Absa *****ed me over.

During the lockdown our President said we could go to our banks and ask for payment relief of which I am sure was a blessing for many people especially if you have to provide for your whole family. My husband and I asked for this payment relief in April from Absa of which we were told by the consultant that it is all sorted out. She gave me an email address and said if the deductions aren't reversed I should email this number. I received an sms and assumed all was in order, then later in the month I started getting sms's saying I am in arrears.

I went back to the bank to have it sorted out. The consultant informed me that my one account has been approved but not the other which didn't make sense for I asked for both accounts on the same day. She made a few calls and the response from the person on the phone was that it is sorted out and I will be receiving more sms's. Days later I received no sms and then my husband went to the bank for he too was receiving the same problem. He spoke to the same consultant and she sorted it out for him. I asked him to ask regarding my account as well and she was upset that it had not been sorted so she called to query and the people on the other side of the line said it's all sorted out, the client will receive an sms. So again I am being informed that my relief has been sorted out.

A few days ago I get a call from the manager of the bank to inform me that he noticed that my relief has not been done and I had to send an email this time of which I did. Then I decided to go back to the bank and after an hour with another consultant and many phone calls to people that constantly say this is not my department and referred her to other people I eventually find out that my account has been sent to the lawyers for being 2 months in arrears which was not making sense at all. I discovered that my debit orders were canceled and not stopped for payment relief.

So instead of getting assistance from a bank I have banked with all my life, I basically got *****ed over and put in an even worse situation. I have never been in arrears with my bank and now this has affected my credit record at the same time. Somehow which makes no sense at all, my husband's relief has been sorted and received all sorts of notifications but yet mine still has not been done. And what is more depressing is that asking for payment relief solely affects us for when you are approved you end up paying way more back to the bank than that mere 3 months installments that you asked for assistance of.

All my colleagues have often said that I have a terrible bank and they don't understand why I even bank with ABSA and I would defend them relentlessly. Now however I am utterly disappointed with my bank. During a pandemic that has affected us all in many ways I was honestly not expecting to get *****ed like this.

I now understand why many has left to join other banks and I am seriously disappointed at how this has whole situation has turned out for all I wanted was a little help but instead got the opposite of what I needed.