WHEN AN APPOINTMENT IS NOT HONOURED

HelloPeter I have a serious grievance with Nedbank. I have tried several times without success to use their website to register the grievance; hence this communication. We are a non-profit organisation (Manci Siqalile Community Service) that lost one signatory to death in 2018. (We’ve been Nedbank client since 2010). To date we have not been able to replace the dead person, all because of the run around we get at the various Nedbank branches. We also want to replace the second signatory as well because she works in East London; more than two hundred kilometres from our village. • For years the Tsolo Boxer Desk insisted that all of us – the outgoing signatories, the incoming, the remaining – had to come to the bank at the same time. The East London-based signatory usually visits home on month-ends, when queues at the bank are impossibly long. We were not allowed to make a booking. • Then on 21 June 2021, the Tsolo consultant told us the bank procedure stipulates that we go to the Mthatha Plaza Branch where we opened the account. I protested because this was not true, in my view. But because there was no one senior at the facility, I could not get redress. (After the failed 8 July appointment referred to later, we tried the Tsolo Boxer Desk again on 8 July 2021, and this time we were told the branch does not handle replacement of signatories because there are network problems – yet another good reason to not serve customers) • On 22 June (the four of us) went to Mthatha (about 55 kilometres single trip from our village), where we were told we could not be helped immediately; we had to make a booking. (The Tsolo consultant did not care to tell us that a booking was necessary so that we send one person to make the booking, instead of spending time and money on travel costs for so many people). We were booked for 9h00 Thursday, 8 July 2021. We were told our East London-based member could write a letter – contrary to what the Tsolo Desk had insisted on). • On 8 July 2021 we were at the door of the Mthatha Plaza Nedbank Branch at 8h20. We met staff who told us they are closed for the day. We were at a loss. Additional travel costs, another lost day. • When I realised Nedbank was not going to call me for a follow-up regarding the failed appointment, as I expected, on 13 August 2021 I went to the Mthatha Plaza Nedbank Branch to make yet another booking. The consultant gave me a date in January 2022, and suggested that I try another branch to try for a nearer date. I went to the Ngebs Branch, where I was a given a date in March 2022. Two branches of the same bank in the same town are each fully booked for at least 100 week days. Can you believe that? • Tsolo Boxer Nedbank Desk before the end of September 2021. We prefer Tsolo because at 25 kilometres from our village, Tsolo is our nearest Nedbank facility. My experience with Nedbank is that staff at the Mthatha and Tsolo branches always look for a reason to not serve rather than removing obstacles in order to serve. Yours sincerely Lindiwe Siwahla for Manci Siqalile Community Service