A customer has lambasted his bank for having ’appalling and deteriorating service’ after repeatedly being left high and dry when trying to make important transactions.

Former Post Office chief Bill Chacksfield, from Onchan, told the Manx Independent he had been let down multiple times during a trip to Germany recently and, to make matters worse, this came soon after a similar incident.

’I believe there are probably many island residents that have been hit by the deterioration in the services provided by the Isle of Man Bank in the last year or so and I believe your readers should be warned of the ongoing appalling service it now provides to its customers using their credit or debit card services,’ Mr Chacksfield said.

He cited two examples. The first, some weeks ago, trying to buy ringside tickets for the Joshua versus Klitschko boxing match at Wembley.

After securing the seats he wanted he tried three times to pay using his Isle of Man Bank debit card, but on each occasion, payment was blocked.

’I then lost the ring side seats. I found some more far less well-placed seats and bid again, got the seats and tried to pay with an Isle of Man Bank debit card and was blocked again,’ he said.

’Totally frustrated by this I tried my Euro credit card [issued by the Isle of Man Bank] and it worked! End result was I had to convert money into Euros to pay my Euro credit card account and it was then converted back into pounds to pay for the tickets (all at my cost). Added to which I did not get the seats I wanted.’

He was later told the account was blocked for ’security reasons’ but the bank should have telephoned him immediately to find out if the payment was legitimate. It failed to do this, but did award him £75 compensation.

He then left the island to spend a month in Germany, confident his Isle of Man Bank-issued Euro credit card would work, having used it to buy the boxing match tickets.

’More fool me! The first time I tried to use it, again in the evening, it was blocked which caused me huge embarrassment,’ he said.

Finding the card was not accepted in the cash machine either, he telephoned the number on the card.

’I was told it was my fault as I had not told the bank I was going abroad so they had blocked the account. I was then passed to another department to unblock the card and left hanging until the phone went dead,’ he said.

The card was then supposedly unblocked but again defied all attempts to withdraw cash using it. Despite his discussions with the bank, a bill payment was blocked, as was a payment to the Royal Irish Yacht Club, despite this being an annual Euro credit card transaction. He said the cash machines all bore the Visa sign and the correct PIN number was used on each occasion.

’I continue to live on German charity,’ he said.

A bank spokesman said he would not comment on an individual case but, hypothetically speaking, cards were blocked if fraudulent activity was suspected, to protect the customer. Customers should tell the bank before a trip, ensure their contact details are up to date and take a copy of the helpline numbers with them: +44 1624 637000 (or +44 1268 500 813 for out-of-hours calls from outside the UK).

Mr Chacksfield stressed some bank staff had worked extremely hard to help him but felt they were struggling in the face of inadequate systems.

’Once this is cleared up I will seriously consider moving my accounts. The Isle of Man branch has staff who are incredibly helpful but I hope my story may put pressure on the bank to get its house in order,’ he said.