Just four days into being a Barclays customer and I've already been severely inconvenienced, laughed at, talked down to, lied to, mis-informed and seen just how poor the communication and continuity is between departments internally and externally. I opened a personal current account on Monday 25/03 in the Chelmsford branch having already completed the application online, this went smoothly and quickly and I was very impressed. I was assisted by a gent in his mid 20's who dealt with my account opening very well, I asked him at the end of the process if I could deposit two cheques that I had with me, went to the counter and did so with minimum fuss. Wednesday I received my card and Thursday my pin and online banking pin. Thursday I logged into my online banking account to see that my account was minus (debit) exactly the amount of money I had deposited via cheque! I called the online banking number and spoke to an advisor who told me the it would have been a vendor awaiting payment to clear?! (Mis-information no1) I explained many times that the amount was exactly the amount I had deposited on the day I opened the account and that I had just received the card and had not yet made any purchases on it. We repeated this conversation a number of times before he gave me the number for telephone banking, why he didn't direct me to them in the first place instead of giving me lies is beyond me. So I called telephone banking and, at the fourth instance of having to give the same security details within 20 mins, expressed frustration at this and was laughed at by the representative on the phone, like I was too stupid to understand what security protocols are. Good start to the conversation. I explained the situation to him and after much more aimless and repetitive explaining, was told that I had to visit my branch in person to "prove where the funds where coming from"?! Unbelievable, I asked him how I was to do that repeatedly and was simply told the same thing each time. So by this point i'm assuming I would have to bring the provider of the personal cheque, who is reliant on oxygen most of the day, and not in their health interest to exert themselves unnecessarily, into branch with me to explain to a stranger that they are who they are. I visited branch and was greeted by a female representative, again in their 20's, who was understanding and quick to see the situation meet a resolution. I waited to be seen by someone in branch for a short while, until a female in her late 40s - early 50s approached me and told me that cheques take 5 days to clear, which I was aware of. She clearly wanted rid of me for some reason and when I said I had been sent here by Barclays phone reps she asked "well do you wanna make a complaint"? I said I did, to which she replied "well then you'll sit and wait". I felt like I was in trouble back in primary school! Not how a bank representative should be talking to customers, let alone how a person should talk to another person. It turns out the gent who opened my account was the one who I was making my apparent compliant to, but it turns out he DID have to make checks on my deposit and send requests to another department based on the outcome of our meeting. If I hadn't taken the option of making a complaint, I would have been back where I started in the morning and would have wasted not one, but two days attempting to rectify it. In short, there is a clear lack of policy continuity and communication between branch personnel, departments and as a company as a whole. I did not enjoy being laughed at and talked down to like a troublesome child, or lied to in branch and over the phone in a bit to get rid of me. When the cheques clear I will be immediately withdrawing the balance, closing my account and opening one with Metro across the road. Your only saving grace where the young man and woman who I talked to in the Chelmsford branch, they don't deserve to be associated with this situation.