ABSA's Service Fee ****

I am a SASSA disability grant recipient. In 2022 I opened an ABSA account and made it very clear that I am in fact a SASSA beneficiary. This account was meant to be for the rare occasions where I might need to make electronic payments. I ended up not using until today. Let me pre-emptively state that there was never any indication on the banking app nor did I receive any communication from ABSA in two years that I own them money for outstanding service fees. In fact, right before I decided to make a deposit today, I requested a statement via the ABSA app. There was only a R0 balance indicated on the statement. No indication of any kind that I own ABSA a load of money. So I deposited R700 only to then get a notification that ABSA took R700 in service fees. Naturally I queried with the bank since I was right there, only to discover that I had more than R1000 in outstanding service fees. In 24 months, on an account that was never used, on an account that was opened by a SASSA beneficiary, more than R40 per month in service fees piled up *****thily, with no indication on the app or via any communications from ABSA bank that this was happening. Until I deposited R700 of my SASSA money into my account today. Only then was I informed the whole R700 was taken by ABSA. With again, no indication that another R300 or so was still outstanding. When I asked the bank they just shrugged and said it's a Flexi account and the service fees is R40 something a month. When I explained that I had made it clear I am a SASSA beneficiary when I opened the account and was not supposed to be hit with these astronomical fees they just shrugged and said, change the account. ABSA messed up but I must change it and I must struggle with R700 less this month. All because they let the fees pile up without notice just waiting for a deposit. It's a ****. Don't use this bank if you don't want your money to disappear into thin air,