Financial Advisor - Terrible Client Service

On 6th December 2024 at 10am my grandmother, age 90, went to Nedbank Century City for an appointment with the financial advisor Malcolm Joseph.

The reason for her appointment was to withdraw funds from her Nedgroup Investment for the Christmas period. She did this two weeks in advance to ensure that the funds would be available by Christmas and when she asked Malcolm Joseph when the funds would be in her Nedbank transactional account he advised two working days. About five working days after requesting the withdrawal, my grandmother went to the shop and her card declined. She then waited a few more days, at least two weeks after the withdrawal request, and tried again but the transaction was declined again.

Today, 23rd December 2024, she asked me to take her to the Century city branch to enquire about the investment withdrawal. We were assisted by a very helpful gentleman named Thabang, who phoned Malcolm Joseph. Thabang informed us that Malcolm would call us but if we wanted to speak to Malcolm we can come back to the branch at 12:30pm and wait for him till he was done with his appointment. Given that the next day will be Christmas eve we came back and waited for Malcolm to ask about the withdrawal. Eventually when Malcolm was available, he told my grandmother that she didn't need to wait and he would call her. However, she explained the urgency and he asked us to go through to the office to discuss it. Malcolm was extremely unhelpful and insisted again that we did not have to wait for him as he would call the investments contact center and then call my grandmother. However, I explained to him that this is a problem and asked him to put my grandmother at ease and call the contact center while she was at the branch with him. He out right refused to call while she was there and when we asked why, he rep**** that he has "other things to do." He completely dismissed my grandmother when she asked him for a copy of the withdrawal form that she signed as this was her proof that she requested the withdrawal and closure of the investment. He refused to provide her with a copy of the form as he said it was not necessary because he emailed it already. I told him that she has a right to have a copy but he refused to provide such copy.

According to Malcolm, Nedgroup Investments was supposed to call my grandmother to confirm the withdrawal, but she did not receive a call. I when I asked him if he informed her of this when she did the withdrawal, he responded with a "no" and further said "because it's part of the process"

He constantly reminded us that we did not have to be there and that he was going to call us "if" he got through to the contact center. I raised a concern that him saying "if" does not provide any surety because my grandmother has no funds for Christmas to which he responded by asking me what my relationship to my grandmother is. He asked this after hearing my grandmother call me her granddaughter multiple times.

Malcolm absolutely refused to provide my grandmother with any form of confirmation that the withdrawal was requested and continued to remind us that we don't need it and we don't need to be at the branch. Malcolm Joseph made it very clear that he was not interest in assisting my grandmother at all. When we asked him what she should do now for Christmas he looked at her and apologised for the inconvenience.

Spending Christmas without a cent because of Malcolm Joseph's inability to be helpful is not an inconvenience. Malcolm was dismissive, unhelpful and out right refused to provide my grandmother with a copy of the signed withdrawal because he felt it was not necessary. He had an attitude and just wanted us to leave. He had no intention of assisting in any way or form. The worst was when my grandmother was told he can't call while she was there because he had "other things to do" - Meaning that waiting more than two weeks for her withdrawal that Malcolm assisted with and now having no money for Christmas is not a priority for him to assist with because other things are more important.

The service we received was awful. Pathetic and ***********.

This is completely humiliating for me as I previously worked for Nedbank and I am the one who introduced my grandmother to Nedgroup Investments. I took her to the first financial advisor years ago with whom she invested her funds. She had no issues up until now when she had to deal with Malcolm Joseph. I will never refer anyone Nedgroup Investments again. Further more my family who have investments with Nedgroup will be moving the investments purely because of the way our Grandmother was treated by your financial advisor Malcolm Joseph.

It should also be noted, that Malcom Joseph has still not called my grandmother as he said he would.