How Not To Do Business

An amazing experience of how not to do business from Standard Bank today. I recently became proudly South African and a permanent resident of this great country after 5 years of hard work.

I decided to open a simple rainy day account for some savings I have so went to see Standard Bank in Canal Walk. On arrival the branch was pretty cool and a nice lady at the enquiries desk asked me how Standard Bank could help and asked me to take a seat until a banker was available, so far so good. That was the point things started to go south.

After a 20 minute wait on the cool couches, a lady banker called my name and I was ushered into a consultation area. I was asked how I could be helped today to which I rep**** "I'd like to open a savings account please". "How much will you be depositing monthly?", "Erm, I'm not sure, how about we start with me depositing R10,000 and we can take it from there" "Do you have all your documentation?" "Yes, your website states I need proof of address, and proof of ID. I've brought my passport and my certificate of permanent residence which I've just received" "No, you need an ID number or proof of work and a letter from your company advising they will be liable for any debt you've run up if you leave the country" "For a savings account without any ability to get into debt?" "Yes". "But I'm not a foreigner, I have permanent residence" "It doesn't matter you need your green book". "OK, So you have a home affairs office within this branch, can I go apply for my green book now as I have all the documentation I would need with me?" "No, our Home Affairs is only for South African Residents, not foreigners" "Well in that case, it would appear I won't be able to do business with Standard Bank, thank you for your time and good day".

I have never been quite so offended in my life and can't quite believe that a financial institution would a) employee someone with such a loose grasp of how to communicate appropriately and b) if she is right, have such unhelpful processes and have so little regard for onboarding new customers)

It just happens that I am already an Investec private banking account customer and am very happy with them, this add-on savings account was purely for convenience. What Standard Bank missed was an opportunity to impress a high net worth individual with their service and customer care to the point that I might, just might have considered moving all of my banking to them along with my entire net worth which would have probably put me in a high percentile of their ultra high value customers.

You really made a mess of this one Standard Bank