Bad service by Standard Bank

Hi There, Is it me or just Covid 19 that makes everyone go ‘bananas’ or maybe just an excuse for certain staff members not to give the proper/decent service a client deserves? On Friday 6th inst. I was at the Standard Bank in Sandton. After just over an hour standing outside in the queue I finally reached the inside of the bank, but of course, the waiting was not over yet!! No wonder, people go ‘bananas’! Now you wait another hour, so to speak, until you are finally being attended to. Having said that, while still waiting in the queue, I realised that I do not want to speak to a teller, rules and regulations have it (which I respect), that you stand more than a meter apart from that person, meaning, you have to virtually shout to be heard by the other person, and I certainly did not want every ****, Tom and Harry to hear what I had to discuss, namely my statements with the enormously over bloated charges. I am now really worried whether Standard Bank is taking too much money from clients or, what is even worse *****ing , or is it just a convenient ‘oversight’ on their part? For that reason I called for a manager to assist me, well now, to find a manager is another night mare! Eventually a guy appears walking around with his list in his hands, his name is Jason. I asked him, if he is the manager, yes he said, I told him my problem and, that I would like to talk to him in person, somewhere more private. His reply, I cannot help you but these consultants here are more than capable of helping you. That is, when I just snapped “you call yourself a manager but you cannot help a client with a simple request, what the hell then can you do, walking around with your silly list” but the man calls himself a manager for crying out loud!!! Another man got up and started screaming that he had been waiting outside for an hour and now inside as well for an hour, why don’t you provide more consultants, he shouted. I was equally furious and told Jason that the best thing for me to do is just to close the account, sorry, he said, as if that was a consolation for me to be content after having wasted more than 1 ½ hours for nothing, and received NO SERVICE, thank you for that dear Standard Bank, I then stormed out! While I was still in the bank I phoned the area manager Fabio Panzeri, this branch is under his control, whom I have known for a long time. It would have been so nice to get him on the phone, instead his voice mail comes on “don’t leave a message just send me an sms” it said, the usual story! Especially now, that I was at the bank and really needed to talk to him, since I wanted to really sort out this problem of mine, while at the branch, to no avail, he just could not care less. Having been now really upset I told him in my voice mail, enough is enough best to close the account, does he care, of course not, one customer less, what is the big deal!! I would like to tell Mr Panzeri, the big deal is, that all these customers are actually putting bread onto his table NOT he on to theirs and because of all these customers, you, Mr Panzeri are lucky enough to still have a job, while so many people in this trying time have lost their jobs and many businesses (small or big) have disappeared, sadly so. Something to think about it – enjoy it while you can dear Mr Fabio, who knows how long it will last, when all the disgruntled clients of yours maybe start waking up and start moving their accounts to other institutions, it won’t look so pretty no more!!! It always amazes me how people can call themselves area manager, branch manager or CEO etc but they don’t actually act as such, it is easy sitting on a ‘high horse’ but let the rest (bottom ones) do the ‘dirty’ work, I will call it now, such as dealing with all sort of clients and taking all the **** that comes with it!!!! I had my fair share of ups and downs with Standard Bank, why am I still with them, that is the million dollar question? I have been with them for many years and I know the excellent service they had provided back then and what it is now - like DAY and NIGHT, sadly so. And, if I just may say so, there is absolutely no excuse for them to blame it on Covid 19, not so, has absolutely nothing to do with the Pandemic. I had problems with them long before that, even wrote to the CEO few letters for his help and comments, and of course, dealing with the problem, to no avail, one of my letters was not even forwarded to him, saying “because of my ‘fancy’ wording”, can you believe that! That means the CEO must be protected from nasty clients like me, even though I had just stated the obvious , namely the truth and ‘nothing but the truth’, literally spoken, how absolutely ridiculous, I am making fun of it now!!! Back to the CEO saga, as mentioned above, don’t ever upset the CEO, he must never know about any client’s problems, as long the client brings in the money and he, the CEO can just collect a big fat payment at the end of the month, works for him I am sure!!!!! I have experienced it first hand, go from pillar to post to let the management know about certain problems in their company and, which I really think were unacceptable to the client, to absolutely no avail. Correction, there were just a few that would take some action and actually appreciate it for letting them know about the problem, the majority, however, just could not care less, sadly so, and I really mean that. I have always been of the opinion to look after your clients, after all it is a “word of mouth” game and in the interest of the company, maybe I am wrong about that – how do you say it again ‘Customer is King or always right’. That unfortunately I cannot really agree with, for that reason it is vital to listen to your client and let him/her have his/her say. One last thing and I am done. Should I mention it or not, but it really bugs me. A few years ago I was told that Standard Bank is actually owned by quite a big portion by China. I was shocked and said, can’t be, asked a few staff members at Standard Bank who were not aware of this, and, after digging a little deeper, it was confirmed to me that this was the case. It would be nice to get some clarity about this and, is there anything to worry about it???? Why I mentioned this now is, I think people and especially clients deserve to know! Last but not not least check your accounts at all times. Best wishes and God bless. RM Thévenaz