Siding With The ******** & Dragging Your Feet About Refunding the Money You Stole From Me

On the 25th, July I submitted a Check Card Dispute form against a merchant that at the time I was convinced had ****med me out of a few thousand Rand for some clothing items which never got delivered. FNB being there "as always" to fulfil on their famous slogan "How Can We Help You?" investigated the matter and eventually reversed the funds back into my account in a record one-month turnaround time. I was proud to be a banker with them and mind you, I've been a client since I was a child sporting their cool shiny Junior Account card, looking forward to our bright future ahead of us together, right up till this week, which is now more like a dream that ended abruptly with a sudden need for the bathroom in the middle of the night.

To my utter surprise I received an email from FNB Disputes this past Monday the 13th (almost 3 months later) stating that they had received some NEW evidence from said merchant (of whom I was still under the impression were ********* out to **** unsuspecting online shoppers) proving that I had intentionally traded with them and that by virtue of the merchant proving they had my banking & personal information they had legal right to my money and therefore FNB initiated a re debit of these few thousand Rand back out of my account to God knows where.

Problem #1: I was never given an opportunity to appeal this matter - even though their email clearly stated "I have 10 days to dispute this result should I not be satisfied with the outcome", FNB went ahead a debited these few thousand Rand the day after their email on Tuesday the 14th, which essentially took some money I had in my account and has left me with a gaping few thousand rand debt waiting for me to deposit funds (and not to mention the daily SMSs reminding me that "My Account is in excess and I should deposit funds to ensure my commitments are honoured), LMAO the irony in this is theatrical.

Problem #2: This so called NEW evidence was inadmissible since the FNB investigator responsible for it completely ignored the contents of my original Dispute Form (that I never received the goods I paid for within the merchants clear turnaround time and I was unable to reach the merchant to follow-up, therefore a reversal is required) and went off on their own limb and investigated his/her own matter (that I didn't recognize the transaction and thus should be reversed), and to which "sufficient evidence" was a document from this merchant displaying my details, and nothing about actual delivery i.e. a signed delivery note, at least.

Now here I was on Wednesday the 15th on the phone with their completely useless call-centre agents who have no idea and possibly couldn’t really be bothered about the emotion involved in matters that compelled clients to even log disputes, telling me that "after escalating the matter, they have found that they have sufficient proof from the merchant” and therefore they will not reverse the re debited amount and that there is nothing they can do for me.

Now. Here I was thinking, but, opposed to putting my money under my mattress I ot to entrust my money with the bank on order for the bank to protect my money from such *********, but here I am being told that the ******** has legal right over my money because they can prove that I intentionally paid them, and that ***** is only valid [to them] if my card was ****** and payment was made without my knowledge or consent, so the fact that what I'm actually paying for never found its way to me is essentially my problem and not my banks, I was blown away at the level of empathy I was afforded.

Out of sheer desperation, I called the ***** Department [again, since they redirected me to disputes right at the beginning of this mess] to take a chance and see if anyone would have some sympathy for me and possibly give me some advice on what to do, since the disputes team "couldn't help me", and I spoke to a gentleman by the name Aya (Ayanda I assume), who after I explained what had happened and just after mentioning how much I've lost, Aya had one of thee most satisfying laughs at me for a good minute or so, until I had to unfortunately disturb his fun and get back to asking what I can do about this, he referred me to the banking services ombudsman (to whom this same story will be delivered shortly after publishing it here), and just before parting ways with the joyful Aya I expressed my dismay in his ability to find humour in my so-far really frustrating situation.

I eventually received some feedback from my allocated Banker regarding this matter, an email showing me the same "proof" I was given and the email trail querying the Disputes Team for evidence of the good being delivered, and that was a dead-end apparently (she tried though I guess). I eventually called my legal advice service who ironically is FNB Legal (who, it turns out cannot advise against their own entity - no surprise there, obviously my need for legal help is outweighed by their obligation to loyalty - stupid me for placing my trust and loyalty in this one sided relationship, lol sounds like a line from a bad soapie really), who eventually, out of compulsion to deliver on the many premiums I'd paid for years now, offered to write me a letter of demand for the merchant, which required I gather all communication I'd exchanged with said merchant (another one way conversation - to be explained in another complaint), and as I searched through my emails with the merchant, I discover an email sent to me by the merchant, very apologetic about what had happened to me (they should have been since I openly addressed them as ******** and **********, the works), and went on to explain that they were going through some operational issues during the period of my purchase and an entire fulfilment system overhaul, so a number of orders in that time saw the same fate as mine of not being delivered, and that they are aware that my bank managed to reverse the funds and encouraged me to rerun the purchase should I still be interested or they would understand should I no longer trust them, but all's well that ends well, right?

Now I'm sure you wouldn't be surprised at my excitement for finding proof of not having something (a near humanly impossible request I was posed by my bank), it felt as if that email was sent by God himself, I immediately drafted emails to my Private Banker sharing this newly discovered gem of information, as well as another email to a supervisor at the Disputes Call Centre who had been so kind as to go out of his real job to "help me out".

This was last night Wednesday the 15th, and according my understanding, they were able to re debit my account as soon as they received evidence from this merchant (so much so they ignored their own allocation of time for appeal) I assumed I'll get the same treatment, and since I was able to produce evidence that firstly the Disputes Investigator made a mistake capturing my form (by re sending the original document) as well as evidence that the merchant did not deliver (the email they sent me), this should be enough to refund the money they took form me with the same level of immediacy, which if I really give it some thought, was in essence ****** from me by my bank, another dramatic irony to note lol, as I sit I'm unable to use my account as I refuse to pay the outstanding debt I "owe" FNB, and FNB seems to have no sense of urgency about lifting this debt in-spite of having ALL the evidence they need.

As I mentioned, I will certainly be moving my bank account to another ****ty bank, and reporting this incident to the ombudsman, but I wanted to do my bit and expose this to other would-be & current clients, that in-spite of all the complaining we can publish, this will never change, and these banks have gotten so large that such matters do nothing for their reputations, in fact they probably boost their clout when they reply with their manufactured generic responses, as if they really care. This is, to be honest, and awesome platform for a good rant, and I'll confirm that after writing this, I feel a lot better :)

Thanks for reading this.