Contravention of POPI and failure to repay monies owed

TL:DR: *********** and lazy staff at the Credit Department. Refusal to act on instructions from a client and failure on multiple occasions by bank employees and representatives to simply close and return the balance on an account.

To whom this may concern,

On the 17th of September 2017 I closed my Cheque and ancillary Credit account with ABSA. The reason for closing my accounts was due to their generally poor service provided to me and their relatively high banking fees. I physically went to the Tygervalley branch where the consultant I spoke with assured me that he could close the accounts, but that due to the billing cycle used by the bank he would be unable to see my final balance on the credit card. He told me that I would receive a final letter of settlement from their credit department which would indicate the outstanding balance I would need to pay in order to finalize the closure of the account.

As of yet no such letter of settlement has been delivered to me by way of electronic or physical mail, even though the bank has my contact information and it is up to date. I have however received a phone call on the 28th of February from a representative of the bank’s pre-legal department threatening me with blacklisting if I did not pay the outstanding debt on my credit account, which amounted to R 206. She informed me that if I did not pay them within 48 hours they would be forced to send my account on to their legal department which would institute civil proceedings against me. Since I had no intention of not paying the debt in the first place I made the payment on the morning of the 2nd of March in their Stellenbosch branch. (This action is already unacceptable because no letter of demand had been sent previously.)

In Stellenbosch I was told that due to the fact I was making a cash payment, I would incur an additional R40 of banking costs, which I paid even though it was exorbitant. Further, due to their cumbersome and inefficient system, they would only reflect the balance 5 days after date of payment (they provided no fax or email address to send proof of payment either). Later that day at 21:00, the bank called my parents and threatened them with my blacklisting if they would not pay the R206 before 11:00 the next day (2nd of March). In contravention of POPI (the prevention of personal information act) they then shared bank account numbers, balances, statements and all other related information with my parents, without proper security checks, even though the debt had been paid, and thus not in the pursuit of legitimate good faith business. The consultant who called was condescending and rude throughout the call and would not listen to reason that the account had been paid.

The next morning, in hysterics and fearing the consequences of my blacklisting my parents paid the R 206 again. After they did this I went to the Kuilsriver branch to confront the bank about the contravention of POPI as well as to request the return the money that was paid again unnecessarily. The employees there were unable to help through no fault of their own, but, refused that I speak to a manager (since they were not there) and directed me to phone the Credit department directly. I did so in the bank and learned that the account had not been closed at Tygervalley and that the account showed a positive balance of R228.

I instructed the consulted to close the account, send me proof of closure, and pay the balance into a new bank account at another bank. They assured me they would do so and email me confirmation of the fact by latest at the end of business that day. Neither proof of closure or payment of the outstanding balance occurred.

The next Friday (9th of March) I went to the Stellenbosch Branch again and enquired about the account. I wanted proof that it was closed and that the balance had been paid back to me/ instruction to that effect had been given. The consultant there was able to provide me proof of closure of the account but showed me that no request for the repayment of the money had been made. I asked him to request it again and he phoned the Credit department to do so. The credit department once again said they would transfer the money to me within 24 to 48 hours and confirmed no previous request for transfer had been made. Once again, the transfer did not take place.

Today (16th of March) I returned to the bank and requested that the payment be made for the third time. The consultant told me that since the account was closed, the branch could not make payment, and that the Credit department had to transfer the money. That department was called once again, and once again said no previous enquiry had been made to transfer the money and assured me for the umpteenth time that the payment would be made within 24 to 48 hours. I requested proof of the transaction but they refused to give any proof of the transfer, which I assume means they will once again ignore the request.

To ABSA: I am posting this to Hello Peter in conjunction to mailing your complaints department. Feel free to contact me if you need any further information or proof of the abovementioned transactions. I expect the outstanding credit balance of R215.83 to reflect on my account by end of business on Wednesday the 21st of March (the 20th day after the issue arose), as well as a reasonable settlement offer for your contravention of POPI, failing which I will contact the ombudsman for banking services, seek civil remedies as well as ******** redress, or administrative fines in terms of the POPI act.