Why the Lloyds Avios credit card ‘refer a friend’ service is a joke

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• Worzel says:

  2 Dec2 December 06:45

  Lloyds=Shambles=Best avoided!

• Danksy says:

  2 Dec2 December 06:49

  Ditto, shambles with their Avios cc when I held one

• Andrew says:

  2 Dec2 December 06:53

  It is a joke, I asked avios about this and they told me that the referral goes off to Lloyd’s for ‘verifying’, to check they have not had a previous referral or card, and then they send the link email, taking up to 5-7 days.
  It’s still a joke though…. One of my referrals got nothing for 2 weeks, and the one who applied, still no sign of the points posting!!

• Mark2 says:

  2 Dec2 December 07:16

  We have been spoiled by dealing with Amex and MBNA, although I am sure that they have a glitch occasionally!

  • JQ says:

    2 Dec2 December 07:44

    Amex has glitches very often, and tends to award 1000-4000 MR whenever you point them out!

• Max says:

  2 Dec2 December 07:20

  Whilst I agree there were a few days between me submitting a “friend” nomination and them receiving an email from Lloyds, otherwise the application has progressed without any glitches.

  I fail to see why this is “hours of grief”. Not as speedy as an American Express application admittedly, but certainly this has not caused us any grief. And it is an easy way of getting 9000 Avios, so I would disagree on giving it a miss myself. Certainly a darn sight easier than some of the lengths people go to get a few Avios (3V cards certainly caused me grief when I tried them!).

  I use the lloyds Avios cards when abroad for all purchases. I use a Halifax Clarity for ATM withdrawals (it has no fee).

• TJ says:

  2 Dec2 December 07:32

  I feel it is my duty as an experienced UX designer and former web developer to point out that there is most probably a well intentioned team behind the software, which probably works well (or could work well) of our want for some broken business process! Retail banks are notorious for it.

  • Worzel says:

    2 Dec2 December 07:37

    ?!

  • JQ says:

    2 Dec2 December 07:47

    A well-intentioned outsourced team whose code is mostly generated by helpful forum posters, perhaps? The uptime of the Avios website is less than 95%.

  • Oh! Matron! says:

    2 Dec2 December 09:02

    TJ is correct. The issue is normally the meddling management, poking their oar in, and not quite fully understanding what they actually want, and the contracted party who designs the stuff, not fully understanding what is meant to be delivered, requirement creep, etc.

    “Some blame the management, some the employees, everyone’s a victim of industrial disease!”

    • Simon85 says:

      2 Dec2 December 10:49

      First time Mark Knopfler has been quoted on this site I’m sure!

    • TJH says:

      2 Dec2 December 11:55

      I’m working on a government public-facing service at the moment that closes from 6pm to 8am, so a couple of weeks delay in sending an email seems normal by comparison.

      I’m also a tad surprised how enraged everybody seems to be, surely if you know these things do work but are somewhat syncopated it’s just a waiting game?

  • Andrew S says:

    2 Dec2 December 11:58

    Seems like a lack of overall ownership by anyone

• Geoff says:

  2 Dec2 December 07:32

  Absolutely terrible service surrounds these avios cards.

• Zoe says:

  2 Dec2 December 07:43

  Almost as well run as the recent Tesco £8 champagne promotion. My tiny local express got one delivery that sold out in 4.5 hours for a very heavily advertised promotion intended to last a further 4.5 days.
  Local extra had 4m long sign outside but similar stocking issues.
  No doubt would blame customers for buying it…
  Luckily they aren’t required to organise a p@ss up in a local brewery.

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