Hellopeter
Share Your Experience
TI
TT I

1 reviews | Active since Nov 2019

15 Jan 2021, 18:08

Worst service ever!

Absa continues to send my confidential banking information to the wrong number, even after I updated my cellphone and brought this matter to their attention multiple times. Still, they refuse to take accountability for their mess-up. Two weeks ago, I visited my branch to update my cellphone number for online banking and all my notifications, which the consultant assured me was actioned. Yet 2 weeks and countless emails later, Absa still hasn't effected this change and continue to compromise my accounts and expose me to the risk of ***** by sending my personal information to the wrong number. They even had the gall to phone this number and divulge my personal information to whoever was on the other end of the line. This is incompetence at its finest. Absa has no idea whatsoever how to deal with customers' queries. They claim to be a "custom-centric" brand, yet it is clear that they are employee-centric. They do the bare minimum to address customers' queries, more often than not evading them, and lack the initiative to go the extra mile for the customer, instead severely inconveniencing us. I have been given the run-around and been pushed from pillar to post for the last 2 weeks. Why did I waste my time and money and risk my by traveling to the branch in the middle of the second Covid-19 wave and amid surging case numbers if the consultant never did what I requested? When I brought this to their attention, I received an arrogant, tone-deaf email from Basani Hlungwane, Yadhir Baijnath and Lindiwe Mhlongo demanding that I return to the branch so the consultant can do the job she was supposed to have done right the first time. Absa is showing complete disregard for its customers' lives by recklessly driving us to its branches in the middle of a global pandemic. This situation could have easily been avoidable if Absa staff were in the least bit efficient and competent. Now they expect me to pay for the mess they created by demanding that I go to the bank AGAIN to sort out what should have been done 2 weeks ago. Absolutely not! Instead, I will be transferring my accounts to a bank that values its customers and knows how to do its job properly. Think twice before joining Absa - the reviews speak volumes about the abysmal brand and its horrible service delivery. It's no wonder they continue losing customers.

0
Replies (2)
Absa
Absa's reply18 Jan 2021, 13:00
Official
Hi  Trish , 
My name is Daphne Le Grange. I will facilitate the resolution process for you. Your complaint reference number is C-***1.  Feedback will be provided before end of day 21/01/21 . Please feel free to contact me on ***. Alternatively, you can reach me on *** if you are unable to get hold of me on the number provided 
TI
TT I's update18 Jan 2021, 19:48
Reviewer Update
Daphne Le Grange, by "facilitate the resolution process", did you mean "de-escalate your complaint to the same inept person who did an abysmal job of handling it before"? Instead of taking the initiative to resolve it like you should have, you took a short-cut and referred this matter back to Basani Hlungwane, who continues to send me ********, copy-paste responses without recognising the profound mess your staff have created at my expense, and the fundamental fact that I am right and Absa is wrong in this case. She continues to demand that I return to the branch in order for the consultant to do what I requested the first time - will Absa be compensating me for the cost of travelling back to the branch to give the consultant an undeserved "second chance"? Basani Hlungwane needs to be fired. She is the most ********, *********** person I have ever come across, not conducting proper investigations into my complaint, yet she has the gall to insist, with such arrogance, that I did not have my card present on my visit to the branch, a completely baseless claim and a convenient excuse for why the consultant didn't do her job. However, in the same breath, Basani admits that she doesn't have knowledge of what transpired on that visit. Ignorance at its finest! I wonder what I handed over to the consultant when she requested my card if I supposedly didn't have it present. This is the epitome of employee centricity, the complete antithesis of the "customer centricity" Absa purports to uphold. All Absa is good for is covering up the sh**ty jobs their staff does. Basani is absolutely useless at her job. I will be sending a lengthy email to her superiors informing them in detail of my awful experience with her, her inability to do her job and her atrocious customer interaction skills. As far as I am concerned, this case is unresolved. I will be sure to document my experience across all social media platforms and on my widely-read Finance blog, informing my thousands of followers of the awful brand that is Absa and encouraging them to bank elsewhere. Furthermore, I will be getting my attorney involved to handle this matter and Basani's false claim that I did not have my card present at the time. Any further communications from Basani will be treated as harassment. Finally, I will be terminating all my accounts and switching to another bank. Do not bother contacting me.