ULSTER BANK customers can breathe a sigh of relief: the bank’s IT “glitch” will finally be resolved today. Or will it? The bank’s official statement on the matter is so riddled with get-out clauses as to offer no real commitment – and no doubt this is deliberate.
The bank “expects” (but doesn’t guarantee) that the “vast majority” of customers (not all) will return to a normal service by the week beginning July 16th (which actually gives them until this weekend).
But just in case this vague statement boxed them in too much, Ulster Bank also added that “some residual reconciliations” may be required. So in other words: some things may get better for some customers at some stage this week.
The wooliness of the bank’s statement has attracted the ire of Stephen Warke, a former political adviser to Ulster Unionist MLA George Savage.
Mr Warke was quoted in the Belfast News Letter last week as branding the bank’s message as misleading, saying it gave the impression of a July 16th deadline. “But they are actually giving themselves the entire week of July 16th to resolve matters and giving themselves two ‘outs’: if they don’t fix everything week, well, they said their solution may not apply to all customers and is also subject to ‘residual reconciliations’.”
Given that Ulster Bank has already been wrong twice about when the problem would be fixed, it’s not surprising that they’ve come over all commitment-phobic now.
