It has been my misfortune to be one of two Executors dealing with the estate of a deceased Barclays customer. The deceased had a current account, ISA, investment bond & mortgage. All with Barclays. Things, I thought, began ok. I registered the Will, Probate, my personal details and identification for security and the death certificate at the local branch assisted by what appeared to be a competent adviser. At the same time I asked for an Executors account to be set up. From this point it was an uphill struggle as everything went increasingly down hill. 1. The adviser had entered the details incorrectly so months went by before the Exec. Account went live & amalgamated the Current & ISA accounts. I only received £50 compensation for a 2 month delay. Obviously mistakes and time are cheap at Barclays. 2. When eventually I wanted to manage the account the branch was uncontactable unless I made a personal visit. I was told that Barclays will not issue cards for Execs Accounts so to arrange at appointment at the branch. I had to phone or go to the branch to do this. Phoning takes you to India & when the person finally got back with an appointment they had without success tried to arrange an appointment in Lewis instead of Lewes. Also despite successfully going through security they would not talk about any transactions or balances on the account. 3. When I began correspondence with the Investment & Mortgage departments further delays became the norm as they claimed non receipt of my personal details and identification. They again confirmed this mistake by letter. However, no compensation followed. As I said mistakes and time are cheap at Barclays. 4. The Mortgage Services in Leics. were incompetent in dealing with the decedent's mortgage. Multiple phone calls became prolonged as so called "mortgage assistants" excused themselves to find someone who could deal with the type of mortgage the deceased had in the distant past signed up to. There were occasions when the "assistant" never came back to the phone. As an aside please be aware that Barclays deal in decimals and not exact fractions. This may seem trivial but recurring decimals can work against you when repaying many thousands of £s. Also if a property valuation is required Barclays will charge you & choose the surveyor but the surveyor is not allowed to share their valuation with you. Only Barclays. So Barclays can tell you any figure that benefits them! where is the transparency? 5. The final sign of incompetence relates to Executors who live in different locations separated by fifty or more miles. My fellow executor obviously had to prove his identity at the outset. However like me he was called upon to repeat this as we worked with different Barclay's dept. The excuse offered by the manager he met was "we are not use to Executors being so far apart". Have Barclays ever heard of Databases. My advice is that if you are thinking of providing Barclays with your business, DON"T. Firstly they are not customer friendly. They place little value on your time and/or your business. Secondly to the detriment of their customers they are clearly incompetent in communicating across departments. Thirdly their use of technology slows your progress and those who one day will deal with your estate.