CTM Brackenfell financial admin nightmare.

On 15 November 2025 I purchased building materials at CTM Brackenfell and paid with my debit card. The transaction showed as successful on my banking app and the full amount was immediately placed on hold / pre-authorised. However, both CTM card machines timed out and displayed “Declined”. The till operator told me the payment did not go through and I left the store under the impression that no money had been taken and I would EFT the amount later that day. Eleven (11) days later, on 26 November 2025, the money is still on hold in my bank account and CTM has not received the payment either. This means the funds are effectively frozen and unavailable to me. My bank said that the Vendor is responsible for releasing the funds. I have an urgent building project starting on 15 December 2025 and now cannot pay CTM (or anyone else) because my money is stuck in limbo due to CTM’s failed card transaction. Since the 15th I have phoned CTM Brackenfell multiple times, escalated to Italtile (the parent company), and still:

No one can tell me where the authorisation hold is sitting No one has reversed or released the hold No one from Italtile customer care has bothered to phone or email me back I am being ignored and treated as if this is my problem

This is now the second week that thousands of rands of my money is unavailable because of a card machine failure on CTM’s side and apparent complete incompetence in resolving authorisation holds. Questions to CTM / Italtile:

Is it normal practice to leave customers’ money on hold for weeks when your card machine times out? Why has no one taken ownership and simply contacted the acquiring bank to release the authorisation? Why does Italtile’s “customer care” promise callbacks and then go silent?

I am beyond frustrated. I simply want the hold released immediately so I can EFT CTM the correct amount and collect my urgently needed materials. I expect an urgent response and resolution within 24 hours, failing which I will escalate this to the Ombudsman for Banking Services, the National Consumer Commission, and every relevant social media platform. This level of service (or lack thereof) from a large group like Italtile/CTM is unacceptable. Name: Nico Walters Contact number: *** Email: ni******* Store: CTM Brackenfell Date of incident: 15 November 2025 Amount on hold: provided in email to sale, customer care and the Brackenfell branch. Looking forward to someone finally taking this seriously.

P.S. I got hold of one of the CTM employees, his deadline to just give me an answer was 12h00 on 26/11/25. I do no like complaining on media of any type, but this gets results.