August 2017 by Aaron S.
This branch of Santander is located in Gateshead's Metrocentre Mall and is one of the many banks located inside the mall, off the top of my head, other banks located inside the mall included an awful branch of Natwest and a large Halifax store. This branch of Santander is a decent size, but it is more like a rectangle with a long store, the counters manned by staff are located right at the end, there wasn't any employee greeting customers as one would normally find at banks such as Natwest and Halifax, this makes me feel there is so much wasted space in between the entrance and the counters, so much could be done to use this space, perhaps adding more cash and paying in machines or another manned desk to help direct you to the right place, rather than queuing up at the counter. The staff didn't seem overly friendly, helpful or welcoming as mentioned above and this is a shame. This is one of the nicer banks in the Metrocentre however, beating Natwest by such a big amount, alongside Halifax which is a large store and another decent/satisfactory branch in the Metrocentre. Overall, this bank is okay there are some nice features but the service and space could be used much better to improve the customer experience so I sadly feel this Santander store only deserves a two-star rating.