Hugely disappointed in the shocking service levels from the Customer Service Call Centre.

I have registered a building loan with Standard Bank and it all started off very exciting. I submitted a request last week for the first progress payment. The assessor confirmed that the building project is as 55% complete and authorised a pay out based on his evaluation. I received a phone call from Natalie from Standard Bank last week confirming the approval for a progress payment. She could not tell me what the amount would be and said that she will find out and get back to me. She only phoned my today - a week later! Apparently she has personal problems and could not attend to all her work queries. Our contractor phoned the bank yesterday to follow up on the progress of the payment and was told that they are waiting for me to give authorisation to release the payment. I then phoned in and requested them to release the payment ASAP. I was told that it would be done yesterday and if the money is not reflecting today I can query it again. This morning both our contractor and myself phone the bank and was told that there was no record of my call yesterday authorising the release. I made 5 calls today to try and get the payment sorted out. I asked to speak to a Team Leader or supervisor, but each time I was put on hold and it is pretty clear that it is impossible to speak to a senior staff member. During one of my calls earlier today I was told that the Senior Managers do not speak to customers. Do they not have the time or are the customers who pay their salaries just not important enough? I do not have the time to phone every hour and neither can I afford the building project to be put on hold because I cannot get the necessary service from Standard Bank. I believe all their calls are recorded and I have also made my own recordings as back up and suggest that someone goes and listen to it. They will be shocked by what they learn from it. The treatment I received is no complement to the Standard Bank brand. Is it going to be such a frustration every time a progress payment has to be processed?