BAD BAD BAD SERVICE - UNDERMINING OF A CUSTOMER

The Standard bank is the worst bank I have ever had to deal with, I though FNB was bad but Standard Bank is horrible, *********** and ******. Their system is the worst, they need to fire the rest of their IT team. Customer service is non existence.

I bought a vehicle in August 2021, I approved the Debit Check mandate, on my FNB account (another bad bank with bad service but better compared to Standard Bank). Despite the racial profiling in the approval of the deal, they did not deduct the car instalments at the end of September. I made several calls to their so called customer service center (they should renamed it customer stressing center) in October trying to get the reason why the money has not been deducted, I called more than 10 times =, at any time I will speak to a consultant and they would tell me they cannot access my car as it is new, then they will put me through to the correct department and I will hold over 40mins sometimes and the call will just be dropped. I spoke to the following people in the call center : - Adelaide Phasha - she made me hold till the call was dropped -Abigail (surname unknown) - the same modus operandi -Noluthando (surname unknown) told she cannot access my account and would transfer me to Unity More - I was put on hold till 40 mins later the call went dead. - Mpume Maphosho Team leader - she spoke to me she promised to ask Avesh to call me back until today I am still waiting. I had spoke to other call centers agents and supervisors and the same modus operandi would follow. In November, I also called,, as the account was not debited and my name was appearing on the credit bureau as my account was in arrears for two months. I assume Standard bank put that information on the credit bureau despite that they were the one who were not debiing my account. Eventually two months after my initially complaint through Hello Peter and several phone calls I got a call from Lucky Ndebele (by the way he initially called me a month and half ago and promised to call me back to attend to me hello peter complaint but nothing came thru till the recent call and emails). After discussing with Lucky and providing information, I got this email from a junior staff member : Good day Mr Dlamini

Apologies for the delay in our response.

Please receive our sincere apologies for not collecting your instalment in time and the frustration it caused, this is due to a technical fault which is being attended to most urgently by our IT technicians.

To correct this from happening again we have to send you a new debi-check mandate via SMS, kindly ensure it is accepted once received.

We have sent a collection today for the total amount due to bring the account up to date. Attached is the apology letter to present in the interim towards any Lending applications. As soon as we have the funds we will proceed to update your bureaux records accordingly.

Kind regards

Portia

VAF Alfa Support

and this was supported by the letter from Support apologizing and saying that the "Lending institution should not hold me responsible it the banks fault"

Kindly note, Standard Bank VAF have implemented a new system (Alfa) and our payment process is not yet operating optimally, and as such there have been multiple instances of accounts not being collected on and falling into arrears. We are in the process of rectifying and clearing bureau records, however in the interim please accept this email as confirmation that the issue is through no fault of theirs. Please do not hold Mr V Dlamini responsible for the defaults on their Standardbank VAF account. Kind regards Portia VAF Phoenix Support

Considering that I have been so inconvenienced including being listed on the credit bureaus and I get this letter from a Support staff leaves so much distaste in my mouth. During our conversation with Portia the line was so bad that I was even struggling to hear her second she will not commit in writing that they will remove the note on the credit bureau regarding the account being two months in arears. The money has been in my account for the past two months waiting for the bank to deduct it. Portia asked me is it was fine that they deduct all the instalment (i felt insulted since I have been the one calling the bank without any success in order to deduct the money}.

I incurred cost in the form of telephone cost (airtime) whilst calling the bank and was being out on hold for over 40minutes per time and then the call will be dropped.. The letter is so cold and unapologetic in a sense, nothing about the bad service I have received including lack of response to my complaint including the racial profiling treatment. I would have assumed the letter would have atleast come from a senior person

I suppose I am black and does not matter, I thought I left FNB for a bad service but this was worst than FNB by far. I know their response would be we are going to contact the customer which they do not by the way.