Absa ***** Department: Rude agent, zero guidance, and a dropped call

I was contacted by Absa's ***** line on 18 May at 11:42 regarding a legitimate MacBook purchase I made on Amazon. I understand ***** checks are necessary, and I appreciate that the system flagged the transaction. What followed, however, was one of the worst customer service experiences I have had with any bank.

After navigating through an automated bot that gave me no room to respond while I was simultaneously checking my account, I was transferred to a human agent. He answered with a single word: "Hello." Nothing else. No name, no department, no indication this was a legitimate Absa call, and no instruction on what I was supposed to do next.

When I called him out on this, his tone became defensive and dismissive. There was no empathy, no professionalism, and no effort to make me feel safe during what is, by nature, an already stressful situation. I repeatedly asked, "What must I do next?" and his only response was that he had "cleared some errors" and I could try again. He then said "Okay, thank you, bye-bye" and dropped the call.

A ***** call from your bank is supposed to reassure a customer. Instead, this interaction felt more suspicious and unsettling than the original ***** alert. I had no way of verifying I was speaking to a legitimate Absa employee, the agent gave no guidance whatsoever, and he was outright rude when I raised this.

The transaction has since gone through, so the issue is technically resolved. But the way this was handled is not acceptable. Absa's ***** team needs to train agents to lead calls with proper identification, clear instructions, and basic human decency.