Complaint: Shocking customer service (Lolla) @ Absa

On Monday 12 October we went to Absa in Three Rivers to unblock my mother's app on her phone so that she can make online payments as necessary.

When we tried to make a payment online on the 13th of October a ***** alert came up on the phone as we wanted to make payment.

A lady from the ***** department called when we tried to make the payment over to a beneficiary, the lady did all the necessary checks and spoke to my mother and said she will approve we can just go out and log in again. As we logged in and try to make payment, it didn't work so we called the ***** Department and spoke to Lalla and her Head of Department is Mohammed and she did all the checks and spoke to my mother again and said she cannot help us. My mother is little deaf in the one ear and tried to hear her but she answered all the relevant questions and still said she can't help us. I said we were at the bank and just wanted to make payments from her app that is already installed so that it is not necessary for her to go the bank.

We had to make a payment for work done on my parent's roof and we said we will report her to the head office.

Then I called again and spoke to another lady and I first asked to speak to Mohammed but explained everything to her again and she again asked my mother all the relevant questions, by now I was furious, struggling just getting help making a payment. Then she stayed on the line and approved while we put through the payment.

My complaint is with Lalla and because 3 different ladies had a different story on why and how to help. Security questions according to Lalla was not sufficient but to the other ladies it was and I was sitting next to my mother while she answered everything correctly.

I would really appreciate if Absa could be consistent in what they communicate and try to help elderly people in such a way that they can also manage their accounts sufficiently. In this case I assist in handling all my parents financial duties.

Regards

Marinda Strydom