Capitec is the worst bank!

My money was taken from my Capitec bank account on the 28th of October, 2024, and the reference said SARS. I called the bank to enquire, and they said yes, they received an instruction from SARS to take the money from my account. A few weeks went by, and the money was not reflected on my SARS Statement of Account (SOA), so I called the bank again. I found the guy called Kutloano, who assured me that the money was indeed taken by SARS. He emailed me the letter from SARS. So I called SARS, and they still could not see the money on their side. I set up an appointment to visit a SARS branch. When I got to the branch, the consultant discovered that Capitec took my money using someone else's tax reference number, so the money might have been allocated to someone else. And I need to go sort it out with my bank.

I called Capitec again, and they said they could not be involved in my tax matters with SARS and that I should take care of it myself. After a lot of back and forth, I was able to open a ***** case with the bank. On the 13th of December 2024, the bank credited the money into my account using the wrong tax number and took it again immediately using my tax number. No one contacted me to tell me the outcomes of my ***** case, I just saw the transactions in the App.

To this day, the money is not with SARS. I went to the extent of opening a request for reallocation case with SARS and attached the letter I got from Kutloano from Capitec and the Capitec bank statement showing the transactions. Again, SARS did not contact me to give me the outcome of the case, I had to call the call centre and ask about it and the response I got is that "SARS has contacted the bank and has confirmed that the money is still with the bank".

I called Capitec Help Desk, and they told me they couldn't help and that I must email the complaints department. I sent a WhatsApp message to the ***** department, and they said it is not ***** and that I must email the service recovery department. I emailed service recovery on the 19th of February, 2025, and I did not receive any response. I also emailed the complaints department on the 21st of Feb 2025. I received a response from Scott Lamb on the 25th of February, 2025, and the email had a case number but was addressed to someone else, not me. I rep**** and asked if the email was meant for me or someone else, but there was no response.

Last week Friday, 28 Feb 2025, I visited a Capitec branch, the consultant by the name Ms Tebogo received me and tried her best to assist me. She went as far as trying to call Scott Lamb on Teams without any luck. She showed me that he was online but did not answer, she tried to send chats to him but he did not respond. Ms Tebogo has been trying to reach Scott and has tried to update me through phone calls, and I really appreciate that.

So yesterday, 5 March 2025, I received my payslip and realised that SARS had garnished me, including the money that was taken from Capitec. I decided to print my SOA and payslip and take it to the Capitec branch so that they can see that there is no money paid in by Capitec from my account. Ms Tebogo called Customer service and tried again to call Scott, and this time, he answered. Ms Tebogo had to explain the case to him, which showed me that Scott did nothing to investigate my case.

His answer was that he tried to call me on the 20th of December 2024 three times, but he did not find me and closed the case. I opened the complaint case now in February, but he is saying he called me in December. How? I don't know because he declined to talk to me. The branch manager has escalated the case to the regional manager, I was hoping they would contact me today, but nothing.

I am so frustrated, I am being ignored by the people who took my money and they cannot tell me where it is. They just say there was an instruction from SARS. I want the bank to pay back my money, they have failed me as their client, I will escalate this matter to the Bank Ombudsman and open a police case if I do not get my money back soon.

I have been trying to get help and answers since last year in October, and to this day, no one except Ms Tebogo is willing to help. I am so frustrated and very angry at Capitec.

NVN