Anger over Abbey's online glitch

Abbey's website was updated during the weekend

Some business customers with Abbey say they have been hamstrung by a glitch in the bank's new online system.

Many are angry that they have been unable to transfer money between accounts since Abbey's website was updated at the weekend.

Abbey has apologised to customers but said that only a "small number" of customers had been affected.

It promised to deal with individual customers and said call centre delays were also now being cleared.

The business section of its website says customers can manage their accounts "when, where and how you want".

'Shaky system'

The problems seem to have started as Abbey, which is owned by Spanish banking giant Santander, changed its online system for business customers to mirror the section used by personal banking customers at the weekend.

The have replaced what was a highly efficient system with a shaky one

Businessman Tim Bugler

A number of notices had been posted on Abbey's website in the run-up to the change alerting customers to potential changes when logging in.

But the BBC has received a string of e-mails from people running small businesses who are angry that the new system has not been working for them in the last few days.

Some say they have been unable to transfer money between reserve and current accounts, although others have been unable to manage their account at all.

"The whole thing seems to be a monumental foul-up," said Tim Bugler, from Stirling.

"The have replaced what was a highly efficient system with a shaky one."

He was also unhappy that "without warning" the system had reduced the number of previous transactions he was able to view.

He said he had been banking with Abbey for eight years and the old system had worked very well for him, but small businesses were facing enough problems with the economic downturn to have to deal with more banking problems.

"Now is definitely not the time to mess things up for your business customers," he said.

Long queues

IT project manager Mike Wines, who runs a firm called Sparrowhawk Solutions in Guildford, has also been facing problems.

Abbey has apologised for the problems for some business customers

He said he was having difficulties paying bills as he was unable to transfer money.

He added that he had tried to call Abbey 15 times since the weekend, but had been unable to get through owing to large numbers of people waiting.

"I want to be spending most of my time with my customers; banking should be something that happens in the background of my business," he said.

Some call centre staff have been moved from personal banking inquiries to taking calls from businesspeople owing to the issue.

In a statement, Abbey said: "We are sorry for the inconvenience that has been caused to our small business customers.

"As part of the upgrade, our active online customers have been required to register again to gain access to their secure internet site.

"The majority have done so successfully - however for a small number of customers, for instance, those with linked accounts, if they have only re-registered for their main account, they are not able to see or transact on the other accounts.

"We are working on this and expect to resolve this with individual customers."

It said customers were alerted to the upgrade by letter or on the website and the new system would offer additional benefits to these customers.