The man who cross-stitched his own bank card

A man has cross-stitched a debit card and sent it to his bank to express his irritation at waiting for a replacement.

Keith Clark posted a message on the Santander UK Facebook page explaining his frustration. He had ordered a replacement card after his was cloned at the end of April, something he praised the bank for flagging up.

However, he was less impressed with the time taken to provide a replacement. He says he was told one would arrive within 8-10 days and when it didn't, he went into a branch, only to be told one hadn't been ordered.

He says he immediately ordered a new one. But this didn't arrive. He decided to start stitching on Monday, 19 days after ordering his card. Then he posted it.

His creation arrived at Santander's head office on Wednesday morning, having been sent using the Royal Mail's recorded delivery service.

"My motivation was I found it unbelievable that it takes 8-10 days to make a debit card and send it to me so I thought I'd wait and see how long it takes to get something to them," the 29-year-old says. "If I can knock something out and send it within three days, why can't they?"

Clark has previous experience when it comes to cross-stitching. Eighteen months ago the west Londoner started stitching portraits of R&B stars and DJs to "kill time on the Tube". But he's been taken aback by the reaction on social media to his bank card.

"It was purely done to let the customer services guy who wasn't that interested know that it was quite irritating. The public have been very supportive in as much as a lot of them are posting on Facebook to share their stories."

Clark's stitching joins a line of humorous financial protests. Earlier this year, a man in Texas was arrested for attempting to pay a $600 (£385) property bill with $1 notes folded so tightly it reportedly "required tax office personnel approximately six minutes to unfold each bill".

Earlier this month, Tom Katsumi cross-stitched the general election as the results rolled in.

"Keith has sent us the details needed to locate his account on our system and we're working to get his new card to him," a spokeswoman for Santander says. "Excellent customer service is always our top priority and we'll be looking into this carefully."

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