Rand Merchant Private Banking Umhlanga is Really the WORST in Customer Care/Investment Advice/

In 2022 I severed ties with RMB, due to a total lack of service from my Private banker. To say her service levels were on par with a public hospital facility would be a compliment. As a direct result of incompetence and hocking customer service, I downgraded to the FNB Premier account after reporting her to the Regional Manager. To my misfortune, the same banker was tasked with facilitating the downgradeof all my account, which included a change in my Credit Card as well.

This was a small task, where anyone who could read and write should be capable of. Of course I was proven wrong. This brilliant lady linked my new CC to someone else's bank acc for the auto-payment, which I only discovered about 3 months later, on a Sunday when my CC was declined in a restaurant as it was unpaid for months!! I contacted the Secure Chat to try and figure out why my card was declined, and was met with completely incoherent responses. This story is best left for another day. By Monday and Tuesday I was getting nowhere with my query, so in UTTER DESPERATION, I contacted RMB area manager to re-activate my RMB acc again with the hope of some human contact to resolve my CC issue. I don’t want to brag, but nobody could figure out the issue, until I requested the banking details of the account that was on record for the CC auto-payment, which to my horror WAS NOT MY ACCOUNT. Seems like the previous banker did me a number. Best leave thi s story for another day, but I ended up settling my CC bill and sorting my auto-payment.

My RMB account was now activated and I got a new banker for which I had high hopes. This was a rookie mistake, as I soon discovered that RMB Private Banking is not in the business of serving clients with even a basic level of professionalism let alone ethics. In fact the Private Bankers seem to be actvely saboting their own jobs and the reputation of the bank they represent. More than 3.5 months ago, I requested meeting to discuss some investment options. I had to chase up this meeting which was unfortunately a foreboding of things to come. I was getting no response so I escalated to the regional Manager. The meeting was set up, on a Friday before a long weekend in March. To my utter horror my Private Banker did not pitch for this meeting, went AWOL, with a flimisy excuse the week later.

I had to report her to her Regional manager AGAIN, as another few weeks elapsed without any communication. Finally, almost 6 weeks later, with a follow up again with the Regional Manager, I got a meeting on the 15 June, with a proposal and qoute with management fees etc. for an investment, with “discounted” fees. I reviewed the proposal and emailed the banker on the 21 June stating I would like to have another meetinng to discuss the proposal and management fees which were not aliging to the ones on the public domain. Radiosilence since the 21 June.

In the meantime, a few hundred thousand rands is sitting since the 8 March waiting to be invested for whicj I have incurred losses on this investment. I am not keen on escalating to her Regional manager I am not convinced her incompetence is being addressed by him, but I may be wrong. In my opinion, considering I have raised her lack of responses, non-attendance on a meeting she set up and sheer bad communication, MULTIPLE times, my only conclusion is, he apologises on her behalf, but there is no performance management or consequences for her.

I maybe wrong again, but I think as RMB private Client, an 24 h turnaround time to acknowledge an email is basic service expectation.

Since my value as a client is meaningless, I have since withdrawn R600 000 ( which you can verify on my profile) and sent to your competitor for investing. I do not see that any serious investor can trust RMB Private Bankers to act professionally. I also do not see why I should be expected to escalate EVERY SINGLE query to the area or Regional manager! I do not see why I should be expected to verify banking details on my Credit Card Auto-payment. Small things, big impact. In fact in conclusion, I should have reported the previous banking error to the Banking OMBUD and this delay in response is also a matter I am willing to take to the OMBUD.