Alder's Tone

Finally got round to replying to Nationwide. And here's the sarcasm...

My son, Iain, received a letter from Nationwide late last year, a copy of which is attached. I have a few comments to make on this.

You have acknowledged he is a minor by the heading “THIS IS IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ CAREFULLY AND SHOW THIS LETTER TO YOUR PARENT OR GUARDIAN”. This shows you have extracted his date of birth from your database when compiling the mailshots.

With the fact derived from this that you have extracted his date of birth, why, then, was this not considered when:
• The laptop was stolen before he was born, and therefore before he was a customer
• How do you expect a three month old baby to “READ THIS CAREFULLY” before passing on to his parent or guardian?
• Why do you encourage a 3 month old baby to use a shredder?

While I appreciate that you will have had possibly two types of mailing, one for adult customers and one for parents of minors, I hope this illustrates the need for more careful consideration and opportunities for widening the groups you are targeting. I expect to be treated as an individual, as I expect my son to be. If we do not fit in with Nationwide’s “two sizes fits all” policy then perhaps we gave our business to the wrong organisation? At best we’ll ignore the information as irrelevant to us. At worst we’ll treat Nationwide as incompetent and unable to process data (or look after it) properly and look to move our business.

I would hope that in instructing Iain to read the letter himself then pass it on that you do not really expect him to use a shredder himself, despite the instruction contained therein. There will, of course, be people of lesser intelligence than I who will take this literally and have minors using sharp cutting devices.

My only request is that more thought is given in future. The release into the wild of the data that was contained on the stolen laptop damaged our perceptions of Nationwide, but this letter has probably done more damage in my opinion.

I look forward to receiving your grovelling apology and instructions to Iain to let his parents do his shredding for him.

I do, however, commend you for your faith in his ability to remember his own PINs and passwords at such a tender age, a prodigy in the making I am sure. This makes me proud.

Yours faithfully,