Useless FNB

Today was a reminder to me of why I do not bank with FNB and re-enforced our opinion that FNB is a financial corporate only concerned with ways of making money & not fighting *****, theft & *******ion On behalf of clients or treating the consumer fairly...useless client service.

Due to the lockdown & the request from government for senior citizens to remain home at all costs, my 72 year old mother asked that I check the balance available on her SASSA pensioner’s card while I did a shop run for necessities on Saturday 2 May 2020.

On arrival at the Ridge shopping center in Radiokop at approximately 16h15 My wife and I went directly to the FNB atm and inserted my mother’s card into the machine. The atm screen reflected “Please wait” for sometime & did not request a pin to be entered.

At this point, concerned that there may be an issue with the machine or that the atm had been tampered with, my wife and I pressed the ‘cancel’ button. The card eventually came out of the atm but within a second & before we could reach to retrieve it, pulled back into the machine.

The atm screen commenced to reflect a ‘please wait’ message for roughly 5 minutes & eventually changed to ‘out of service’ message and swallowed the SASSA card.

Security at the Ridge shopping center then approached us as they had noticed we were experiencing difficulties. They informed us that there were approximately 5 cameras around the atm and FNB would normally despatch a technician immediately to tend to a technical issue.

The FNB atm reflects no emergency or contact numbers, which I believe is against regulation. The FNB website also proved to be useless as they do not provide any contact numbers for non-FNB clients to call. The other numbers on the website are only for assistance to existing FNB clients...recorded messages on all other numbers we phoned simply said that we can contact a branch on Monday as it was outside of business hours!!!???

We never moved from the atm and 45 minutes later, we heard movement inside the atm and called to the person to assist. He never answered us even though he could hear us. I waited at the door and eventually a guy emerged exiting the back of the atm.

I thanked him for coming out to assist & queried whether he was able to retrieve the SASSA card for us. His response was, “the card has been retained by the bank” I asked on what grounds and he simply repeated himself. I advise him that the card would not be easy to replace and he simply shrugged me off & kept on walking. I asked him who I could contact and he was unwilling to give me any contact numbers or info for FNB. I even mentioned that there are 5 cameras which could be checked to see what happened.

He refused any assistance to us & I said that I would then be forced to lay a charge of theft with the SAPS to which he rep****, “go ahead, there is no theft here”.

I asked for his name, he said “Simon Simpson” - probably not his real name - I took photos of his vehicle and registration as he drove off and have these available to lay the charge.

I will be laying charges of theft against FNB and their so called employee - please provide contacts to obtain the video footage.? I will further be contacting the ombudsman to lay a complaint as I was refused assistance by the FNB representative.

The shopping center security claimed that issues with the FNB atm had become a regular occurrence and actually witnessed the FNB representative that came out to reset the atm, return the card to the person who had stayed and waited. Does FNB exercise selective service to client?

FNB, your business ethics leaves a lot to be desired for and in this case, proves that you do not treat clients fairly and have no ethics. Your representatives have no clue on how to interact with the public or how they should act as a representative of you company which effectively renders your staff as useless.

I will make it my mission to deter anyone I have contact with from even considering you as a financial service provider.

I eagerly await your response.