COVID-19 #Real"Un"help

FNB makes a few promises to the general public. Here are some of the things they say: - "COVID-19 Payment break #RealHelp" - "Experience SA's best digital bank" - "our history has always been firmly influenced by the needs of the people we serve." - Not to mention the various customer service promises that they say they will abide by in their commitment to the Code of Banking Practice

Here's what happened to me: - On about 30 March this year, I app**** for COVID-19 - After 9 emails and numerous telephone conversations my application for relief was approved on 15 May 2020. - Yes that's right, you read that correctly. FNB took more than 45 days to approve an application for COVID-19 relief. -- The delay belies the urgent nature of COVID-19 relief. The idea is that the relief is necessary because the bank's customers are in urgent need of assistance. Not so with my application. It lay somewhere, gathering dust, whilst my family and I struggled. - After the relief was approved and I had signed the contract, I waited. Nothing happened. Another 8 emails and numerous more telephone conversations later, and still I am waiting for FNB to load the facility onto my profile (whatever that means). - Yip, that's right. My approved facility, which is contractually agreed between me and FNB, has not been granted to me 24 days after it was approved. - All in all, it means I have been waiting almost 2 months for #RealHelp.

So don't believe FNB's promises. They are empty platitudes. Not only have they failed to stand by their promises, they have gone further and failed to meet their contractual commitments.

But the worst is that they promise to "#help" those in trouble during these times when real help is desperately needed. I have been in desperate need for 2 months now - even to the extent that a debit order bounced 2 weeks AFTER the COVID-19 relief approval. I sent my banker a mail about that last a week ago. I received nothing back, not even an apology.

Well done, FNB. You should be #RealProud