Mortgage Introducer was contacted by Malcolm Hayes, managing director of The Mortgage Clinic, who said he had regularly found himself on hold in a queue for 30 or 40 minutes and this could extend to beyond an hour.
Hayes explained that the length of waiting times had been an ongoing problem for some time, despite complaints he had made. He was told the lender was trying to deal with the issue.
Hayes said: “It takes you forever to get through. The staff are very helpful when you do get through, but it’s hopeless.
“We deal with several companies and the HBOS system is by far the worst to deal with as far as waiting times are concerned. It’s not unusual to be on the phone for over an hour and we just put the phone on loud speaker now. The fastest I’ve ever got through was 20 minutes. I’ve complained, but it’s a waste of breath.
“I think these things in a professional set-up are unacceptable. I’ve no problem with Halifax. But if it’s that busy, it needs to sort the system out and make it more user-friendly, or hire more people to answer the phones.”
Ian Wilson, head of sales at Halifax Intermediaries, said: “We are sorry that the level of service is currently not of the standard brokers have come to expect from us. This is due to the current high demand for our products.
"We’ve already taken action to address this and recruited almost an additional 100 colleagues to meet these increased demands. We endeavour to answer calls as soon as possible and our average waiting time is currently 4.5 minutes.
“Where possible, we would ask brokers to offer their support and only call us when there is a genuine need. This will help ease current pressures on our phone lines.
"To help mortgage intermediaries manage customer expectations we are looking to publish service level updates on our website. What is reassuring is that brokers are happy with the quality of service once they get through.”
