Lack of basic customer care

I left SA to the US for a year. When I was that side I used their local banks. I noticed I couldn't acess my Absa online cheque account. I recently visited an Absa branch and I was told my cheque account been referred to Absa legal and can't be used anymore.

I then asked the Absa consultant for its balance. She told me it's R843.22 as at 27/08/2019. She advised me to rather round it off by paying R900 at their tellers. I did exactly that on that very same day, 27/08/2019. She also advised me to wait for 48hrs so that it reflects on their end and gets processed against my profile.

Today 30/08/2019 at 10am, I called the Absa recoveries number the consultant gave me to request a confirmation of payment. My line has not been answered after holding for almost 10 mins. I decided to leave it, and perhaps try it later.

Around 12pm 30/08/2019 I got a call from Thato calling from Vericred. Our line got cut but she had said the most. She told me Absa handed me to a collection agency on 08/06/2019. And I am called today 30/08/2019. My old inactive number on the Absa profile had been locked by Vodacom and it's not working.

Simply put, she called me on my new Telkom number that I just updated with Absa when I opened a Savings Account last month. I asked her who gave her my number if I was really handed on 08/06/2019 when I was in the US at that time and only got my new Telkom number in late July 2019 when I returned. Something doesn't add up. I am yet to read up on POPPI Act to learn about my consumer rights.

Back to my compliant, Thato from Vericred told me I owe Absa R1600 and she's calling to ask how I want to settle it. But the bank said I owed R843.22 and I paid R900 on the same day.

I touched a bit on the NCA 101: I asked her why Absa didn't send me letters of enquiry as "their client" about a cheque account that is inactive and has a balance before handing me to her company. She couldn't answer me. She even told me my Absa account is active and billing me further bank charges (for a locked account I can't even use). This is unfair.

My request from Absa is a letter showing I don't owe them anything via the email address they send me monthly statements on. I also request they confirm in writting that they have not taken my record to Credit Bereau. If they reported me, they should retract the reporting, with a letter from Experian, TransUnion, Compuscan or XDS conforming the retraction/profile update.

I also require a letter of apology for not sending me letters informing me my account has been closed for said reasons. And for not informing me how much I owe on that account first, before turning my profile to 3rd parties. In my opinion, this is a failed reasonable man test that is not expected from a Big 4 bank against their consumers.

Cc'd to this note is the Banking Ombuds Cheque Acc# ***