HK
Hillview K

1 reviews | Active since Jun 2019

05 Jun 2019, 12:41

money being held hostage at ABSA Forex

A foreigner purchase tiles for his house which is being re-built in SA. For info, the quotation was sent to the foreigner from the SA company supplying tiles, with the details of the foreigner, his business, full address, the SA company also provided their full banking details, address. The money is being held by ABSA because the foreigner did not write in the international transfer Artmar Natural Stone Tiles cc, the foreigner did online banking for the payment, and wrote Artmar. The payment was sent to the bank account of the ABSA client Artmar, with the full address of the company, no errors in the bank account, just that 3 words were missing apparently and the money is not transferred to the company in South Africa. ...Natural Stone Tiles cc missing ??? This is a company that has an account with the bank, so its not an unknown entity! The quotation number was mentioned on the international transfer, and the amount paid correspond exactly to the amount on the quotation sent. What is this ridiculous hold up on the payment? The original quotation, a letter from the Foreigner explaining that the payment is for Artmar, the international transfer letter of the funds was sent to Forex email to facilitate the release of the money. Why not pay the supplier? Date of international transfer: 28/5/2019 today is the 5 of June 2019 8 days I have no news at all after sending several emails to FOREX at ABSA, nice going facilitating local business payments with foreign money, its a Disaster.

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Replies (2)
Absa
Absa's reply05 Jun 2019, 15:16
Official
 Dear Client,
  
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention, however we have no details to log an incident. Please provide a contact number (send privately)  in order for me to discuss your concern. 
 

Regards
Vanessa Crowe
Specialist case Manager 
Customer Value Management

 
HK
Hillview K's update05 Jun 2019, 15:27
Reviewer Update
Your client Artmar had to escalate it within ABSA, finally a consultant at the client`s branch managed to clear this payment pending since 8 days, once again the reality is its always a fight to get business done in SA. But, nothing can be done by you personally. The ultimate solution is banks facilitate business transactions with swift flow of capital from abroad to help business in South Africa, and loose the excessive red tape verification, and unacceptable delays, specifically when there is no reason whatsoever to delay a payment to a local supplier.