Old Mutual's *********** and hostile client support desk

Financial institutions protect themselves from their clients through the use of customer support centres or help desks. These are effective firewalls that block clients from disturbing the peaceful slumber of management. Service centre staff is not empowered to make decisions, they are usually apathetic and cannot exercise any discretion. The strategy is that the client finally gives up in exasperation. I deal with various financial institutions such as Old Mutual, Sanlam Glacier, Alexander Forbes, Allan Gray, banks, etc. Old Mutual is the worst, in my experience (Allan Gray by far the best). I tried to get information from Old Mutual customer support desk on who to contact and the procedure to follow to lodge a complaint. I explained that the complaint is against the customer support desk of Link Investor Services, who administers Old Mutual’s share portfolio, but that I didn’t want to divulge the details of my complaint unless I knew that I was dealing with somebody independent of and senior to the customer support desk. Old Mutual’s Donovan Dreyer refused to help me, unless I would be prepared to divulge personal information to him first. I see this as their rigid recipe to trivialise the client’s concerns, whilst keeping the client captive in the unhelpful circles of the customer support staff. When I told Dreyer that he forces me to take my complaint outside Old Mutual and into the public domain, he wished me luck!