When i first joined First Direct the ohone wold be answered within two rings, now i often have to wait although to be honest i very rarely have to call them, maybe once in 6 months. I was told they have moved their call centre to India but the last two times i phoned i spoke to english people.
At christmas i did open an account with Nat West because their online banking can interface with my Quicken home accounting software but i never actually got around to swapping everything over so its sitting there unused.