Worst behaved companies in this crisis

[dpg50000]

Hi,

I've started this thread so we can keep track of the companies that behave shockingly during this crisis. I'm thinking, e.g. cruise operators that register in Panama in order to avoid minimum wage rules, then come begging for a bailout.

I'll start this with Nationwide Building Society. Received a letter informing me that "Unexpected Bank of England base rate changes mean your savings rate is going down". It then goes on to explain that the BOE base rate has dropped from 0.75% to 0.10%, and as a consequence the interest on my child's CTF is going down from 3% to 1%.

So let me get this straight, a 0.65 percentage points drop in the BOE base rate equates to a 2 percentage points drop in the interest Nationwide are paying.... righty. I've since xfrd the account to a Junior ISA with a different provider, paying a much better rate.

What other examples are there?

Edited May 3, 2020 by dpg50000
edited for typo

[Bluestone59]

4 minutes ago, dpg50000 said:

Hi,

I've started this thread so we can keep track of the companies that behave shockingly during this crisis. I'm thinking, e.g. cruise operators that register in Panama in order to avoid minimum wage rules, then come begging for a bailout.

I'll start this with Nationwide Building Society. Received a letter informing me that "Unexpected Bank of England base rate changes mean your savings rate is going down". It then goes on to explain that the BOE base rate has dropped from 0.75% to 0.10%, and as a consequence the interest on my child's CTF is going down from 3% to 1%.

So let me get this straight, a 0.65 percentage points drop in the BOE base rate equates to a 2 percentage points drop in the interest Nationwide are paying.... righty. I've since xfrd the account to a Junior ISA with a different provider, paying a much better rate.

What other examples are there?

Before moving on from Nationwide, I was once treasurer for a small local organisation and N was the bank.

From my first encounter I took a strong dislike to this outfit and most of the folks it seemed to attract to work there.

They didn't do anything actually wrong, it was the atmosphere, their manner and a strange delight in telling you they couldn't do what you requested, plus I had some niggly query every single time, justifiable or not. No doubt others are satisfied with them.

I have found generally that certain firms have an undercurrent that attracts better and more pleasant people and that over time sh1tbags will congregate like flies on a terd. Maybe the culture within HR is a factor.

[Houdini]

12 minutes ago, dpg50000 said:

Hi,

I've started this thread so we can keep track of the companies that behave shockingly during this crisis. I'm thinking, e.g. cruise operators that register in Panama in order to avoid minimum wage rules, then come begging for a bailout.

I'll start this with Nationwide Building Society. Received a letter informing me that "Unexpected Bank of England base rate changes mean your savings rate is going down". It then goes on to explain that the BOE base rate has dropped from 0.75% to 0.10%, and as a consequence the interest on my child's CTF is going down from 3% to 1%.

So let me get this straight, a 0.65 percentage points drop in the BOE base rate equates to a 2 percentage points drop in the interest Nationwide are paying.... righty. I've since xfrd the account to a Junior ISA with a different provider, paying a much better rate.

What other examples are there?

Um you were receiving 3% when the actual base rate was 0.75%. 

The base rate then dropped 86.66% to 0.1% yet Nationwide only dropped rate on that ISA by 66.66%

Granted better options may still exist in the market today but I suspect they won't long term

So yes there are entire companies who have behaved badly but the example you've given isn't one of them, you are still being treated well.

[Houdini]

3 minutes ago, Bluestone59 said:

Before moving on from Nationwide, I was once treasurer for a small local organisation and N was the bank.

From my first encounter I took a strong dislike to this outfit and most of the folks it seemed to attract to work there.

They didn't do anything actually wrong, it was the atmosphere, their manner and a strange delight in telling you they couldn't do what you requested, plus I had some niggly query every single time, justifiable or not. No doubt others are satisfied with them.

I have found generally that certain firms have an undercurrent that attracts better and more pleasant people and that over time sh1tbags will congregate like flies on a terd. Maybe the culture within HR is a factor.

Nationwide is process driven with no incentive to work to improve or work around the process.

I did a short piece of work there 18 months ago for their new business banking project (now scrapped). I finished the work in 1 month, 6 months later it still wasn't live).

Edited May 3, 2020 by Houdini

[St.Ives]

They're at at it.  This is from Santander:

 

We’re reducing the interest rate on your account(s)

 

As you may be aware, the Bank of England base rate has recently been reduced to 0.10%, which is the lowest base rate we’ve experienced to date. Given the challenging market environment in which we’re currently operating, we’ve had to carefully review the interest rates we pay on our savings accounts and want to let you know that we’re making changes to our variable rate accounts.

 

The table below shows the current and new interest rates for each of your accounts, and the date on which the new rate will take effect.

 

Account name	Tier	Current interest rate	New interest rate	Date changes effective from
Everyday Saver	£1+	0.35% AER/ gross (variable) before 20 May 2020	0.01% AER/ gross (variable)	7 July 2020
		0.20% AER/ gross (variable) from 20 May 2020

 

 In line with our Terms and Conditions, we’re giving you two months’ notice for payment savings accounts and 14 days’ notice for non-payment savings accounts.

[dpg50000]

1 minute ago, St.Ives said:

They're at at it.  This is from Santander:

 

We’re reducing the interest rate on your account(s)

 

As you may be aware, the Bank of England base rate has recently been reduced to 0.10%, which is the lowest base rate we’ve experienced to date. Given the challenging market environment in which we’re currently operating, we’ve had to carefully review the interest rates we pay on our savings accounts and want to let you know that we’re making changes to our variable rate accounts.

 

The table below shows the current and new interest rates for each of your accounts, and the date on which the new rate will take effect.

 

Account name	Tier	Current interest rate	New interest rate	Date changes effective from
Everyday Saver	£1+	0.35% AER/ gross (variable) before 20 May 2020	0.01% AER/ gross (variable)	7 July 2020
		0.20% AER/ gross (variable) from 20 May 2020

 

 In line with our Terms and Conditions, we’re giving you two months’ notice for payment savings accounts and 14 days’ notice for non-payment savings accounts.

 

0.01% on a savings account! Can you imagine anyone predicting this 30 years ago?

[Bluestone59]

4 minutes ago, St.Ives said:

They're at at it.  This is from Santander:

 

We’re reducing the interest rate on your account(s)

 

As you may be aware, the Bank of England base rate has recently been reduced to 0.10%, which is the lowest base rate we’ve experienced to date. Given the challenging market environment in which we’re currently operating, we’ve had to carefully review the interest rates we pay on our savings accounts and want to let you know that we’re making changes to our variable rate accounts.

 

The table below shows the current and new interest rates for each of your accounts, and the date on which the new rate will take effect.

 

Account name	Tier	Current interest rate	New interest rate	Date changes effective from
Everyday Saver	£1+	0.35% AER/ gross (variable) before 20 May 2020	0.01% AER/ gross (variable)	7 July 2020
		0.20% AER/ gross (variable) from 20 May 2020

 

 In line with our Terms and Conditions, we’re giving you two months’ notice for payment savings accounts and 14 days’ notice for non-payment savings accounts.

Santander seem especially grotesque when it comes to "stealing" by paying zero interest although HMG are the main offender, also the actual customer.

As we have current accounts there with which we are totally satisfied we don't have anything against them. The staff I've encountered I've found better than average, some by quite a long way. Fair play to them, they often used to come bottom for customer satisfaction.

I think it's negative interest coming for us lot anyway, they'll have to ensure that we stop saving any money, it doesn't fit with the programme. 

 

[phantominvestor]

Wetherspoons

[MARTINX9]

Tescos - getting £700m business rates relief thanks to the Government until next March while many small firms still have to pay full rates - and then deciding three weeks later to hand out an equivalent sum to its shareholders.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/08/tesco-sales-up-30-per-cent-because-of-pre-lockdown-stockpiling-coronavirus

That £700m would have otherwise been collected by local authorities and spent on social care and supporting care homes through the current crisis.

Contrast that with Sainsburys who have cancelled bonuses for their directors and postponed any share holder dividend.

https://www.ft.com/content/1625e649-7f4c-4fc0-b431-ee069dd2f2ef

When you see all those people dying in care homes or care staff visiting the elderly in their homes struggling to get PPE - imagine how much they could have done, how much PPE they could have bought and how many lives might have been saved with the £635 million diverted from them to handover to Tescos shareholders.  Cos that is in effect what has occurred!

So yes - Tesco ranks near the top for me! And the government for being complicit in giving help to big corporates  which don't need it and little or none to many SMEs who really do.

Edited May 3, 2020 by MARTINX9

[Peter Hun]

1 minute ago, MARTINX9 said:

So yes - Tesco ranks near the top for me!

Who gave them this money?

[Bluestone59]

2 minutes ago, MARTINX9 said:

Tescos - getting £700m business rates relief thanks to the Government until next March while many small firms still have to pay full rates - and then deciding two weeks later to hand out an equivalent sum to its shareholders.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/08/tesco-sales-up-30-per-cent-because-of-pre-lockdown-stockpiling-coronavirus

That £700m would have otherwise been collected by local authorities and spend on social care and supporting care homes through the current crisis.

Contrast that with Sainsburys who have cancelled bonuses for their directors and postponed any share holder dividend.

https://www.ft.com/content/1625e649-7f4c-4fc0-b431-ee069dd2f2ef

When you see all those people dying in care homes - imagine how much they could have done with the £650m diverted from them to handover to Tescos shareholders.

So yes - Tesco ranks near the top for me!

Have to agree with you, then again exactly how did this anomaly come into being?

Most people and firms if you offer them free dosh are likely to answer, yes please!

 

[MARTINX9]

9 minutes ago, Peter Hun said:

Who gave them this money?

All supermarkets are getting full rates relief for a year - which I don't think they need - but they are the ones who have handed it over to shareholders unlike Sainsburys as I make clear.

Its how firms respond to government action that I am talking about - as most big corporates are getting bailouts either via rates relief or furlough schemes or both.

I am critical of the government on this issue - but this thread is about firms who have acted badly!

Edited May 3, 2020 by MARTINX9

[stop_the_craziness]

1 hour ago, MARTINX9 said:

Tescos - getting £700m business rates relief thanks to the Government until next March while many small firms still have to pay full rates - and then deciding three weeks later to hand out an equivalent sum to its shareholders.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/08/tesco-sales-up-30-per-cent-because-of-pre-lockdown-stockpiling-coronavirus

That £700m would have otherwise been collected by local authorities and spent on social care and supporting care homes through the current crisis.

Contrast that with Sainsburys who have cancelled bonuses for their directors and postponed any share holder dividend.

https://www.ft.com/content/1625e649-7f4c-4fc0-b431-ee069dd2f2ef

When you see all those people dying in care homes or care staff visiting the elderly in their homes struggling to get PPE - imagine how much they could have done, how much PPE they could have bought and how many lives might have been saved with the £635 million diverted from them to handover to Tescos shareholders.  Cos that is in effect what has occurred!

So yes - Tesco ranks near the top for me! And the government for being complicit in giving help to big corporates  which don't need it and little or none to many SMEs who really do.

Wow.  Some things really HAVEN'T changed since this all took off have they?  You don't get those sorts of updates on the Daily Briefings!

[crumblingcon]

1 hour ago, Bluestone59 said:

Have to agree with you, then again exactly how did this anomaly come into being?

Most people and firms if you offer them free dosh are likely to answer, yes please!

 

 

1 hour ago, Bluestone59 said:

 

 

Still amazes me people are not using Lidl, I love them, quality of food is brilliant, and I still am amazed after all this time what I walk out with after spending 50 quid. OK, you cannot get everything there, but I am pretty sure I manage 90-95% of everything I need and just make the odd visit elsewhere once in a while, no problem

[Bluestone59]

33 minutes ago, crumblingcon said:

 

Still amazes me people are not using Lidl, I love them, quality of food is brilliant, and I still am amazed after all this time what I walk out with after spending 50 quid. OK, you cannot get everything there, but I am pretty sure I manage 90-95% of everything I need and just make the odd visit elsewhere once in a while, no problem

This is the opposite of my experience.

Even though they cannot routinely be as bad as my last visit my policy is never again.

Despite which I still broke even because the wine (2 bottles good to drinkable) was so ludicrously cheap, not that that's the point, or anywhere near.

They had a place on the south coast 20 years ago nearest to where I lived, I used them then and was very satisfied, I don't know what happened since.

[Innkeeper]

1 hour ago, Bluestone59 said:

This is the opposite of my experience.

Even though they cannot routinely be as bad as my last visit my policy is never again.

Despite which I still broke even because the wine (2 bottles good to drinkable) was so ludicrously cheap, not that that's the point, or anywhere near.

They had a place on the south coast 20 years ago nearest to where I lived, I used them then and was very satisfied, I don't know what happened since.

Lidl only opened its first store in the UK in 1994.  Aldi arrived in 1990.

I find Lidl excellent - a cheaper Waitrose. Aldi however remind me of ASDA thirty years ago.

[Warlord]

5 hours ago, St.Ives said:

They're at at it.  This is from Santander:

 

We’re reducing the interest rate on your account(s)

 

 

Got the same thing from Marcus.co.uk but advertising I think a better deal for new customers for 12 months,  which infuriates me but you could take advantage! 

[The Spaniard]

6 hours ago, dpg50000 said:

I'll start this with Nationwide Building Society. Received a letter informing me that "Unexpected Bank of England base rate changes mean your savings rate is going down". It then goes on to explain that the BOE base rate has dropped from 0.75% to 0.10%, and as a consequence the interest on my child's CTF is going down from 3% to 1%.

Why not transfer the CTF to an NS&I JISA which pays 3.25% tax free?

https://www.nsandi.com/junior-isa

[Bluestone59]

51 minutes ago, Innkeeper said:

Lidl only opened its first store in the UK in 1994.  Aldi arrived in 1990.

I find Lidl excellent - a cheaper Waitrose. Aldi however remind me of ASDA thirty years ago.

The one I used was on the A27 and I moved there in February 1996. I'm certain it was recently arrived just before me. It was opposite a giant JS and so was usually empty.

I do realise lots of people like them, as it happens I'm not losing out even if they did win me over as there isn't one near me any more.

We are not too intense about food shopping because we neither have expensive tastes nor large appetites so we just go to whichever one we are driving past.

Then got quickly fed up standing outside them waiting for the distancing to work out, we switched most of our trade to the convenience store in the village with anything else needed from whichever store we can easily get into. Also cut the alcohol budget by 2/3! Don't miss it now.

Food portion of budget has shrunk to a level we no longer much care about.

[phantominvestor]

Wetherspoons

And I like wetherspoons.

[MARTINX9]

50 minutes ago, phantominvestor said:

Wetherspoons

And I like wetherspoons.

Didn't Tim Martin cave in within a few days (on 25 March) and furlough his staff anyway? Tesco didn't u turn and are still paying out their £635m dividend - so in my eyes they rank worse as they have no shame and didn't change course!

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-covid-19-jd-wetherspoon-staff-pay-180504281.html

I expect if Tescos had been avowedly pro Brexit - they might have got a lot more public criticism outside the financial sections for their actions!! And if Tim Martin had been campaiging for a people's vote for the last 3 years instead of being a Brexit poster boy - his actions would probably have passed by with little mention in much of the media.

Edited May 3, 2020 by MARTINX9

[SE10]

Wetherspoons boss gives his view...

 

[dpg50000]

15 hours ago, The Spaniard said:

Why not transfer the CTF to an NS&I JISA which pays 3.25% tax free?

https://www.nsandi.com/junior-isa

That's exactly what I did ?

[Locke]

 

21 hours ago, phantominvestor said:

Wetherspoons

Go on...

[Odysseus]

On 03/05/2020 at 16:03, The Spaniard said:

Why not transfer the CTF to an NS&I JISA which pays 3.25% tax free?

https://www.nsandi.com/junior-isa

Just be careful they don’t cut rate too. My kids Isas were with Coventry at 3.6%. They just cut to 2.9% so was considering switching them to ns&i but Sod’s law as soon as I switch them I’m sure ns&i will cut rate below Coventry.