Westpac Reviews 226

Unimpressed with the service my Dad (83) experienced at the new Porirua branch today.
He wanted to deposit money and was told to use the machine.
Also got a whole lot of unnecessary questions when he requested a direct debit be cancelled.
Customer service at its worst.

Call time estimate that it gives is false. I was told the waiting time would be 20 minutes. It's been a hour and 10 minutes over 😑 also tried to ring in yesterday. 3 times I rang. First time I sat on the phone for 40 mins waiting to be served and call disconnected . Second time I rang ,20 mins into the call I asked for a call back . Waited 3 hours still no call back , tried one more time and was waiting on call for 2 hours only to receive the message that they were now closed. Call Service is really poor . I do not recommend this bank.

It's 2023. We are in the 3rd decade of the 21st Century. Westpac NZ has over 1.5 million customers. With numerous advances in technology easily available to a bank of this size, and a long history of customer service, one would think that setting up something as simple as automatic monthly payments to a foreign account would be relatively easy. I came to find out that not only do they NOT allow this to be done by the customer via their "ONE" service online, or to even SAVE the details of a foreign payee on their portal, but that this service is not available in any way, AT ALL! Only manually initiated one-off payments to foreign accounts by the customer via the ONE portal is possible. Within their "updated" national system, there isn't even a way for a senior level manager to provide this service to a customer. This is pathetic. Westpac, you need to do better!

Absolutely horrendous service from Westpac and cannot wait to close my account and move banks. Their policy is outdated and just doesn’t make any f sense!

1. Requested my phone # changed through phone, apparently it will take weeks for this to be changed in the meantime I cannot do any online transfers etc. how tf am I suppose to pay bills?
2. After a month, my ph# was activated, I transferred money to my asb account, they instantly blocked my account until I call them and confirm it was me???

I’m beyond frustrated with Westpac’s BS honestly the unnecessary stress is just out of hand. WORST WORST BANK IN NZ

We just called from Australia to New Zealand and speak to Rajani. She was very helpful and have great customer service. Was a real pleasure to speak to her thank heaps for all your help

OMG They dont want your money

I had the displeasure of trying to apply for a TD for they have a semi attractive 2 year rate, and I had a sizeable sum to invest, but they are more focused on pushing people onto their phone banking or online portals. Big mistake, for they then become a faceless entity which they seem to be already. I called their contact centre and was cutoff twice, so asked them to contact me via email and they took a week to do so, telling me to just go online.

Are you nuts!!! Seems like there are less nuts on a goober farm.

The more corporate an organisation gets, the more staff are there for the salary and morning teas.

Genuinely good customer experiences are hard to come by in this sector, but when you you do need to have contact, banks need to appreciate that good service does count, and people have options.
You get one chance to make a good impression, you should make that count.

Went to Westpac Albany branch hoping to open a Debit account as the online one doesn't allow me to. The lady (teller) whom I talked to was so rude and unprofessional, kept on telling me as I have another bank account with another bank, I can't open one with them due to "regulatory" requirement. What kind of BS is this.

I recently opened a new bank account 2 weeks ago with Westpac, I had to do it over the phone as all the branches of this inadequate bank have closed down within 20 kilometres. I wanted to do something online & needed the card number. This prompted me to realize I had not been sent a card. I rang their customer service, and they tried to tell me to order it myself. I found the instructions on how to order it, which were call customer service. The Rep finally got it together after being on the phone for 25 minutes. I was then informed an email would be sent that I had to reply yes to which could take up to 24 hours, then it would be another 5 to 7 days for the card to arrive. so that will be at least 3 weeks to get a lousy card, how inept does Westpac intend to get?

Caller was very helpful and polite. Waited on the phone for me to get what I needed sorted.

In accordance with Westpacs recommendation I would change my Password a week ago. The result was that I was unable to make any transactions on my account, either with the new password or the previous one.
I called 0061 1300 655 505 from Denmark to get some help. That turned out to be not helpful, at all. At least 5 times I had requested, the helper a woman to speak more slowly.
That request had no effect. At 83 I have a hearing problem in understanding people over the phone when I can´t lip-read. Speaking more slowly helps a lot. But that was not to be.
The end result was, that now I could not only, not make a transaction, I could also not even access my account to check my data and previous transactions. So what do I do to get this straightened out apart from changing banks? There is over $100000 in my account so I worry a bit about spam.

Got scammed by a westpac customer than when I rung westpac to sort it out they said they can’t help me unless I’m a westpac customer. The scammer had paid for a service via internet banking transfer in which the money was transferred right in front of me and the payment said confirmed with today’s date on it. The money however did not show in my bank account. Do not trust bank transfers from westpac accounts!

Misogynistic response from westpacs international Investigations team today. I have owned my account for 30 plus years and added my husband to it ten years ago. But Westpac advised me today they had emailed him only with a query, as he was considered the principal account holder. I asked what the criteria was that determined 'principle owner' and was instead directed to sort with local branch. What year is it Westpac NZ?

Last year I took out an auto loan with Westpac and this year I applied for a credit card. Both experiences have been extremely painful. The auto loan approval took so long, I had already owned the car for three weeks before I got the money. The credit card approval has already taken five weeks and Westpac have given no indication when it might be finished. I'm a NZ citizen with good credit and a good job so the issue isn't with me! Thank goodness we didn't get a home loan from Westpac--I'd probably be retired before the approval came through! Hopefully this review will save one person from this disaster of a bank. Literally go with anyone else.

A customer for 35 years. They've now unilaterally decided that any customer wanting to buy bitcoin is not permissable Attacking people's personal freedoms. Slowly withdrawing my money. Goodnight Westpac!

When I logged onto my account while on vacation in Paris, it was almost instantly closed. I had to rely on the gains from my PlanOff portfolio to see me through my holiday. I've returned home and have submitted a number of documents, but my account is still not being opened. In the account, I have a large sum of money in there. Do not bank with them

Poor customer service. One of the worst banking experiences I had. Plus easily the worst web and mobile app I've ever seen for a bank.

Honestly horrible for insurance done two different claims with two different family members were extremely difficult and horrible to deal with please don't do insurance with them

Extremely poor service from westpac when I recently moved overseas. It has been impossible to access any funds online, such as online payments or transfers, because my Nz SIM card has been deactivated, and although I have added my international phone number (which took weeks in and of itself), I still never receive the sms authorisation required to make payments. I ended up in a situation where I was alone in a foreign country and unable to pay rent or bills, not because I didn’t have the money in my account, but because westpac cannot fix a technical issue to allow sms authentication to be sent to international numbers. I have contacted them numerous times and every time they tell me that they have escalated the issue, but nothing ever gets resolved and we are just going around in circles for more than 2 months. I also had an unexpected death in my family 2 weeks ago and needed to make urgent plans to travel back, and again it was extremely difficult to buy the airfares online, I had to wait until their office opened to call to try to get them to override the sms requirement, which took hours. This was incredibly stressful, and now 2 weeks later they are no closer to resolving the issue.

Tried to open a term deposit so phoned the local bank & left a message but never heard from them. Next rang the head office to ask them for help & they were like yea sure we will get someone to contact you. Never heard from them again. Absolutely useless

The worst. Wait times horrendous. Staff don't care and have no authority anyway. Do not use them. The branches can't really do anything and you cant get hold of anyone on the phone. If you do, they will need to transfer you. Just terrible. I feel sorry for the staff.