BS
Bhekisisa S

1 reviews | Active since Feb 2017

02 Jun 2025, 10:32

Extremely frustrating customer service encounter

Around the 20th of May 2025 - I received a call from an African Bank consultant; I had previously requested a call back so that I could make a payment arrangement to increase the debit order. An arrangement was concluded for a new debit order amount to be debited from the following month 25 June 2025. On 23 May 2025 African Bank debited my account two times, the amount that amount that was being debited in the previous months as well as the amount that was supposed to be debited on the 25th of June 2025. I called the African Bank call center, and I must emphasize when the consultants answer these calls they mumble when giving their names so that the client cannot hear their names - so in my interactions with most of the consultants, I had to ask the consultants to confirm their names. On 24th I called and spoke to Nonhlanhla who is a retention consultant - I informed her I was calling to reverse the extra debit order that was debited which was supposed to be debited on 25 June and NOT 25 May 2025. I then asked Nonhlanhla to further increase the amount to be debited on the 25th of June as I needed to catch up with the arrears after I reviewed my monthly budget. Nonhlanhla did that and transferred the call to the customer center - I then spoke to another consultant who informed me that I must wait until the 28th of May until the amount incorrectly debited is cleared. Between the 28th of May 2025 until today 02 June 2025, I have been calling and speaking to different consultants, Matshepo, Thulile, Mbali, Tintswali, Akhona, Rethabile, Yolisa "Who dropped while I was still speaking" and Nari "Who put me on hold and then dropped" With exception to Mbali who seemed eager to assist and gave a reference number, none of the rest bothered to provide me with the call reference numbers - I am assuming they know how poor their administration processes are and did not want to be identified or associated with such bad service. Consultants will just tell me they are escalating, and I should wait for feedback. Today 02 June 2025 I spoke to Yolisa retention consultant, I told her due to their mistake I had to now borrow money from somewhere else and I will not be able to keep my promise for the 25th June 2025 and asked that she reduce the amount to be debited on the 25th of June 2025, she said I will receive an sms, it was 8:30 in the morning when I called and I still have not received an sms - while I was still speaking to her she did not wait to hear me she just transferred a call to customer service and I was speaking to Nari, she said she will escalate and also stated that there is a note on the system that was placed today regarding bank details being updated and bank statement received "I sent the statement on Wednesday the 28th of May 2025" - I asked to speak to a Manager, Nari asked if I can hold while calling a teamleader/supervisor - then I was holding for about a minute and a call was dropped - no one called me back. Today, I called African Bank again and spoke to Daniel, a retention consultant, at 9:48 AM. I asked him whether Yolisa had made a note on the system regarding the new payment arrangement. Daniel confirmed that the system reflected the wrong (original) amount instead of the reduced amount we had agreed upon. I explained that this was incorrect and asked Daniel to update the system with the reduced amount. Daniel said he was unable to make the change himself but would send a request to another consultant to do so. When I asked how I would be informed once the change was made, Daniel said I would receive an SMS notification. However, when I asked about the expected turnaround time, he admitted that he did not know. I asked Daniel for a call reference number, but he said they do not provide call reference numbers. I then requested to speak to a manager. Daniel asked me to hold but shortly afterward, the call was dropped, and I have not received any follow-up. I called again and spoke to Tsweni, who informed me that calls are recorded after verification. I told him I had spoken to Daniel earlier and that the call was dropped, so I was checking if Daniel had managed to carry out my request. I asked if Daniel had at least left a note on the system that might indicate what we had discussed. Tsweni confirmed there was a note about an arrangement but said he didn’t know the details. I then asked if he could put me through to a manager, but he said he was unable to help with that. Feeling defeated and frustrated, I have stopped calling African Bank.

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Replies (2)
African Bank
African Bank's reply02 Jun 2025, 12:17
Official
Thanks for speaking up and calling us out. We're giving your concern our full attention and we'll get back to you shortly.

Talk to you soon.

Your African Bank Support Specialist team
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African Bank
African Bank's reply02 Jun 2025, 17:22
Official
Thanks for giving us a chance to make things right. We've sent you our reply and we're happy that we can move on from this matter together. I can confirm that the refund has be done and the debit order has been amended to the amount debited in May as per the request. Please do call us again in July for a new payment arrangement.

If you need anything else, we're only a phone call away.

Your African Bank Support Specialist team
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