FNB - No service from Private Bankers!

Beware before joining FNB!!! What lovely marketing and empty promises but they employ staff that are either *********** or do not care. Its a pity really because on the outside FNB looks like THE bank to be with. I have never experienced such bad service from any service provider in my life!

In March of this year I reported my private banker, Michelle Coetzee to her manager, Kabelo Kekana. I had written a lengthy e-mail to him with my complaints which were accompanied by dates of events that unfolded. Having had little to no service since April 2020 from Michelle my e-mail highlighted the amount of correspondence sent from myself to Michelle Coetzee and her correspondence back to me. In short, I had requests to change my address on my statement, change my debit order dates and I had app**** for further lending on my bond in October 2020. What we know now is that she did not even process this at all, she chose to lie to me and kept saying she is awaiting on an answer or that she was away in Ermelo or that she was in meeting after meeting. There was always an excuse. After 5 months of this back and forth I accused her of lying to me and that I was going to escalate the matter she told me that she hasn't attended to this yet because she is in such dire financial straights that she has to ask her parents for money. I ask you, what has this got to do with my banking requests? The back and forth had been going on for months on end. It makes me sick that someone like this is entrusted with peoples finances!

In March Kabelo Kekana heard my story, was shocked and apologized and took over my profile temporarily and said he would allocate a new Private Banker to me (I am still awaiting to hear who this is, 9 months later). In the meantime he ran with my application which was subsequently declined due to my since lowered 'covid' salary not meeting the requirements. Take into account my first application was 5 months prior and would probably have qualified if Michelle had bothered to do her work. Fast forward to October 2021 whereby I am now earning triple the amount I earned in March thanks to a second income I reached out to Kabelo and asked him if its too soon to apply for the further loan again, he said its not to soon. I asked him to send me the necessary paper work. 2 days later I asked him for the paperwork again, he the rep**** and said Bernice Ryan would be running with it. Bernice sent me the application on the 28th October. I sent it back on the 31st October. Bernice rep**** on the 2nd November and said she had submitted the application. Bernice mailed me on the 3rd November to let me know Kabelo will be handling it from here on out. On the 9th November I asked Kabelo if he had an outcome yet. On the 10th November Kabelo let me know Cornel Oberholzer will be attending to the application. I called on the 11th November but Kabelo did not answer, instead he sent a whatsapp which reads 'Afternoon Yvette. Cornel is very thorough and you should expect the feedback by tomorrow COB as discussed.' On the 15th November I whatsapped Kabelo that I had not yet heard from Cornel or anyone. No reply. On the 19th November Cornel finally called me. She jumped straight into my finances and said that based on my basic salary I would not qualify. I asked her why she is not looking at the commission amounts to which she rep**** 'I cannot see your commission amounts as the application I received is blank!' At this point it is now clear to me that since my application was sent on the 31st October no one has even looked at it. I e-mailed the application to Cornel whilst she was on the phone with me to make sure she received it. She noted my commission was high but was not sure if we could use it as a part of it was only for the last 2 months. I said to her that I was told by Kabelo that it was not too early to proceed again and that I expect them to use the new commission and was willing to provide a forecast for the upcoming commissions. She said she was going to process the application. She called me on the 23rd November to say she was meeting with the finance department that afternoon regarding my application. On the 24th I asked her for feedback on her meeting with Finance. She said finance had said she can put the application forward as is with a detailed motivation. So at this point my application hasn't even been processed. I sent Cornel a whatsapp expressing my unhappiness with the entire situation and that even though I know its not her fault as she was brought in late, I was going to write this review on Hello Peter and take my case to the Banking Ombudsman and that I was going to mention names. She then called me and said that she thinks its very unfair of me to want to report this now and use her name in my complaint as she is trying to help. She said she had sent my message to Kabelo and that they are still proceeding with my application.

On the 25th November Kabelo sent me a whatsapp to say that he touched base with Cornel and that he believes she has given me feedback on the deal. He said my application is being processed and that we should have feedback in 2 to 3 days. On the 29th Kabelo whatsapped me to say he expects feedback on this day or the next (30 November). As there was no feedback received I sent him a whatsapp message to let him know I hadn't received feedback. He did not reply. I then sent him a message last night asking him if this is normal to not reply to clients and let him know that the service from FNB is shocking! Surprise surprise he hasn't even responded to that.

No one is taking responsibility for my banking needs even after the terrible service I received from Michelle initially, nobody cares. My next letter is to the Ombudsman.

Please think twice before using FNB!