Hi to all those searching for a UK business account,
This might not be a fair representation of Abbey National's customer service but this was our experience:
Like many others we were attracted to the offer of free banking and put in an application. To cut overheads, Abbey National do all their banking via an office in Newport (nothing is done over the counter in your local branch, all transactions through the ATM). We posted off our application along with all the documents to prove ID, including original copies of utilty bills, Ltd company certificate of incorporation and cheques to open the account. We sent the whole lot Registered to make sure it arrived safely - it did. Then we waited........and waited.......and waited. Nothing in over five weeks after being told it would take no more than 10 days.
We chased up the application with numerous phone calls and emails both to Newport and the regional business manager and each time we were fobbed off with one excuse or another. We got sick of waiting and asked that the application be cancelled and our documents returned (we had decided to stick with our current bank - "better the devil you know"). We've now waited a further two weeks, tried more emails, letters and phone calls but still had nothing returned to us. I honestly believe they have lost the application and just won't admit it. Many of the documents are originals and will be difficult to replace, not to mention the cheques we've lost.
Despite all this we have had no apology from Abbey National at any time. We've learnt a couple of lessons from all this: firstly, if you send anything important, copy it first; secondly, cheaper doesn't necessarily mean better. It would appear that to offer free banking, Abbey National has cut its overheads to an absolute minimum and that equals poor customer service (at least in our experience).
I hope this cautionary tale will help prevent somebody else from all the time, cost and inconvenience we've suffered.