Smile? Not bloody likely: Day 6 of wobbly services and still no hint to UK online bank's customers about what's actually wrong
- Reference: 1594373350
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/07/10/smile_uk_outages/
- Source link:
Reports of discontent began to flood into Twitter, that well of human misery, on the morning of 5 July as customers asked if there was any possibility of actually accessing their accounts via the app or a browser.
[1]@bankwithsmile is the mobile app not working this morning? — Kerry Stylski (@kez_gallagher) [2]July 5, 2020
The team manning the social media outpost for Smile were on hand to admit the “app” was running slow, then that systems gears were crunching, then that the resident techies were “investigating”. Then after maintenance, it was up for some, not for all.
On day two, a bunch of customers complained the app was tottering, online banking was still unavailable, irrespective of the device or browser they used, and an error message was being displayed.
[3]pic.twitter.com/AudRq2JG81 — Colin Webster (@co1inwebster) [4]July 6, 2020
Day three and frown was the default position of many Smile punters. The IT team continued to look into the technical issues and despite customers' requests for a technical explanation, no details were forthcoming. Advice to clear history, cookie and cache from the browser didn’t result in success for some, but the service returned for at least one lucky soul.
The big guns were rolled out on day four when customers were assured by Smile that they could check their bank balance, make transactions and existing transfers. And those poor old souls in the basement were still toiling away to fix the tech, the bank added.
Hi Sandy, we're aware of an intermittent issue effecting our app and online banking. Our IT team are working to resolve this as soon as possible. Thanks - Chris — smile UK (@bankwithsmile) [5]July 8, 2020
Intermittency issues and the same excuses from Smile continued yesterday and frustration started to boil over with some asking to transfer to a Co-Operative Bank account.
[6]@bankwithsmile time to switch. Continuous problems with the banking app. No one has the time to sit on hold and pay for the privilege 😒 everyone appreciates that there may be the odd IT glitch but this is ridiculous! — Gaynor Chart (@Cj_dex_ramona) [7]July 9, 2020
Last night, one of its customer reflected the feelings of many when he [8]complained : "To retain customer confidence you really need to be more transparent and provide an explanation of what is happening. If it was a major fire at the data centre or a DDOS attack you would have told us. The information vacuum is leading people to fear the worst."
Outages will occur, but the thing that sorts the wheat from the chaff is the way an organisation responds. Smile has responded to most of the customers that complained but always with pretty much the same line: yes it was having problems, but the IT team had whipped out the magnifying glass and were still investigating.
The lack of new information has led some to speculate that a cyber attack was to blame for service interruption but this would not fit with an online service that periodically returns only to disappear again.
A spokeswoman at Smile told us there is “no technical information to share at this stage” and the IT “guys are working hard” to resolve it. The PR rep said the app and online services were “intermittently available and we took the service down to fix it.”
“Now it is unavailable, unfortunately.”
OK. Well that should make sense. To someone.
Customers that use the Co-Operative’s online banking services were unaffected, said the spokesperson and customers could still use their cards to make transactions.
Smile, which claims to be the first fully digital bank in the UK, has no estimate, at least not one that it is willing to make public, on when services will return. So sadly, it has left customers with anything but shiny happy faces. ®
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[1] https://twitter.com/bankwithsmile?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[2] https://twitter.com/kez_gallagher/status/1279670667173126144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[3] https://t.co/AudRq2JG81
[4] https://twitter.com/co1inwebster/status/1280134971487932416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[5] https://twitter.com/bankwithsmile/status/1280777024345444352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[6] https://twitter.com/bankwithsmile?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[7] https://twitter.com/Cj_dex_ramona/status/1281199732065435649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[8] https://twitter.com/andrewga/status/1281251226374606848
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
No technical information
There is “no technical information to share at this stage”. That is, we are choosing not to give you any technical information. Presumably because it would be embarrassing.
Re: No technical information
> Presumably because it would be embarrassing.
Embarrassing as in "thick fingered individual deleted the database and we've just discovered the backups haven't worked for months" That sort of embarrassing?
Re: No technical information
Why do you assume that they know what is wrong? Banking is not a profession that typically attracts humanity's finest minds. It's not like bookmaking or counterfitting where penalties are exacted for sloppy work.
Always with this ridiculous "an IT glitch is affecting a small number of customers" and "The speed of the website is affect for some" sort of bullshit!
This is just the typical mantra of any organisation that provides IT services. We work with suppliers who provide us with service and actually tell us what's going on if ever there's a problem. Until banks are given real penalties (real financial ones) and can actually pay the customers, they won't take reliability or security seriously. Look at TSB last year.
I can't remember which bank it was who said there was a "fraud guarantee" - it was this year - they said that they'll refund you any money if you are defrauded. However the small print indicated that this would not always be the case. Of course.
Banks have been allowed to get away with too much. If I were to go to a bank that told me they'd pay me £100 an hour for every hour that online banking wasn't available unless it was scheduled maintenance, I would jump at the idea. And the bank would absolutely pour money into security and reliability.
Have you tried restarting your router, rebooting and deleting cookies?
one egg in one basket
Most people understand intuitively that only having a single copy of your front door key is a bad idea. It can get lost. It can get broken or left on the wrong side of the door.
There are many other aspects of life that follow the same principle: car keys, royal heirs .... bank accounts.
If you rely only one, lone, bank account not only are you totally dependent on the competence of that bank but you only get one card. The smart people will apply for both a debit card and a credit card. If one gets lost, they still have the other. Provided both weren't kept in the same wallet / handbag. But for complete financial security, more than one current account is required.
Re: one egg in one basket
I have more than one current account, with more than one bank.
I'd still feel pretty pissed off if one of those banks suddenly became unavailable for days on end and didn't bother to tell me why in any kind of detail. I've left banks for less.
Re: one egg in one basket
This is sensible, but not always possible. Some people have difficulty getting any kind of bank account, let alone two. After two cases in close succession of credit card fraud a couple of years ago (dealt with okay by my bank, but very inconvenient and somewhat worrying) I tried to get a second credit card, only to discover that despite having no debt, decent salary and theoretically good credit history (regularly paid credit card, phone contract, utility bills for over a decade) the credit reference agency the bank in question used knew nothing about me as they had failed to associate two addresses.
Re: one egg in one basket
It's not just the cards. It's phones now too. I have an account where I must install their app to generate one-time login codes. Annoyingly, the app can only be active on one phone at a time. So if the phone dies I have to jump through hoops to deregister the phone before I'm permitted to put it on another. I imagine it's things like taking proof of ID into a branch so nothing rapid and certainly not possible if abroad on holiday.
With the new 2FA stuff all the banks are doing I've realised my phone is a single point of failure. I need a second phone and a probably second phone number to cover me for a predictable phone failure disaster.
Vindicated
I decided to move our joint account from smile to Starling a few months ago. To me, Smile just felt stagnant and unloved. Their revamp a few years ago was awful and made the website even more clunky than before.
The account is still open with a notional balance, but won't be for much longer.
These SNAFUs are getting too common. I was with RBS when they had theirs, then TSB and now Smile. Is it me?
Re: Vindicated
I agree, I abandoned Smile just as the "new" website and app was rolled out. I think that was 5 years ago, I too have ended up with Starling, as one of three current accounts of course :-)
In their defense, I've been with smile since they started (about 2 decades?) and this is the first issue I've ever had. However, it's a pretty huge one. We're in the middle of moving house and being unable to make payments to surveyors, advocates etc is a nightmare.
I worked in banking for 13 years and frequently tried to convince the powers that be that a Bank is simply an IT company whose services involve moving money. IT should be funded as the main priority and technically knowledgeable people should be on the Board. This was ignored and the bank went under about 5 years ago - although not IT related. Damn it.
But, unfortunately, Banks are run by bankers and accountants. It is incredibly rare to see an actual IT person at board level (the IT "Director" usually has no background in IT) and therefore IT is regarded as a burdensome cost; until something like this happens.
Smile, a trading division of the Co-Operative Bank
given the rather long and well-publicized history of failings with co-op brands, I wouldn't be surprised if smile were to disappear one day, hour, second. To the shock, horror of their customers, who can't be blamed, really, cause they were only born yesterday and "I liked their name and logo so I put all my savings there and now I don't know what to do, help!"
Banks are NOT your friend, whether they're called "Your bank", "Smile" or "Royal Trust". If something goes wrong, they WILL put you first - first to lose your money and cover their losses.
I did some IT consultancy...
... at several banks a few years ago and almost every one of the senior managers at these banks considered IT to be an "overhead" rather like its cleaning services, catering, building maintenance, etc... The emphasis was always on containing day-to-day costs. But if anything went wrong...
I absolutely insist and demand...
That all female stock photos in the Reg are replaced by the Eee girl across the site.
Please also update the wayback machine.
Do this now, or I will cancel my subscription!
"for we like sheep ..."
This is far from exceptional. It amazes me how we've been conditioned to accept such crap levels of service. A couple of decades back we'd have done rather more than complain in the twitsphere - we'd have abandoned service providers in droves. Even now, if bricks and mortar businesses exhibited the current levels of unreliability of "digital" services, I'd expect riots.