********** SERVICE, just DAMN SCARY

Dear Mr Hello Peter and Fellow Readers You might be able to provide more logic as, a rather educated individual; I fail to understand. I have already closed my credit card with Nedbank and are also spreading the news for more friends to consider the same.

Herewith the background of the most ********** service received coupled with the most bizarre advice, staff forgetting or too scared to make decisions for the positions they are employed in. Mrs. C Missen (my mother in law) and Ms. F C Romeijn have been friends forever, 30 years, if not more. Ms. Romeijn is from The Netherlands and visited South Africa in her younger years, 6 months out of a year. She bought a property in South Africa and when she was back home in the Netherlands, Mrs. Missen would take care of the property. This was the standing arrangement between the two friends for many, many years. When Ms. Romeijn, now almost 90, has become too old to travel she asked Mrs. Missen to sell the property and gave her a POA to do so. Once this was done, Mrs. Missen enquired what should be done with the proceeds of the funds (more than 7 years ago). Ms. Romeijn advised that Mrs. Missen keep the funds for all the years she looked after her as well as the property. Ms. Romeijn, since has developed slight dementia and is currently staying in a Care Home and her affairs are being taken care of by her nephew Mr. Robert Hartman who lives quite a distance from the Care home.

After 5 years+ we tried again….. Mrs. C Missen and I visited the Northgate Nedbank Branch on the morning of 23 Sept 2020. We were assisted by Sibongile (contact number ***). Sibongile was very helpful and mentioned the below matter is often seen and should be resolved within a week or two. Sibongile contacted me on 28 Sept and advise that Nedbank`s Legal Department needs to verify the above and of course, this was well understood. I emailed Sibongile on the said date with Mr. Hartmans contact details as well as with the contact details for the doctors who is looking after Ms. Romeijn at the Care Home. We also contacted Mr Hartman to advise the doctors of the history. Mr. Hartman was surprised that this matter was still ongoing as he was of the view it has been resolved long ago and we explained we gave up with Nedbank and then decided to just start the process all over again. I have followed up with Sibongile on a weekly basis with always the same response, “it is legal” On the 29 Oct (more than a month since we were in the branch) I called Sibongile again who said all will be resolved the next Friday, which would have been 6 November. On Wednesday 11 November I contacted Sibongile, again. This time Sibongile forgot to follow up with legal but promised to phone me back. Sibongile phoned back and confirmed she followed up but the legal resource claim she is unable to get hold of Mr. Hartman nor the doctors and she was too scared to make a decision. She also recommended that we do one of the following:- • Ms. Romeijn must either send through her will or • She must come to South Africa to come and sort out her affairs I was wondering, “does this meant, a highly fragile old lady with dementia, who currently stays in a care facility needs to fly to South Africa, during Covid when most countries are still observing International travel restrictions? After a lot of frustrations, I demanded to speak to an Area Manager. Sibongile pleaded I give her time until 14:00 to resolve, so I did. Sibongile phoned back and said all is now sorted, her area Manager phoned Mr Hartman in the Netherlands and Mrs Missen must come in the next day to come and sign the transfer documents. We arrived at Nedbank Northgate at 10:30 am and we started completing and providing all the necessary documentation upon which Sibongile and her Supervisor advised, they are really sorry but they forgot to look at the account before we came in and there is now a dormant hold on the account. Of course, there will be a hold Nedbank as we have been battling for years already to get this resolved!!!!! A new request was then that FICA documentation be provided. Sibongile requested for the ID documentation for Ms Romeijn. Mrs Missen gave her the copy she had however Sibongile now confirmed that we need the doctors in the Netherlands to send an email to state that Ms Romeijn do understand the implications of the POA. We also need to contact Mr Hartman for proof of id (note Nedbank just spoke to him the previous day). This document doesn’t need to be certified but is now required as the dormant hold needs to be lifted and client needs to be Fica`ed???? I received a call from Sibongile this morning who again said she forgot to look at the details received from legal that stated that the domant code needs to be lifted. Again, we are back in circles. Note, Mrs. Missen is in contact with Mr. Hartman on a weekly basis and has never struggled to get a hold of him? Nedbank however seem to be unable to. This matter has been dragging on with similar feedback and results from Nedbank for over 5 years. I suppose this is customer retention….