Terrible Tshoanelo and devious Discovery

I noticed that there were unexpected interest charges on my latest statement, despite the account being cleared on 26 November 2023. I spoke to Tshoanelo on 14 December around 10am. Initially, I found him very condescending in pointing out that my account was not cleared and that if one does not clear one’s account within 25 days of receiving the statement, one will be charged interest. I am in business myself and well aware of this fact. The dispute is that in my recollection, my account was cleared fully within the time frame. This discussion went back and forth and I encourage you to listen to the recording of this conversation.

Only once I pointed out that there was a refund on 7 November for a car rental and the very first line of the December statement, did he seem to grasp why my payment is slightly less than the the balance of the outstanding amount. He very quickly backtracked and said that he would put me on hold for 3-5 minutes, while he is going to speak to his manager about it. During this holding period, my call was cut off on your side. I immediately phoned back, spoke to a different consultant who explained that permission need to be obtained for an outbound call and that is likely to take about 40-60 minutes. I specifically asked the time frame as I needed to be in front of my computer with the statements open to explain the complaint. I did not receive any phone call and after an hour, I phoned back. The next consultant managed to speak to Tshoanelo who said that he will return my call after 4pm in “his free time” as a curtesy. I explained that this is unacceptable and that I cannot be expected to wait all day for his phone call and explanation of a complicated matter without having my computer available, when he was going to give me feedback after a brief hold of 3-5 minutes. I do not want someone to call me back in "their free time", I want them to do their job during working time. This person then said about all the managers being in a meeting. I feel this was just said to get me off their backs, as she was able to converse with Tshoanelo and at the initial call, he did not say anything about a managers’ meeting. I am concerned that they were happy to make up stories in order NOT to help.

I finally spoke to a consultant at 1pm who was more helpful, understood the problem, saw that I did not have any money in arrears and said that she would investigate. She said it would take about 4 working days to receive feedback on the outcome. I am disappointed that it will take this long, but at least I feel that my expectations are being managed better.

I have been a client of Discovery Bank since its inception and I am appalled at the service that I received today from Tshoanelo. I have only once or twice before had to pay interest due to a mistake in transferring money into or out of the wrong account (the credit card instead of my savings account). My policy is always to clear my balance immediately as my credit score is important to me. The fact that Discovery Bank is not even willing to engage in a conversation with me about a possible mistake in charges, is appalling. It is now past 2pm and I have still not had any feedback or apology from Tshoanelo. He has a serious attitude problem.