FNB does not bother with resolving "high priority" complaints.

On the 7th of April 2021, I lodged a complaint regarding my private clients account that was still open, in arrears and listen on my name as a loan, even though I asked for the account to be closed in the Sandton City Branch, back in 2019 already.

I was contacted by a lady who claimed to be from the complaints resolutions team, who portrayed herself as someone having my best interest at heart and who would strive to resolve my complaint as soon as possible. I found it very unprofessional that she kept addressing me as "the customer" instead of using my name or my surname to address me. To me, it felt like she was reading off a script and she was not replacing the "the customer" part with my name. Well done FNB, what a poor image you manage to paint of yourself with the staff in your complaints team.

Furthermore, someone else then contacted me shortly after, on 12 April 2021. This person, Martha emailed me statements of my account, which is not addressing my complaint. Had my account been closed as I have asked, these charges would not have been put on my account in the first place. I promptly responded to the email stating my dissatisfaction and yet again, FNB paints themselves an even poorer picture by not responding to me, ever again.

About a month later, I get a call from a debt collector on behalf of FNB for the money I apparently owe, even though FNB has not even bothered trying to resolve the issue with me. After all, I was the one who had to make the effort of attempting to resolve the issue. Now, FNB gives my details to a third party company to collect on behalf of them, even though I have made contact for you to fix your wrong doings. Tell me exactly how legal that is please?

You can tell in the tone of this email that I am quite calm about everything. It is just under 3 months since FNB bothered responding to my complaint. The period of me being able to escalate the complaint to The Ombudsman for Banking Services has already passed and I am still in my time scope to escalate the complaint to them.

I am given you until end of business tomorrow to sort the account out, close the account and compensate me for the way you have treated me. And please only communicate via email. Your calls are apparently not recorded and I would like everything on record.

Thanks