1 reviews | Active since May 2023
Unable to withdraw savings
I have been unable to withdraw money from my accounts at African Bank for more than two weeks now. Note that I am not talking about loans, but about MY savings that are in accounts where I should be able to withdraw money immediately, without any waiting period.
After I noticed that I was unable to get into the banking app I went to the Tygervalley branch where I was assisted by Shigaam. This was on the 17th of April.
My understanding is that the accounts were blocked, and the only way to open it would be to get fingerprint verification from the Department of Home Affairs. I went there on the 18th and 19th of April. The official from Home Affairs issued the certificate the bank required on the 19th of April. He emailed it to Shigaam, who confirmed that he had received it and forwarded it to the personnel who had to deal with the matter further.
It has been more than 2 weeks and nothing has happened. I have done what was required from me by the bank, but I still have no access to my money.
Shigaam has been following up on my behalf and I have spoken to him about this many times but his superiors who have to deal with this matter has done nothing.
I have therefore decided to lodge a complaint with their Customer Experience department by email, which I did on the 3rd of May. The only response I have had is an automated email response informing me that a 'friendly service consultant' would contact me in order to identify and verify who I am. After more than 24 hours I have not even had that phone call, never mind having someone working to resolve my problem.
In summery, I want to withdraw money from my accounts. The accounts were locked or blocked for some reason. The bank requested that I do fingerprint verification, which I did. It has been more than 2 weeks since the bank has received the certificate from Home Affairs. It is unacceptable that I still do not have access to this money.
African Bank treats its clients with utter contempt and I cannot wait for this matter to be resolved so that I can take my money to another bank.
Doreen asked me whether the consultant at the branch informed me that the turnaround time of this issue was 21 days. The consultant did not inform me, because if this is the policy the consultants are not aware of it. I rep**** that even if it is what their turnaround time is it is completely unacceptable that a client could be unable to withdraw their money for sucn an amount of time when it is supposed to be available immediately.
She said that all I could do was to send the certificate from Home Affairs and a copy of my ID to customer documents department from my private email. I do not even have the certificate as it was sent directly from Home Affairs to African Bank! So, I had to go to the African Bank branch in Tygervalley to get the certificate that the bank already had, so I could email it back to another Department of the bank!
At Tygervalley branch Shigaam, the very capable, friendly and helpful consultant who has been trying to assist me in this matter was very surprised when he heard about this 21 day turnaround time. By that time neither he (as far as I know) nor I had any feedback from whomever was dealing with the matter, 15 work days since I first reported the problem on the 17th of April. He suggested that since I was there anyway we should just try to open my profile and try our luck. We were both very surprised when it did open and he was able to reset my profile. So at some point it was unblocked, who knows when, but neither the consultant nor the client was imformed. I quickly transferred my money to another bank, in case something went wrong again.
I am relieved that this is sorted, but I have experienced a great deal of anxiety and embarrassment because of it as I was unable to pay for goods and services on the agreed upon dates. Damage was done to my good name and reputation.
Apparently a large number of clients at African Bank are experiencing this problem, and are told to get fingerprint verification at Home Affairs. In my opinion this is not due to anything the customers did, but due to some glitch at the bank. One would have expected the bank to go out of its way to assist clients in good standing to sort this out asap. Or at the very least communicate about what is going on and what is being done to fix the problem. If I was kept in the loop I would still have been very upset, but at least I would have known what was going on.
I have always only had good service from the consultants at Tygervalley Branch of African Bank, but their superiors or whichever department was responsible for fixing my problem does not seem to share the eagerness of the consultants to give good service. The consultants have to deal with unhappy clients face to face, but in my case was unable to assist or even give feedback. They also were unaware of the 21 day turnaround time.
So, unfortunately I have a fixed deposit with the bank, which I cannot cancel as the penalty will be too high, but I have removed everything else I had from the bank.
Many people in my circle have been very sceptical of African Bank due to its past troubles, but I have always encouraged everyone I know to give the bank a chance. Clearly, I will now advise the opposite. Very disappointing.
Doreen asked me whether the consultant at the branch informed me that the turnaround time of this issue was 21 days. The consultant did not inform me, because if this is the policy the consultants are not aware of it. I rep**** that even if it is what their turnaround time is it is completely unacceptable that a client could be unable to withdraw their money for sucn an amount of time when it is supposed to be available immediately.
She said that all I could do was to send the certificate from Home Affairs and a copy of my ID to customer documents department from my private email. I do not even have the certificate as it was sent directly from Home Affairs to African Bank! So, I had to go to the African Bank branch in Tygervalley to get the certificate that the bank already had, so I could email it back to another Department of the bank!
At Tygervalley branch Shigaam, the very capable, friendly and helpful consultant who has been trying to assist me in this matter was very surprised when he heard about this 21 day turnaround time. By that time neither he (as far as I know) nor I had any feedback from whomever was dealing with the matter, 15 work days since I first reported the problem on the 17th of April. He suggested that since I was there anyway we should just try to open my profile and try our luck. We were both very surprised when it did open and he was able to reset my profile. So at some point it was unblocked, who knows when, but neither the consultant nor the client was imformed. I quickly transferred my money to another bank, in case something went wrong again.
I am relieved that this is sorted, but I have experienced a great deal of anxiety and embarrassment because of it as I was unable to pay for goods and services on the agreed upon dates. Damage was done to my good name and reputation.
Apparently a large number of clients at African Bank are experiencing this problem, and are told to get fingerprint verification at Home Affairs. In my opinion this is not due to anything the customers did, but due to some glitch at the bank. One would have expected the bank to go out of its way to assist clients in good standing to sort this out asap. Or at the very least communicate about what is going on and what is being done to fix the problem. If I was kept in the loop I would still have been very upset, but at least I would have known what was going on.
I have always only had good service from the consultants at Tygervalley Branch of African Bank, but their superiors or whichever department was responsible for fixing my problem does not seem to share the eagerness of the consultants to give good service. The consultants have to deal with unhappy clients face to face, but in my case was unable to assist or even give feedback. They also were unaware of the 21 day turnaround time.
So, unfortunately I have a fixed deposit with the bank, which I cannot cancel as the penalty will be too high, but I have removed everything else I had from the bank.
Many people in my circle have been very sceptical of African Bank due to its past troubles, but I have always encouraged everyone I know to give the bank a chance. Clearly, I will now advise the opposite. Very disappointing.