28 Days of Chasing Absa Just to Be Told No

I have been an Absa customer for going on 20 years, and this experience has genuinely made me question why I have remained loyal for so long.

On **7 August**, I contacted Absa with a very simple request. I had a **substantial savings balance** with them, but another bank was offering a significantly better savings rate.

I wasn't demanding that Absa match the rate. I simply asked whether, considering my long relationship with the bank and the amount I had invested with them, they could review my account and offer a preferential or discretionary rate.

I specifically told them that **I would prefer to keep my money with Absa**.

What followed was ridiculous.

**11 August:** Absa rep**** and told me to phone Savings and Investments to ask about a discretionary rate.

I did exactly that. I was transferred between departments, spent approximately **20 minutes on the phone**, and then the call was disconnected without anybody actually helping me.

I emailed Absa again that same day and asked for a manager or senior consultant who actually had the authority to discuss the rate to contact me.

**17 August:** No response, so I followed up.

**21 August:** Still nothing. I followed up again after being told the matter had been escalated.

**24 August:** Absa apologised for the delay and told me the matter had been escalated to management and that they had followed up with management.

**27 August:** Still nobody had contacted me. I eventually emailed Absa to tell them that, because nobody had bothered getting back to me, **I had started moving my money out of Absa**.

**28 August:** Their response? Another message telling me my query had been escalated to management and that they would contact me when they had feedback.

**4 September:** Still no feedback.

That was **28 days after my original request**.

And after all of this chasing, escalating, emails and wasted time, the eventual answer was simply that Absa couldn't offer me a better rate.

That answer itself isn't even what annoys me most.

If Absa had responded within a few business days and said, "Unfortunately, the current rate is the best we can offer," I would have accepted that. Banks are entitled to set their rates.

What I find unacceptable is that it took weeks of chasing, multiple escalations and repeated promises of feedback to get an answer to what was fundamentally a **yes-or-no customer retention question**.

I was a customer of nearly 20 years, with a substantial savings balance, actively giving Absa an opportunity to retain my money before moving it elsewhere.

Instead of making me feel like a valued long-standing customer, the whole process made it remarkably easy to decide to move the money.

Extremely disappointing service from Absa.