Mercantile Bank in Menlyn(Pretoria): treatment of two elderly clients.

After my parents being plus-minus 20 years, clients of Mercantile bank(bought out by Capitec)it is with sadness that I have to write a bad review due to the manner in which my parents were treated by some of their staff in Menlyn. Irrespective of Mercantile becoming a business bank and my parents being elderly, it would be appreciated that they be treated with patience, dignity and respect. Mercantile bank has let it be known that they do not want any clients on their premises, thus confirmed when one of their employees from Mercantile bank,Menlyn, told me on Tuesday, 9th June 2021, on the phone. According to her it would be the last time that she would help my parents at the bank on that specific day i.e. 9th June. This is due to the fact that they(Mercantile)insisted that all their clients get ATM cards and use their banking app (according to the information that was provided to both my parents and I).

This resulted in my parents getting ATM cards that they probably will never use as they are afraid of being ****med and myself, their daughter, downloading the Mercantile Bank app (which is not user friendly) in order to make their payments and to transfer my dad’s pension into my account so that I can withdraw it with my own ATM card(from another banking institution) in order to avoid them paying ATM withdrawal costs. As I ran into a problem when using the banking app, I phoned the bank on Friday, 4 June, and asked to speak to a specific employee as she always seemed keen on helping. I’m still waiting for that return call. I eventually emailed hoping to get specific instructions on how to use the app as I had run into a problem whilst using it. I was told to phone Customer care to obtain help. I live quite far from my parents so that would be out of the question. From previous experience they ask my parents security questions before allowing me to help them. So I literally have to phone customer care in my parents’ presence.

To the two employees that made my parents feel insignificant on Tuesday, 9 June. You had a computer in front of you, so why could you not help them with their problem. To the employee who spoke rudely to my mother as she was tapping the pen on her desk - before reprimanding her for doing that, maybe you should’ve asked her why she was doing that. In actual fact she wasn’t even aware that her hand was shaking so much from being so nervous due to how both her and my dad were being treated (they waited for over an hour to be helped). To the employee that told my parents that they didn’t need the “old people’s” money ( she quickly realised what she had said and rectified it to “ pensioners - too late, your words were out) as you are now a business bank and the bank wasn’t really worried if most of their elderly clients are taking their money from Mercantile bank and putting it elsewhere. The Portuguese community in Pretoria is small so word gets round.

I am truly disappointed at how you have treated two elderly clients that have been loyal to Mercantile Bank (has had name change in the past) for over 20 years.