Bad service from Premium Banking

On 9 July 2020 I contacted Absa Premier Banking to question 2 debit orders being deducted from my account. The same amount was deducted on 1 June and 25 June respectively from my account.

In my call with Premium Banking, I spoke to Rodney Matshehle who reversed the debit order collected on the 1st of June. Due to a system constraint, he could not reverse the debit order collected on the 25th June, and promised to record a query to the Admin department to resolve the matter.

On 10 July 2020 I’ve noticed that the query recorded was merely closed and no reversal was captured. After 5 x consecutive attempts to contact Absa Premier Banking, their voice biometric system kept on requesting that I must capture the voice biometrics before I could be transferred to the Service Centre. (Contact number is ***, then option 4, option 1, option 2 to speak to an agent). After the voice biometric system experienced some issues, I was transferred to the Service Centre and spoke to Farooq Harmen.

I’ve explained that I’m somewhat perplexed that the “case number” that Rodney captured, was merely closed without any comments or feedback. After recapturing the discussion between Rodney and myself the day before, I explained to Farooq that I was unhappy with the fact that the 2nd debit order lodged on the 25th June was not reversed. He undertook to transfer me to his manager, Wonder Sithemake, which he didn’t do. The reason why he placed me on hold, was merely to gather additional information.

Eventually I was transferred to Wonder Sithemake and I had to explain the reversal of the debit order again. I was once again placed on hold, because the versions between Rodney and Farooq were different to my version. I fail to comprehend that a reversal of a debit order can cause confusion, but none the less, I stayed on the line.

After the three team members consulted, it was agreed that the reversal would be captured, because suddenly the reversal of the questionable debit order was possible……

After consultation between Wonder and Farooq, it was confirmed that Farooq would capture the request to the Admin team to investigate the company who lodged the debit order. During this whole debate, I kept on saying that I expect Absa to refund the cellphone costs by way of loading airtime on my phone. After all, if the matter was resolved the first time around when I contacted Absa, the call of today would not be necessary. In all fairness, I did not expect that Absa must recharge my airtime with an unreasonable amount, but by the end of the call, I expected them to recharge my airtime with R 40.00.

Amazingly, they were willing to place me on hold several times to validate their stories, yet was not amendable to contribute towards the airtime spend to resolve the query.

I understand that Service Centre’s have a role to play and that a client must contact them to get a matter resolved. However, I view the respectful opinion that it is unreasonable to expect that a client must stay on the line for 49 minutes and 42 seconds in order for Absa to reverse a debit order. Surprisingly enough, Absa mastered the excuse strategy masterfully and provided all the excuses why they are not prepared to contribute R 40.00 towards my cellphone airtime. I’ve contact them on the following dates and spend the time on the phone to get 2 x suspicious debit orders reversed.

9 July 2020 at 16h55 – Total call time 15 minutes and 13 seconds.

10 July 2020 at 8h30 – Total call time 2 minutes and 27 seconds

10 July 2020 at 8h32 – Total call time 1 minutes and 49 seconds

10 July 2020 at 8h34 – Total call time 3 minutes and 34 seconds

10 July 2020 at 8h39 – Total call time 32 seconds

10 July 2020 at 8h39 – Total call time 49 minutes and 42 seconds

I would like to challenge Absa to actually go and listen to the calls, specifically the last call and then justify why they honestly believe that it is fair business practice and treating clients fairly.

In summary

I called to get 2 debit orders reversed and on the 9th July, they could only reverse the one debit order. When I picked up on the 10th July that the query was merely closed by Absa, I called again thinking that they’ve neglected the second debit order based on the fact that the amounts was the same.

The call on 10 July took close to 50 minutes wherein Absa collaborated internally on what transpired the previous day, before the debit order was reversed.

For the following reasons, I believe that Absa should load R 40.00 airtime on my phone:

• time spend on the phone to get the debit order reversed,

• placing me on hold unnecessarily to discuss the matter internally between the three colleagues,

• dragging out the call,

As stated supra, I view the opinion that Absa did not adhere to fair business practice nor to any treat clients fairly protocol, they should at minimum contribute R 40.00 towards my airtime. We are all going through tough times and to struggle for almost 50 minutes to get a debit order reversed is unheard of.