Yorkshire Bank problem

Haven't posted a proper business post here for a while but I'm having a problem with the Yorkshire Bank and thought a public airing might help both me and also others considering setting up an account (personal or business).

Essentially I accidentally went overdrawn when a cheque issued by the Halifax was paid into my YB current account on the 1st of July - although the cheque was against cleared funds in the Halifax account (what I still term a 'building society' cheque - the kind you can still go out and buy a car with !) and despite the fact that it appeared as cleared funds on their on-line system on the 5th my debit card was declined and when ringing their helpline confirmed the account was in debit and I'd incurred a £25 charge.

Of course I immediately paid in funds from my business account to cover the debit (the same evening) and then rang their helpline again in the morning to ask them to waive the charge on the basis that the cheque didn't need to 'clear', I've been a long term customer and that the account was only overdrawn for a matter of hours.

They were at this stage super unhelpful and apparently their charges are 'unreviewable'. Laughingly because of the FSA rules on 'treating customers fairly' - I really can't imagine that the intent of the law makers with the TCF rules was to justify charging customers more. LOL !!!

I've therefore written a standard 'snotty' letter to my branch manager (if indeed there is such a thing at the Yorkshire Bank in Yeadon, Leeds LS19 7SP) and asked them to think again - purpose of posting here is twofold - at the moment I wouldn't, couldn't suggest using the Yorkshire Bank - their attitude has been to adopt a one size fits all approach and not listen to their customer but also to point out that customer loyalty goes both ways - I've been with them over 31 years, have my business account with them and have used their services for a host of financial transactions in that time period - isn't it about time that the customer was right in banking as well as in every other industry - in 30 years they must have had their hands on upwards of £ 2,000,000 of my money (admittedly some of it not for very long!) how much interest have they earned on my money that over that time period. Surely my business and goodwill is worth far more than £ 25 to them one would have thought ?

Two thoughts to finish - on average someone with a bad experience of a business tells 10 people about the problem, compared to one or two people if the service was good. On a good month I get over 1,000 hits on this blog - so a couple more than ten people informed then.

Also, I think Halifax are offering a welcome payment of £50 for new current accounts - that looks pretty good right about now !

I will of course update if there is any news.

P.