Abused, Mistreated and Ignored

<p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I am in the UK at the moment. I needed to pay for a very important item of equipment for a client who had a stand at an exhibition in Europe. No problem, I can just pay with the company card.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I try&nbsp;to make the payment but&nbsp;the payment will not go through. The supplier tells me that the card is being blocked.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I&nbsp;try calling FNB. &nbsp;I start with business banking. I need to know why my payment is not getting through. For almost 45 minutes I get passed from department to department and every time I get transferred I have to listen to numerous options and wait for the one that is applicable to me. Several times I get cut off and have to start right from the beginning again.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>All I wanted to do was speak to business banking and/or card division to find out why the payment didn't go through. There was enough money in the account. This issue went on and on and on. Nobody at FNB could put me through to the place that could help me.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Eventually I had to borrow money from my UK company to pay the supplier because it was critical to pay for this item of equipment for it to be shipped to Europe in time for the exhibition.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Eventually, in a call that I made later that day or the next morning, &nbsp;I discover that all I needed to do was increase the &nbsp;international monthly payment limit on my card. I had increased it on the daily payment limit, I simply didn't see that there was the second option for the monthly payment limit. If FNB had just given me that very easy little tip it could have been solved in five minutes. But instead I had to go through enormous stress. I also had to use money from my UK company which is of course a bookkeeping headache and I of course lose money when transferring cash from my South African account to my UK account to repay my UK company.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>So I sent an email to ********** I voice my displeasure and ask that they help me out by transferring the money from my FNB account to my Lloyds account in the UK and do not charge me for the international transfer fees.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>It takes them a few days to answer the email where they say they will get back to me as soon as possible. Many more days go by until I get a phone call from someone asking if they can help me to make the &nbsp;international payment. What!? They clearly had not read my very detailed complaint in my email. &nbsp;My email explained that firstly no one could put me through to the right department, which put me through enormous stress and that I had already done the payment and that finally I was asking FNB to compensate me the cost of transferring money from South Africa to the UK to pay back my UK company.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>It was written in the email in black-and-white.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I told the FNB person that called me to read my complaint again and come back to me. Many days go by and I get another call asking if I still need help to make that international payment. Seriously! The same faulty offer of assistance! Again, clearly had not read my complaint and what I was asking for.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>During the various back-and-forth emails I was repeatedly told that my issue was being "escalated" so that it would get urgent attention.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Today I get an email saying that they can't help me with a foreign-exchange payment compensation because there will be a foreign exchange fee and that they "trust I will find this in order."</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The initial frustration of &nbsp;sitting on the phone for hours trying to sort out why payment was being blocked followed by the extreme frustration of people emailing me and phoning me without offering the help that I needed because they had clearly not read my complaint followed by waiting days and days for these emails and phone calls followed by this email&nbsp;today simply telling me that they can't help me is unbelievable.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>How about FNB refunding me for that forex charge after the charge has been incurred? Or something similar. FNB have not made any effort to try and compensate me in any way for the immense stress and hassle that they put me under.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>