FNB The Grove Home Affairs

The Home Affairs Department at FNB The Grove is absolutely deplorable. FNB staff at every branch are usually friendly and helpful. Definitely not the case at The Grove Home Affairs. I've had the unfortunate experience of going there twice. First for passports for my children, and now for an ID for my oldest child.

On both occasions, they have been running late, so don't think the time of your online appointment means anything. The staff are rude and unwilling to help. The constant chatting amongst themselves and time spent on their cell phones doesn't help. Perhaps management should check the cameras from time to time. How long does it take to make a photocopy?

I found on both occasions, they will look for every excuse possible not to assist you and for you to have to make another appointment, on another day. Don't bother booking close to the end of the day either, they just want to go home. Apparently, even though their working hours end at 16:00, they won't work up until then and they tell you that straight out - in fact, it was the "Supervisor" who told me that I wouldn't be helped after 15:15.

When I said I would like to speak to a Manager, they said they don't work for FNB and that they are Home Affairs. FNB needs to quickly realise that although this is a fantastic service offering, this particular Home Affairs at FNB The Grove is tarnishing the name of an otherwise reputable institution, known for its customer service.

In addition, because I had app**** for my child's Passport through this bank before she was 16, she was unable to get her first ID free as they had captured her as already having received an ID document.

The eHomeAffairs website would not allow us to proceed with a first-time application. Home Affairs advised, telephonically, that to make the booking, I needed to choose the Lost/****** option, and pay for a "new" ID, even though there was never an ID to lose or have ******. They said it had been captured erroneously by the people at FNB The Grove.

On the day of the appointment, after spending ages at the FNB branch, I was eventually told that I'd need to make yet another appointment (no surprise) as they were not able to process my child for fingerprints until the Department of Home Affairs cleared the error on the system (the same people who told me to just proceed with the Lost/****** option).

Why we had to wait there for such a long time to eventually be told that they cannot help us is beyond comprehension; especially since we informed the very first consultant of this problem. Nearly 2 hours later, I left feeling frustrated and I already dread having to return to face another bout of unfriendly and purposefully unhelpful people.