There is no 'service' in FNB's customer service - we must do all the work on the app

I'm moving to Nedbank, but want to write this review so that maybe someone at FNB might think about improving their processes.

When phoning FNB, they tell you to intermittently look at your app to approve things etc. It is very hard to figure out how to put the phone on speaker mode so you can navigate the app while still being able to hear the consultant.

How do you help elderly people who do not have smartphones and apps? What should be a simple phone call becomes a tech nightmare, especially if the app is down because of loadshedding or internet problems.

I am a Premier account member, and when I signed up I was promised that there would be a direct line of communication that can help me. I tried the Premier email address and received a reply saying that you no longer monitor that inbox and I must use the app.

I had previously gone to the app and attempted to do what I need to do but was unable to. I really needed to speak to an actual person who coud help me with my banking request. I contacted Secure Chat and the agent said he can't help me and I must phone the FNB support number.

So I called the number, waited for ages, and jumped through all the hoops like inputting my ID number, and speaking to a robot to try and direct my call to the right department, asking to speak to a person, and eventually after being on hold reaching a person, only to be cut off.

When you want to sell a product, we get to speak to a friendly, knowledgeable person who is very responsive. But when we actually need to reach out to FNB for help, we get treated like we are not important, told to call a number, and made to wait on hold and jump through hoops to get to speak to a person.

I finally got through on the phone to someone in the right department. She asked me to go through the hoops again, to give my ID number, approve it on the app - which is hard for me to open while I'm speaking to her using the same phone I use for the app, and my internet is not constant so the app didn't work all the time. The call was so stressful. It's quite dystopian that we - the customers - are forced to do all this work. What should be a simple phone call process becomes a tech nightmare. It's supposed to be customer service - not customer labour so that you can save money on hiring competent staff and palm us off onto robots and apps instead.

Maybe it would be better if we went into the actual branch, physically? No! When I've tried to go into the actual bank branch in the past, they tell me they are unable to do certain functions and I must go home and call a special FNB number to do the function. It is absurd - you should be able to help customers with every banking need they have if they make the effort to come into the branch. And when we call the numbers, they waste our time, and try to get rid of us by telling us to go to the app instead and do all the work ourselves!

You have passed off your functions from knowledgeable people onto technology, apps and robots, which add stress and time-wasting to your beleaguered customers. You apparently have so many 'channels of communication' to get help, but most of them are AI and it is still impossible to get help when you have a simple query, even after spending hours trying all the different channels.

It's like you are trying to get rid of your customers and make them go away, rather than going above and beyond to help them.

I am moving to Nedbank as they have much better customer service. Their fees are slightly higher but I'm willing to pay extra so that I don't have to experience the stress, disappointment and raised blood pressure that goes along with trying to get any help from FNB customer "care".

Regards Sarah de Jager