Poor customer service at ABSA

I purchased airline tickets online using my ABSA credit card and noticed that my available balance had reduced by twice the amount paid. The client services personnel at the Somerset Mall branch phoned the card division where an unhelpful call centre operative insisted that the fault lay with the airline. He asked to speak to the client services 'manager' who relayed this to me again, made no attempt to investigate further and dismissed me in a hostile manner. A call to the airline confirmed that no duplicate deductions were made. I returned to the branch with my husband where we spoke to a services consultant. Her attitude was more helpful but it took a lot of insistent questioning for us to establish that the missing amount was being held as 'uncleared' and that we had to contact the authorisations department to get it released. Fortunately someone at authorisations knew what they were doing and released the funds immediately with the proviso that this would not reflect on my statement or generate an SMS but only show on my available balance. This was eight days after the purchase. I am very dissatisfied with the dismissive and unhelpful attitude of the client services 'manager' and the call centre operative which caused me days of worry, stress and fruitless calls to the airline. I was polite at all times, too polite perhaps and was treated as an unimportant, elderly idiot.