Banks - Restrictive Practices

I am having to cash in a lot of savings accounts to pay the shortfall between the house I'm selling & the one I'm buying. I notified all the financial institutions in plenty of time that I would need the money today to transfer to my solicitors in advance of completion on the 29th August. Then I sat back & thought everything would be fine. How naive!

What has become blindingly obvious in a very stressful day is that each financial institution - bank, building society, or "other" operates according to very different rules. I have to ask why? Especially as we all know that everyone just clicks the "terms & conditions" box without reading the mind numbing & confusing very small print without reading it. Why confuse things more than is necessary? To hold on to our money for as long as possible obviously.

Two financial institutions are now in receipt of formal complaints from me - Coventry Building Society & Post Office Savings. Among the many unexpected restrictions I discovered this morning are:-

• Not taking my notification from the first letter / email I sent, but from the second which simply changed the date by a couple of days.
• Putting a stop on any transactions for 5 days from the second letter / email so the transfer can't take place today. 
• Not counting a Saturday as a working day despite the fact that the branches are open.
• Not notifying me of any of these restrictions - nor any penalty I might incur - nor what the final balance would be with interest added.
• Not transferring the money on the same day requested, but by 4.30 on the day after. In the case of this bank holiday this means Tuesday the 27th which is very close to the wire for me to get it to my solicitor. I thought this little trick had been dealt with & banks had been forced to utilise the facilities of electronic transfer & not hang on to someone else's money? Obviously not. 
• Allowing very variable amounts to be transferred in one go. In my experience today from £10,000 - £40,000 with a maximum of £80,000 in a day in some cases.

I am spitting mad. How dare these institutions act in such a cavalier fashion with my money? How can customers be expected to know all the variables of the differing accounts / institutions. How difficult is it for them to talk to each other & agree simple, universal, terms & conditions which are fair to customers? What's the point of a Financial Ombudsman if s/he doesn't enforce fair conditions on the institutions if they aren't capable of doing it themselves?

The financial sector has got away with too much for too long & they simply don't give a toss about ordinary clients. They treat savers with contempt & I for one have had enough. Apparently nothing has been learned over the last 5 years. They are still stealing very effectively.