Poor poor service from both the private bankers and the app department

<p>On Thursday I was left extremely embarresed and disappointed by my team of bankers and the support team of FNB.</p> <p> </p> <p>I was going away for the weekend and was planning my shopping for Thursday afternoon. I have quite a lot of ebucks and was planning to buy vouchers to pay for my groceries at Checkers and also to save some money.</p> <p>Ready for the weekend I went to Checkers to buy all the stuff i needed. When I got to the till to pay I said to the cashier I am going to buy vouchers and use that as payment. If i use my ebucks i get 40% discount. The total for my groceries was R1706.38. I wanted to buy R1700 voucher using all my ebucks and then pay in the difference of R6.38. So onto the banking app i went. I went to the option to buy vouchers, i selected the from account to be my ebucks account and i selected the R1000 Checkers voucher. I would have paid R600 saving R400 due to my discount on the ebucks level. When i wanted to complete the transaction i was told you reached your daily limiti. I had a look on the app under services and could see that my voucher daily limit was R5000. So i proceeded to phone my private banker Thandeka Mkhwa****. I was on hold for 12 minutes when my call was eventually answered by JP Cilliers. I told him my situation and he said to me he can see nothing wrong on his side and he would get the ebucks department on the line (I dont know much but what i do know is it is not an ebucks problem cause they dont limit you and i had enough ebucks available for the transaction) and he informed me that the R5000 DAILY LIMIT was infact a monthly limit. I almost exploded cause why does it then say DAILY and not MONTHLY limit. I left it at that and waited for him to return my call - please keep in mind that i am still in checkers at the till point while this is happening</p> <p> </p> <p>At 16:20 i get a cal back from JP telling me that he has the ebucks department on the line and that he will put me through. Instead of checking that the call actually connects he drops the call and disconnects me. At this point i was fuming. </p> <p> </p> <p>So i try the app one more time and i buy a voucher for R500. This attempt is successful so i thought maybe i need to buy R500 vouchers at a time. I try to buy a second one and i get the same message that i have reached my daily limit. I then proceed to pay the outstanding R1206.38 with my credit card which i did not want to do but at this point i have been standing at the till trying to get this sorted out for over 30 minutes.</p> <p> </p> <p>Once i have paid and i leave the shop i try calling the private banking number again. It was at 16:24. I was on hold again for 10 minutes before a lady at switchboard called Brenda answered the phone. She was as slow as you could ever imagined. I told her i want to speak to a manager and she said she will get someone to call me. I explained my situation to her again. She also informed me that JP had already left for the day at that point. I asked her when and she said she can not tell me. I am sorry if a client is that upset you make a plan. You do not tell them sorry i can not tell you.</p> <p> </p> <p>5 minutes later an indian lady called me back. I explained my situation now for the 3rd time to her and she said she will get the ebucks department to call me first thing on friday morning. I told her that they work until 5 and i want to have this sorted out before then. I am not willing to wait and also i was not available on Friday. She did not say goodbye or anything she just dropped the phone and disconnected me.</p> <p> </p> <p>At 16:39 my own private branker (Thandeka Mkhwa****) called me back. I had to explain my situation again to her and she said she will get the ebucks department on the line. I said to her what will they help cause i have enough ebucks and that the problem is with the app. And she just said its an ebucks problem. She said she will call me back. I again said to her that she has until 5 to do so cause i want answers. I also asked her why i was unable to get through to her and she said she was on the phone with another client for a very long time. </p> <p> </p> <p>At 16:50 i got a call from Thandeka telling me that she has Ezra from the ebucks department on the line. Ezra asked me what the problem was and AGAIN i had to explain that when i use the app to buy vouchers paying with ebucks i get an error message saying i have reached my daily limit. This was now the 5th time i had to explain my problem and i was getting extremely impatient. Ezra did a security check and told me that the issue i have is not ebucks related cause all was good on my ebucks profile but that the problem was app related. Ezra was disconnected from the call and i asked Thandeka why the h*ll does she not know this and why even when i told her ebucks wont help me she (they, the entire private banking team) insisted to put me through to ebucks. She could not answer me and said she will get the app department on the line. I asked her how long this will take and she again could not answer me. I asked her what is the point of me paying over R300 in banking fees for private banking but this is the service i get. She proceeded to tell me that i have to appreciate the fact that she is working overtime now to get this sorted out. I am sorry i lost it. My word you act as if you are doing me a favour. I PAY YOUR SALARY and you treat me this way. So i told her to get the app department on the line asap</p> <p> </p> <p>At 17:14 i got a call from Thandeka telling me she is holding for the app department. Again i flipped. Why does a private banker follow the same procedures as the normal people? surely we have preference seeing as that we pay more?</p> <p> </p> <p>What else could i do but wait. So i waited. </p> <p>At 17:20 i got a call again. This time Thandeka had the app department on the phone as well. I was talking to Jabulile Mahisa from the app department. She told me she could see what the problem was. So i asked her what is the problem. She then told me the following: due to me upgrading my phone to an iPhone 7 and downloading the app on there, the device has not been verified for the app yet and therefore i do not have full access to the app. What i would need to do is to use the app on the current device to make a payment of more than R300.01. It will then take 7 days for the device to be verified and then only will i have 100% access on the app</p> <p>I really lost it right there and i screamed at her. It does not say anywhere on anything from FNB that when you have a new device that you first have to make a payment of R300.01 using the device and the app, AND that it then takes 7 days to verify the app. She just said oh sorry yes it does not say it anywhere but that is the way it works. I asked her is she can verify my device now and she just said not sorry i have to wait 7 days. Again this is were i lost it because i could have saved R650 if i was able to use my ebucks. I was not able to cause my device was not verified. But in none of the information does it state that the device needs to be verified and then only can you do everything. What happens if in this 7 days my device is ******. Then i have to do this all over again. In the mean time i have to keep making payments of R300.01 for it to trigger the verification.</p> <p> </p> <p>So here are my problems that i have and i want to know how this will be resolved:</p> <p>1. How will i get the R650 back that i could have saved if i was able to use my device to purchase vouchers on the app? I want my R650 that i could have saved no questions asked. I will not settle on this. You advertise everywhere use your ebucks to get discounts but when push comes to shove i cannot do this and i end up looking like an idiot cause i planned to use all my ebucks</p> <p>2. Where does it say that if you get a new device you have to comply with the following: I could not find it anywhere and if it does not say it then i can and will take you to the consumer act due to me loosing R650 due your incompetency</p> <p>- Device needs to be Verified</p> <p>- You need to make a payment of R300.01 before it can be verified</p> <p>- It takes 7 days to be verified</p> <p>3. Why do i pay over R300 a month in bank charges to be a private banker yet the private banking team is useless? 3 of them could not tell me straight away what the problem was and kept on putting me through to the wrong department. SURELY they have a piece of paper stabled to their cubicle wall saying if this is the issue this is what is causing it.</p> <p>4. Why do i get told that i have to appreciate that my private banker is now working late to help me. UNACCEPTABLE</p> <p>5. Why can my device not be verified on the online banking or over the phone when i have completed a security check?</p> <p>6. Why are you the only bank that requests that the device be verified? No other bank does that.</p> <p> </p> <p>I am really upset about this whole experience and i will not be recommending FNB to any of my friends or family. I am frustrated that it took over 2 hours to get an answer not even to have it reolved. I am disappointed that i pay alot of money for a private banker and does not see the benefit and that at 16:30 they all pack up and leave the client waiting. They do not follow up to make sure you were actually assisted and they are just plain useless. Ezra at the ebucks department did a better job of assisting me than my own private banker. Maybe he should be a private banker and the private bankers should be moved down to call centre operators.</p> <p> </p> <p>Regards</p> <p>A very unhappy client</p>