Nedbank is completely ***********. Take your money somewhere else!

I recently immigrated to South Africa. In order to open a bank account in South Africa most banks require a South African ID. While I have an ID number, I am still waiting on Home Affairs to produce and issue my ID. I have a foreign bank account which is my primary account, while I wait for my ID to be issued. So here is the problem. I was using the Nedbank ATM in Port Alfred to withdraw money. The ATM malfunctioned and took my ATM card. I took the contact number listed on the ATM for such a problem and called first thing the next day. I gave a detailed description of what happened and explained that I had no other way to access my money without my card. I gave a full description of my card and I was given a reference number from the call centre and informed that my card would be collected from the ATM and taken to the Branch in Port Alfred, where I would be contacted so I could collect my card. I waited 2 days then called the Branch in Port Alfred. The employee that answered the phone said her name was Siya when she answered. I explained that my card was taken by the ATM and the card was supposed to be brought in to the branch. She said she had a customer in front of her so she needed to get off the phone but she would call back after she looked into my request. I waited 2 hours without a call back, I also want to mention that when you answer a phone call, that is also a customer that needs attention. If you cannot attend then maybe someone else should answer the phone. Regardless, I waited 2 hours for a call back that didn’t come, so I decided to go into the branch. If I am the person standing in front of the employee, It will be much harder to ignore or blow me off. So I went into the Branch and the employee in front of me was Siya, the same one that was supposed to give me the call back. When I identified myself, I said I was the one that called a couple hours previously and I was there to collect my card. Her response was literally “Oh ****”. I asked her what that meant and she disappeared for about 2 minutes. When she came back, she said my card had already been destroyed. I asked how that could be possible when I had a reference number and that my card was supposed to be brought in and kept safe until I collected it. She said they didn’t receive the message. At that point, I asked to speak with the branch manager. When the branch manager came out, I explained the situation and asked how is it that no one was notified of my card and she said they do not get those notifications. I told her I do not believe that is true and asked who is responsible for receiving messages with reference numbers for cases like this? She said it was her responsibility, and I then asked how often cards are brought into the branch? She said cards are only brought in if the branch requests them or if something else is wrong and they are sent there. I said there you go, if you did not request them to be brought in but they were delivered anyway, that should be a distinct indicator that you and your staff should look into why the cards were brought in and check your email or whatever internal messaging system Nedbank might have, to identify reference numbers that are connected to cards that are brought into the branch. The branch manager apologized and said it was her responsibility, but it still didn’t fix my problem. I called Nedbank again and filed a complaint. I informed the call centre that I was completely without funds and I was in a really bad situation. I was given another reference number and was called back two times over the course of about 2 weeks. When I pressed the representative that called me and asked what can be done for me in this situation? I have no access to my money and I needed to pay bills. I said I am 100% positive that banks have insurance that covers people like me when the bank is at fault. That I needed instant access to funds and I needed help. She said she would call back with a solution which she did call back about 20 minutes after our original conversation. She said the loan department would be giving me a call. Well, I am 2. months into the waiting process and I have yet to receive a call. I have been making cash withdrawals from my credit card, which has now been shut off for suspicious activity. I cannot get my bank to send a replacement card to South Africa, as the post has an x-ray on arrival and cards that are identified are returned to sender. Whenever I call my bank in the United States, I rack up some serious long distance fees. So here I am over 2 and a half months into this fiasco and I am over 800 U.S. dollars in credit card fees and long distance call fees that am am only aware of to this point. I know there are more coming my way. Nedbank has not helped me. They have *********** staff from tellers to management and serious problems like this are not effectively dealt with. I am considering legal action at this point but mostly want to say that you should take your business somewhere else. This bank will not take care of you. This bank will not make good on their promises to resolve a situation and there are other financial institutions that will look after your interests. I was told sorry by the branch manager in Port Alfred, but that does nothing for me or my problem and the worst part of this is, nobody is held accountable. I am paying some serious fees and still cannot open a South African account until I have my South African ID card. One thing is for sure, when I do get my ID, I will not be giving my business to Nedbank and you shouldn’t either. If you have an account with Nedbank, I encourage you to take your money somewhere else.