FNB

I have been experiencing an issue with my Gold Business account since March in which I don't receive OTPs for online payments. This is a business account and so I need these OTPs for placing stock orders. I first started experiencing this issue in March and would then go onto my app and use the secure chat to report the issue; for a month or two this would temporarily rectify the issue but it was still recurring.

Eventually secure chat somehow started telling me that it was out of their scope??? Strange considering it was in their scope before and as such I was without OTPs for some months and I started efting instead; however last week our efts weren't working either and so I went into the bank to resolve both these issues.

When we opened the business account I was elected as the authorized online representative; in essence giving me the power to act independently of my fellow directors when dealing with the bank. This is a big responsibility and as such you are required to sign legal mandates authorizing such a role; we all did so and authorized myself as such. It thus took me by shock when I went in and found out that they had authorized my business partner and not me???? Even after checking the mandates on the system showing that I was the authorized representative they were still unable to rectify or resolve my issue without my partner...

Just to pause there for a second to better explain the gravity of this "little mix up"; we chose me as the representative not only because I am the financial director but also because I am the one who is trusted to act independently. Should my partner have gone rogue they have now incorrectly authorized him to clean out our bank accounts?? Not out of the question considering our other business partner did go rogue in January. This is why we must sign mandates and other legal documents??? So now how even if you have the mandate in front of you are you telling me that I am not authorized?? Absolute disregard for security....

I must then go back to get my business partner so that we can now change me to the authorized representative. This takes an hour or so before we can now tackle the original issue at hand again of not being able to eft or get OTPs; they make me re-create an online banking profile and confirm my numbers at the atm.

This was all great for about a day or 2, but then eventually one site wasn't sending OTPs, then another and now today I couldn't get OTPs from any sites whatsoever. This is actually a necessity at this stage because my one supplier has different pricing for online orders and email orders and I can only purchase online via instanteft or peach payments; both of which are not working without OTPs. It is frustrating because my business partners are getting OTPs or the option to authorize on the app???

I have now spent 2 hours today going into the bank again to rectify this issue; my 3rd visit in 2 weeks. First the guy at the door tells me "this is a common issue and you must deal with it"; I then throw up a fuss and am given a ticket to see a consultant. I wait for about an hour and get in front of a sweet lady who tells me that she is completely unable to assist. Shame she really did try but nonetheless was unable to assist in the slightest and tells me I need to phone online banking. I must now go back to my offices and phone online banking.

I call them and they transfer me 3 times until eventually I am put on hold for 17 minutes. I have already now wasted 3 hours today and so this brings me here... 7 months later, still the same issue and I have made not a single step of progress. I need to get OTPs for online payments, how can one have a business bank account in which we are charged ridiculous "service fees" but have no access to any services??? It is non-negotiable I need to get OTPs and it needs to be a permanent solution!