Don't Bank on the Standard

Standard Bank needs an urgent review of their system for dealing with cards swallowed by their ATMs. Yesterday morning, I wanted to draw some money for grocery shopping. The Standard Bank ATM appeared normal, but when I inserted my card, it disappeared into the machine and the screen froze. I waited a while and then rang the number for reporting such faults. The lady there took down all my details including my ID, and told me that at some point "a custodian" would be collecting the card and taking it to the nearest actual Standard Bank, who would then phone me to come and collect the card. In the meantime, the ATM had gone off-line. I heard nothing from the bank for the rest of the day, and by late this morning, thought I'd better phone them and find out whether the card had been retrieved. Although the young man I spoke to was polite and sympathetic, he was unable to help, and repeated that the nearest branch would phone me when they had the card. In the continuing absence of a call from the bank, I phoned again in the afternoon, and again a polite, but ultimately unhelpful young person answered the phone. I went to the nearest branch of the bank and spoke to the manager. I pointed out that without my bank card, I was unable to purchase even basic necessities such as food. He simply repeated the same s**** that the others had used. He seemed unable to grasp that Standard Bank's response to their snatching of my (foreign) bank card needed to be faster. I have finally had a phone call to say that the bank has my card. As they will close before I can get back there this afternoon, I shall have to pick up the card tomorrow. Standard has left me without access to my funds for two whole days. I find that unacceptable.