ABSA

It is hard for me to have to do this, but I feel it is necessary and ethical. As a ABSA customer, I have had a number of issues and they have not shown that they DO NOT care. I have recently had my credit card cloned and used without my knowledge. This was brought to my attention by an ABSA official. We spent about 45min on the phone. The process of rectifying this was never concluded because I had to rush for a meeting. When I tried to call them back, I would hold the phone until I needed to rush for another meeting. This happened a week ago and nobody at ABSA is attending to this issue. Again, on a number of occasions, I have tried to make online payments and had to cancel them because I could not receive the One Time Pin (OTP) from their 3D Secure. In the last instance, which is today, I called MTN to check if the problem was not on their side. I called MTN just to make sure - I knew did not have to because I was receiving all other SMS's but not the critical ones from ABSA. MTN tested the SMS functionality and proved to me that they do not have an issue on their side. I had to call ABSA again for them to troubleshoot. I spent the whole morning trying do an important transaction and ABSA could not help me. I held on a single phone call for more than 1h30min. I do not recall how many times I have been transferred from one person to another. What made matters worse is that they promised to call back in 15min. I have not heard from them since. My money is tuck with them while my bills need to be paid. The consumer situation in South Africa is really bad. I found myself caught up between ABSA and MTN and could do nothing. I feel that South African businesses do not respect their customers and on the other hand, customers are willing accept the status quo. I am sure there are other customers out there who are as frustrated by ABSA as I am. I just want to let everyone know that you are not alone in this situation. But what I can tell you is that ABSA is not the only bank, MOVE! If you were thinking of moving you monies to ABSA, THINK AGAIN!