Uncleared release of holds and ridiculous charges

I am so disappointed with the level of service I received from ABSA today. After over 3 weeks, there is an amount pending of R37780 on my account which was a pre-authorisation from the hotel. Upon checkout, I paid the exact amount owed to the hotel and they confirmed that my bill was in order and that the pre-authorisation hold was released from their side. Only to find that it is my bank that has not released the funds back into my account. It took me almost 40 minutes on a call to the call centre, plus I had to send an email to authorisations to prove that I paid the hotel. Strangely, I paid the hotel with the same card and the amount paid to the hotel clearly reflects. I was then charged over R800 by ABSA for using my card to pay the hotel. My corporate AMEX card does not charge me at that rate. The only explanation ABSA could offer was that they have revised their charges for all international and online payments. What is the point of having an ABSA card if it offers less benefits. I guess it is time to start exploring other banks that offer better services at a fraction of the cost.