Loyalty goes both ways

<p>31/05/2017 <br />I have been a loyal ABSA client for 29 years. My business has had its prosperous times and some not so prosperous. I pay around R700 per month in bank charges. Today I called the bank and asked to speak to someone that could assist me with ensuring that my debit orders were not reversed. This after I went into the bank to customer services the day before and was told that I must phone. I was told that the person that needed to assist me was unavailable as he was dealing with a client. He would call me back. He didnt. Eventually after calling all day I went through to him & was told that he couldn't assist me and that he had been busy all day. I have enough money in the account to cover my debit orders, but the bank charges, would go through at the same time and would tip me over the edge and my debit orders would bounce. I needed them to not reverse them for just 24 hours as money was coming in from an FNB account and had not yet reflected. The person gave me a number for someone that could assist in this regard, but on calling it, it did not exist. I called back (now 4pm and bank employees would be leaving soon) and was told that he was on the line to a client and they would need to take another message. I insisted on being assisted and also explained that I now had a baby in my care for the afternoon and couldn't hold for ages but that if I wasn't assisted right away (on the 1st of the month) my debit orders would bounce. Someone answered and said they were the switchboard operator and insisted that no-one else could help me but the person I'd waited all day for, even though this was one of the larger branches (Rosebank) . She then slammed the phone down on me and I called back with the baby now crying. The person that answered said that she was the switchboard operator and that she had not done that. She eventually put me through after much insistence and I was given a cell phone number to call which was never answered. I called the complaint line. They kept me waiting for over 7 minutes, baby crying harder, and then returned and said that the person that I needed to speak to was unavailable and that they would keep trying. I asked for a name and reference for the call and was told that I would be smsed the reference. Needless to say no sms ever came through.</p>