Absa is still Volkskas and like the STAATSDIENS from 1975.

My branch is Absa Waterfront in Cape Town. As always, too few staff to serve the number of clients at that branch. I've raised this directly with Absa before. For the second time in a row also, the branch manager was "not in." I was there for a personal loan application. I had made the mistake of trying to do it online, which processed half the application and then kicked out an error message. So, at the branch this morning, when I finally got to see a consultant, it was like trying to read a PhD in Physics, as the process of fully deleting the online application before a branch application could be requested. It's phone calls to service centers, being put on hold and other people must be contacted. It's very clear that Absa staff are completely disempowered from making any decisions that is not regulated by the computer. Finally the call centre can delete the online application, allowing the branch to enter a new application. Then, we hit a glitch because the Absa system somehow deleted a piece of info that I had provided before and now the application could not be completed. I must go back tomorrow with proof of the information that Absa had but then electronically "lost." I understood something today about Absa. It's called Absa in name but it is actually still Volkskas Bank. It's got 1975 Afrikaner "staatsdiens" bureaucracy embedded still in its corporate DNA. And I'm an Afrikaner so I would know what that looks like! Absa, your "Africanacity" slogan is zero on a contract. Your systems are old fashioned and cumbersome. You waste the time of your customer's and you make life hard for your staff because your systems work so weird and everything is a duplication of everything else. You should go back to being Volkskas - at least then I'll know what to prepare for; die STAATSDIENS van 1975!! Kom net by asb!