FNB Private Banking Service - Great sales pitch, no follow-through

I have been a client of FNB since the start of my professional career. My relationship with the bank was one which has evolved into a private banking client relationship, which I have maintained for the past 5 years. To date, I have been extremely dissatisfied with the service offered by FNB, which has ultimately culminated in this review. To illustrate but a few of my experiences:

1. During the purchase of my first home, I reached out to both the FNB banking suite and my personal private banker in order to process my home loan application. After completing my OTP with the property broker and seller, which was sent together with the complete set of documents to my banker, I had not even garnered a response from my "dedicated private banker". At risk of losing the deal, I approached an independent bond originator some time later, who secured (1) confirmation of home loan finance with, inter alia, FNB and (2) a rate which was effectively better than my private banker was eventually able to secure at FNB. How does one even begin to explain this? After finalising the loan with FNB through the bond originator, after which my private banker eventually reverted, the only assistance my private banker offered was to confirm that I could not qualify for eBucks on the home loan, because I went through a bond originator instead of through the bank - was I supposed to wait indefinitely before receiving a response, let alone any acknowledgement from my bank? Strike one.

2. There are no benefits attached to being a private banker, as it relates to new finance applications with the bank. I recently purchased a new vehicle, which I again, gave first right of finance to FNB who reverted with a finance rate which was among the top two most expensive from five banks. In comparison, I received a rate which was 4% cheaper from a top-tier bank whom I previously had no relationship with. Suffice to say, another nail in the coffin for FNB or to be consistent with my aforementioned metaphor, strike two.

3. Please scrutinise the "benefits" attached to eBucks and your private banking account in detail. As an example, Slow Lounge visits are not covered for anything more than two hours prior to your flight, which conditions change during peak hours. Should you get to the airport early (in the instance of business travel), you may not access the Slow Lounge until two hours before your flight. What is the point of then having access, if you have to find an interim spot to work or unwind? Thankfully, a competitor bank who I have a credit facility with does not discriminate the same way. I have never used the Slow Lounge since. In addition, in 5 years as an FNB Gold and Premier client, I was able to accumulate more than R25,000 in value from eBucks, without the added cost of fees and at a fraction of my current salary. Since being a private client, I have not accumulated any eBucks which I can deem material, to the point at which I do not even track or take heed of my current balance - even whilst still strictly adhering to service partners within the network (e.g. fill up at participating Engen garages exclusively). Strike three.

4. The turnaround time for significant banking requests is inconsistent, when compared to other banks and even based on what one pays for and expects for a top-tier or premium service. To illustrate, I have tried to reach out to the FNB chat for assistance on a home loan rate review. I have tried to do this since last week, with several attempts - the system is however "offline". I then reach out to RMB (whom I also bank with, in my personal capacity - and who are also within the FNB/First Rand Group), to no avail. I have spoken to 4 operators today, for almost 45 minutes, with nobody even able to connect me to the relevant department. Similarly, a few weeks prior, I was blocked by entering my share trading account, without any formal communication about what the issue was. Upon me blocking off time to rectify it (which amounted to be a FICA registration as my FICA details have become "obsolete" after five years), it took several attempts until the matter was resolved - much to my dismay and financial impact. Strike four (at this stage, I have lost the meaning of the metaphor entirely, not unlike FNB's service standard).

All manners of profanity do not convey the amount of distrust and ineptitude which I now associate with the brand.