THE merger of Nationwide and Portman has been far from smooth for Portman members.

They have suffered various disappointments along the way such as no payouts for those with less than £100 in their savings account, or mortgage outstanding, at the close of business on September 11, 2006.

Adding insult to injury, second named members of joint accounts have also not been entitled to payouts.

And now these longstanding members are being driven to yet more despair by painfully long queues in branches.

Following its recent takeover by Nationwide it seems that members eager to transfer their passbooks over to Nationwide are inadvertently causing the problem.

It has escalated to such an extent that an anonymous caller to the Echo commented: "In the Boscombe branch there was such a long queue that one individual who had been patiently queuing for over an hour spat on the branch manager. This is a very sad reflection of our times.

The anonymous caller continued: "On no occasion have members received literature informing them of what procedure to follow and so the resulting chaos is no surprise.

"The entire takeover has been a shambles from start to finish with a clear lack of communication to members."

Media relations manager for Nationwide, Steve Cowdry responded: "We would like to welcome all former Portman members to Nationwide and apologise for queues at a number of local branches. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused while members have waited to be served."

He has some helpful suggestions regarding passbook replacement: "It isn't essential the first time a Portman member visits a branch. We would like to ask former Portman members not to make a special trip just to get their passbook changed - they can help us to help them by waiting until they need to transact on their account.

"Nationwide has found that many Portman members want a replacement passbook immediately."

He added: "Replacing passbooks is a simple process but it adds to the length of time needed when serving members."

Mr Cowdry suggested that passbooks could be left at the relevant branch to be replaced and this should reduce the waiting time for all members and minimise the queues.

He concluded: "Replacements can be posted back to members or left for collection. We'd like to thank our members for their patience and for their continued support."