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

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• czechoslovakia says:

  2 Dec2 December 10:29

  Well, 3 times now I have spent over 30 minutes on the phone (once over an hour!) applying for my old style LTSB Duo Avios cards to be upgraded to the Lloyds Avios equivalent, as I spend 75% of the week abroad and the 0% Forex Fee would be great. And 3 times have heard absolutely zilch back from them. Useless bunch of fools. Glad the rest of my accounts reverted back to TSB, who seem to have it a bit more “together” – or maybe I`m just lucky?

• James says:

  2 Dec2 December 11:23

  I can see who this is an issue for some, but this is a “refer a friend” scheme, not a Avios collection mechanism for people to refer strangers. Perhaps this is Lloyds way of scaling back the award to those that truly are referring their friends?

  • Mark2 says:

    2 Dec2 December 13:00

    I saw it as a ‘let’s get some more cardholders’ scheme.

• Andrew S says:

  2 Dec2 December 11:48

  And Raffles has now guaranteed Lloyds won’t work with him and this site for another five years 🙂

  • Rob says:

    2 Dec2 December 15:32

    If this scheme ever starts to work then they will be working with me whether they want to or not!

• callum says:

  2 Dec2 December 13:02

  It seems rather unnecessary to be so rude to individual people… By all means complain about how the system works overall, but you don’t have the slightest idea who built it, who maintains it and who manages it, or why it’s acting like this.

  Effectively calling them idiots who can’t do their job is a bit below the belt. No one calls you an idiot who should be replaced by a 12 year old when you make mistakes…

  • Daz says:

    2 Dec2 December 15:06

    Callum,

    To be brutally honest I don’t care who, what , where, that’s irrelevant to me. What is important to me is an FT100 company takes my hard earned cash for a service to be provided (£140.00 in this case) then does not produce the goods to the required standard.
    To entice and continually stimulate your customers/potential customers with producing the goods and delivering QUALITY service is what matters to me, and if they can’t I go elsewhere. Their leadership, management ethos and how they run operations and development are not my problem.

    • TJ says:

      2 Dec2 December 15:25

      Daz, well put, we can only judge these companies on their ability to provide a good service. I get the impression, however, that Callum might have taken issue with how the last part of the main article seems to trivialise the job of the person as something a “12 year old” can do. It’s a common thing, IT is (on the whole) populated by young guys under and around 30 years old, and the more long-in-the-tooth professionals think of us as the sort of creche. A creche with a phenomenally high IQ and disregard for social skills.

      • callum says:

        2 Dec2 December 20:46

        My issue was with the whole attitude really. Moan about the Lloyds system – completely fair. Moan about the people who decided that’s how it should work – completely fair. Moan about the people who implemented it despite not having the slightest idea what their instructions were or if they have any responsibility/permission to change the system , so therefore don’t actually know whether it’s their fault or not – no.

  • Rob says:

    2 Dec2 December 15:38

    No, I think it is fair criticism given what is being asked of them.

    For a start, if it is true that Lloyds pre-approves people who are referred and is taking 3 days to 3 weeks to do so, you need to ask ‘why?’. Even if someone had the card before, Lloyds won’t pick it up if they used a different email address. The time to pick up on ‘churners’ is after they apply and you can compare addresses and NI numbers. The rules already say that no bonus will be given if the person has had the card before so no-one can complain if they are refused the bonus later.

    This brings us to another point, of course. If you had the old-style Avios card or even the old Air Miles cards, Lloyds will NOT give you a bonus on this card. However, this card is totally different to the old cards – you have no FX fees and it offers upgrade vouchers. It is perfectly reasonable that someone who cancelled an old-style Avios card might be attracted to this one, so why not let them have 4,500 Avios for signing up? They are paying a £24 fee anyway so its not as if Lloyds is losing out financially on the bonus.

    • Mark2 says:

      2 Dec2 December 21:12

      Rob,
      I have checked the T&Cs at the bottom of the page on the Avios web site and they say ‘ and not currently hold, have previously held or be in the process of applying for a Lloyds Bank Avios Rewards Credit Card Account.’, Is there some other information elsewhere which makes you say that previous holders of ANY Avios card will not get the points please?

      • Rob says:

        2 Dec2 December 22:44

        BA Amex cards are clearly OK. However, Lloyds has refused bonuses in the past to ex-holders of the old Lloyds Air Miles and Lloyds Avios (eg the card which became the TSB Avios) cards.

        • Mark2 says:

          3 Dec3 December 09:45

          Thanks for the warning.
          But if they do not comply with their own T&Cs (in three different places, all of which I shall retain) I shall complain to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). I have complained similarly on three previous occasions in including Avios. In each case I have found ASA to be efficient and the response from the offender to be very quick.

• Jon says:

  2 Dec2 December 14:25

  I had the forerunners for these cards when they ran the double points promo a few years back.

  I have never dealt with such a bunch of incompetent fools, and I vowed never to touch lloyds again. And I never have, and never will.

  They were (and from the sound of other posts still are) idiots who can’t do their jobs.

• Nick says:

  2 Dec2 December 15:55

  I’ve got one of these cards. I actually quite like dealing with Lloyds. They are, as others have said, hopelessly incompetent but that seems to be borne out of their desire to manually process as much as possible. It’s really quite retro. Avios transferred in month 1 but not since? That’s because someone hasn’t pressed the button. Your account has been cancelled? That’s because the guy who dealt with your cancellation for a lost/stolen card has accidentally deleted the account. No avios accruing after that date? That’s because the guy who linked your new card to your avios account decided to create a new avios account for you instead and put your points in there. No avios in your account 2 weeks after we promised to sort this out immediately? That’s because it takes 30 days to manually transfer points, actually – we got that wrong.

  If this was Amex, I’d be an MR millionaire by now with the free MR points they dish out for errors like this. Still, you do get your points eventually, and it’s good to see that even in 2014, there are still banks out there that use pencils and paper rather than computers to do stuff.

• Worzel says:

  2 Dec2 December 17:47

  Nick, (3.55pm), as you state:

  ‘Lloyds………….are hopelessly incompetent………..’,

  Politely posted, Worz.

  • Nick says:

    3 Dec3 December 09:44

    It’s all good fun. Human error is understandable, and I find it genuinely quite charming (and oddly reassuring) that it seems that it’s people who are doing things that would be automated at other banks. Plus, I quite like the call centre staff.

    I guess if I needed to rely on Lloyds to actually transfer some points to the correct avios account by the correct date I’d find it frustrating, but I’m in no rush for the avios and I do get them all in the end. It’s still a good product, and genuinely innovative – no other card gives me zero commission AND avios for spending abroad, and the fee is quite modest.

    • Worzel says:

      3 Dec3 December 20:11

      Thanks Nick-the positives understood.

    • Mark2 says:

      3 Dec3 December 22:48

      It is interesting that easily automated processes are mandraulic. I applied today and the approval, which you might have thought would need person input, was completely automated (quite well).

• Duncan S says:

  2 Dec2 December 20:43

  Thankfully I’ve had a smooth ride with Lloyds, though didn’t use the referral system (it didn’t exist at the time).

  I was wary when the form didn’t ask for my Avios membership number on sign-up, but a quick tweet (which was responded to promptly) advised me to contact them when I got the card through.

  I noticed that I didn’t have the green tick in my Avios account next to Lloyds, so I gave them a call, spoke to the rewards team at Lloyds who liased with Avios to sort it out, and within an hour I had the big green tick. Only had one statement so far, but the points went across on the statement date (or the day after… I forget) with the double points etc. working perfectly.

  I’m a bit obsessive when it comes to checking things are working properly, and when I get a feeling they aren’t I start digging. For those that wouldn’t think to do this I can see why they’d run into problems. It was clear that a new Avios account had been opened by Lloyds on my behalf, as my Avios account shows a merge on the date I called to sort it out. I feel like they could avoid a lot of that hassle by simply asking for your existing Avios number when you sign up.

  I haven’t been lucky enough to refer anyone yet (though I’m willing to do so still), but I’d certainly recommend the card on a personal level – every time I’ve spoken to them I’ve had an excellent experience.

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