Horrible Christmas

I regret ever opening an account at Standard bank. I ;opened an account with Standard bank because the bank I used, was giving me problems and they could not sort out their issues, hence I made the decision to change banks. I opened the account, went and fetched my card at Rustenburg mall and was told that everything is in order, I could use the card and my account as I saw fit but my troubles started when my salary got paid into my account. When I received my salary, my intention was to send money to my family who had already left for the Christmas break and just waiting for me to transfer money in order for them to do their Christmas shopping. When I arrived at the bank (ATM) I could not withdraw money, transfer money, buy airtime or transact in any way. I called the number which was provided but I was told the the branch put a block on my account for reasons unknown to me. I kept on calling but I could not get any assistance as I was told that I had to go to the branch in order for them to unblock my account. Irrespective of how I tried to explain to them that there's no way that I can make it to the branch because they are closing at 15:30 and I only knock off at 16:00, they insisted that I go to the branch. This was an impossible task since we were closing for December and there was a lot of work which needed to be finalized. I eventually managed to make it to the branch on the 23rd of December, only to be told that they tried to call me (which is a lie because I never received a call or even a missed call) to inform me that they removed the block from my account. Needless to say, my family could not do their Christmas shopping due to this inconvenience and my children had the worst Christmas ever since my money was only released on the afternoon of 23 December. As I'm writing, my heart is aching for my family because, even though they don't say it, I feel that they believe I have failed them. They are still heartbroken about this ordeal and all Standard bank can say is "Sorry". I hate myself for ever changing banks and now sitting with a bank who could not care about their customers. PS: I did not even receive sms's when money entered or exited my account and I had to beg to get it fixed as well. I all honesty, my heart goes out to my family for putting them through this. Somehow this bank need to make it up to my family even though I know they wouldn't do anything about it. I will however change banks again in the near future and I would not advice anyone to make use of this bank. They just don't care.