, however it is taking longer than anticipated to do so.

To help as many of our customers as possible, we will have 20 Ulster Bank branches open tomorrow across Ireland, Sunday 24th, from 10am to 1pm. It would be helpful if customers could bring identification and their account details with them. We will continue to post regular updates here.

We recognise this is an unacceptable inconvenience and we want to reassure customers that if they experience charges as a result of this issue they will be refunded. Once again we would like to unreservedly apologise.

These branches open from 10-1 2mrw Sunday:

Castlebar
Cavan
Dooradoyle
Dublin, Grafton Street
Dundrum
Galway
Letterkenny

Liffey Valley
Midleton
Naas
Swords Pavilion
Wexford

Maybe i had too much beer last night but im not counting 20 on that list!!

Hibernicis

Ulster Bank website pre 5pm today

Why is my balance on my account still not up to date?

We are now working through the backlog of payments and hope to be fully operational by Monday 25 June.

Ulster Bank website now

Why is my balance on my account still not up to date?

We are continuing to work around the clock to clear the backlog, however it is taking longer than anticipated to do so. As a result, customers who have had money lodged to their accounts, may not see this reflected in their balance.

It conveys the impression that they don't fully understand what is happening.

This is starting to become very worrying. If they do not understand the extent of the problem after working on it for 4 days they are unlikely to be able to fix it. Will be interesting to see how this plays out. If something factual doesnt appear soon I would take odds on a total catastrophy.

moany fuc

GismoBaby wrote: »

New update since 6.30pm, looks like whoever said it wouldnt be sorted by monday was right

We appreciate that this technical issue is having a significant impact on many of our customers, their businesses and the customers of other banks and we unreservedly apologise for this. We are continuing to work around the clock through the backlog, however it is taking longer than anticipated to do so.

To help as many of our customers as possible, we will have 20 Ulster Bank branches open tomorrow across Ireland, Sunday 24th, from 10am to 1pm. It would be helpful if customers could bring identification and their account details with them. We will continue to post regular updates here.

We recognise this is an unacceptable inconvenience and we want to reassure customers that if they experience charges as a result of this issue they will be refunded. Once again we would like to unreservedly apologise.

These branches open from 10-1 2mrw Sunday:

Castlebar
Cavan
Dooradoyle
Dublin, Grafton Street
Dundrum
Galway
Letterkenny

Liffey Valley
Midleton
Naas
Swords Pavilion
Wexford

Maybe i had too much beer last night but im not counting 20 on that list!!

lol :rolleyes: so professional. If they cant even count to 20, what hope have we of them calculating what money we are owed.

kearney13

Was looking forward to a few drinks tonight can't now worst part of it all is I'm paid the 20th of every month and never seen a bit of it yet

Ally Dick

A fix up of Natwest accounts in the UK is being given priority over Ulster accounts in ROI

Islander13

moany fuc wrote: »

lol :rolleyes: so professional. If they cant even count to 20, what hope have we of them calculating what money we are owed.

They have probably got 9 open in NI

moany fuc

Ally Dick wrote: »

A fix up of Natwest accounts in the UK is being given priority over Ulster accounts in ROI

Where you get that info. Sources???

gordongekko

moany fuc wrote: »

lol :rolleyes: so professional. If they cant even count to 20, what hope have we of them calculating what money we are owed.

Islander13 wrote: »

They have probably got 9 open in NI

The ones you are counting are open til 2. They did not list the 20 that are open til 1

GismoBaby

moany fuc wrote: »

lol :rolleyes: so professional. If they cant even count to 20, what hope have we of them calculating what money we are owed.

lol too true hope their calculating machines are in working order and not being updated too

curryman

I recieved my wages today into my AIB account. The job use ulster bank so looks like things are slowly returning to normal

Ally Dick

moany fuc wrote: »

Where you get that info. Sources???

I know someone with the inside track on this. The damage done to their UK business is far worse than that to their ROI business. Far more customers in the UK

United1987

curryman wrote: »

I recieved my wages today into my AIB account. The job use ulster bank so looks like things are slowly returning to normal

my girlfriend was in the same as this

hairyprincess

Fortunately for the clowns in Ulster Bank, the Irish Times are a bit more on top of their game, http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0623/breaking2.html

They have 12 branches open in the Republic of Ireland, and 8 open in Northern Ireland from 10am to 1pm

GismoBaby

gordongekko wrote: »

The ones you are counting are open til 2. They did not list the 20 that are open til 1

Where did you get that from? there's nothing about branches being open until 2 on their website it only references branches open till 1.

keystone

moany fuc wrote: »

Where you get that info. Sources???

I'd say that a presumption....but I'd suggest its an accurate one. Its a UK Bank and was bailed out to the tune of £12 billion by the UK Govt if I'm correct.

If it was AIB that had this issue and one of their foreign banks also had the problem, I think we would be looking for the Irish customers to be sorted out first.

On a different note, luckily I got my wages this morning which were due on Thursday. There are already referral fees and so on charged to my account. Not one bank has stated or agreed with other statements that we wont be liable for these fees to my knowledge.

waster81

Ally Dick wrote: »

I know someone with the inside track on this. The damage done to their UK business is far worse than that to their ROI business. Far more customers in the UK

Yeah customers in the uk have far more choice when it comes to banks , they have at least some competition

The uk have 1200 branches open we in Ireland get 12 branches open tomorrow a tiny % of their branches

Just shows what the banks in this country think of their customers - treat them like s..t

Laois_Man

moany fuc wrote: »

So get your act together and make a public apology to our faces.

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16251949

Ally Dick

It's quite possible that the RBOS chiefs are on their way out to India now to kick ass. However, the fact that the f@ck up was caused by India is not something that RBOS want the media to seize on. They're trying to convey that the problem is being dealt with by people in ROI and UK. Not so. Branch staff can only deal with the fallout. That's the problem with outsourcing your full IT. You'd better be sure that the lines of communication are good when things go wrong. Indian culture is one where you must cover up mistakes to save face. I fear this is what they are doing here, thus no press conference, because the UK bosses are not fully in the loop

moany fuc

Laois_Man wrote: »

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16251949

Did you read my post?? Where is the apology?, I'm still only reading about one. Haven't seen any in person.

Also I bank with Ulster Bank. Who are based in the Republic of Ireland, not the Uk. Where is their spokesman? Haven't seen any one make an apology on the 9 o clock or 6 o Clock News.

waster81

Ally Dick wrote: »

It's quite possible that the RBOS chiefs are on their way out to India now to kick ass. However, the fact that the f@ck up was caused by India is not something that RBOS want the media to seize on. They're trying to convey that the problem is being dealt with by people in ROI and UK. Not so. Branch staff can only deal with the fallout. That's the problem with outsourcing your full IT. You'd better be sure that the lines of communication are good when things go wrong. Indian culture is one where you must cover up mistakes to save face. I fear this is what they are doing here, thus no press conference, because the UK bosses are not fully in the loop

This also highlights how bad our press are - they just feed what they are fed

If there was any real journalists alive - there is plenty of info circulating that the IT has been outsourced to India - all in the name of cutting costs or business

Will be interesting to see how RTE, today fm, newstalk etc deal with situation and newspapers over the weekend because if this was happening in the public sector you can be sure there would be a different reaction

Tow

Ally Dick wrote: »

It's quite possible that the RBOS chiefs are on their way out to India now to kick ass. However, the fact that the f@ck up was caused by India is not something that RBOS want the media to seize on.

At least our indigenous 'NAMA' banks will be taking note and double checking their procedures and re-thinking their outsourced IT. In the last few years I have been told by staff from our two big banks, that with all the cutbacks and outsourcing it is only time untill they had a major failure. There are many people watching this and thinking There, but by the grace of God go I.

Tow

moany fuc wrote: »

Also I bank with Ulster Bank.

No, you bank with the RBOS. 'Ulster Bank' is just a name stuck on the front of the Branches and the 'Irish' version of their website. All the IT staff were given their P45s a couple of years ago, when the finished moving the bank on to RBOS platform. A few years before that, when RBOS took over they got (or tried to) all the staff to reapply for their jobs.