How to get rid of your loyal customers.

ABSA is a word we use now for complete and utter disbelief in inefficiency. We have been customers since 1978 of this bank. We presently have four accounts with the bank including our Trust account and this Trust account resulted in each of our children and grandchildren also having accounts with this bank. This includes then getting house mortgages and the like through ABSA. I think it is fair to say we have been loyal clients and brought in substantial amounts to the bank despite problems with opening our trust accounts, being forced into mortgage insurance and having fees put on our savings account. We have stayed loyal throughout the years we have been there.

However, the breaking point has been reached with the credit card saga.

The complaint we asked them to fix. We had a Virgin credit card that was de-activated on the 11th March 2021, a circumstance I found out when shopping at a local store. This caused much embarrassment and problems. At this point, I received a phone call saying my virgin card was discontinued. My husband checked with the hotline and confirmed it was discontinued.

We were rather annoyed and reported this to *** as the card was only to be discontinued on 31 March 2021. The service consultant. Yolande Viljoen who is the Specialist Case Manager: CEO & Exco Complaints, was put in charge of our case. This is what we received back.

We have listened to the call recording and it would appear that there was a misunderstanding between the agent and your husband. He mentioned that you received an sms notifying you that the virgin card is being discontinued and the agent explained to him that the cards will no longer be in South Africa, and you can apply for any other product. He confirmed that his card is still working and asked if your card can be activated, she without checking said it is not possible as some cards stopped working in December and others will stop working end of March and we cannot change that. The call was then completed.

So obviously the de-activation of my card and the resulting embarrassment was my fault!

But it did not stop there.

Now we had sent emails on the 11th March 2021 about a new credit card to premium card at ABSA, and this had been followed up by my husband, with the following questions: • Is the monthly charge of R62 /92 per account or per card? • Do we have to take a credit facility? • Bidvest visits are they per account a spend of R5000 or the premium cardholder? • Are there further transaction fees other than the monthly fee, for purchases? • Do petrol purchases carry a fee? • Buyers Protection theft, accidental damage or non-delivery of eligible purchases have a time limit on the items?

Apparently, we are not deemed worthy of any response. Again we spoke to Yolande Viljoen who is the Specialist Case Manager: CEO & Exco Complaints, and she promised me they would contact me on the 1st April 2021, about the new card. Well in honesty I assumed it was 2021 because we have had no contact at all.

Guess the only thing left to do is to start removing all accounts from ABSA and redirecting the debit orders.