Internal ***** at Standard Bank

On 3rd May, a cheque for R8000 was deposited into my cheque account by an individual wanting to purchase my laptop. I checked my account at the time, but the cheque had not cleared and I did not release the laptop (All good for now, I suspected this person was trying to con me). 7 days later, I received a call from the buyer requesting me to check my account again as the cheque should have cleared. When doing so, I could see the funds had cleared and were available in my account for me to use, which I used and then released the laptop to the buyer. The very next day, the cheque was returned unpaid from my account and my account was then in arrears of R8k. With an overdraught of R20k, my account was then sitting at -R27k (I only used R7k of the R8k). I have sent numerous emails to *** which just get ignored by Evelyn Vermeulen who is so *********** she could not even see the deposit on the statement provided. After a further 2 visits to a standardbank branch and some 5 hours later, I was merely passed from one *********** individual to another and have finally ended up with the most *********** employee in the history of *********** employees......please welcome, Johanna Kele of the standard bank customer complaints division and I furnish you with her response......

"On investigation of a complaint logged, we have identified that funds were cleared earlier that the turnaround time we communicate on cheque clearance which is 7 – 10 business days. The reason we communicate the turnaround time is for us to screen the cheque so that we can identify if funds can be made available for processing the payment with the customer’s Bank.

We regret to inform you that on review of this matter, Standard Bank is not able to refund or compensate you for the cheque value. The reason is that there was no enquiry made with the Bank for clarity on availability of funds for the cheque deposit processed and Standard Bank is considered a third party on which we offered a service for processing the cheque payment. We acknowledge that you have mentioned that you released a laptop you were selling after you noted that the balance was updated and funds were cleared however, this is matter we suggest is best for you to directly communicate with the buyer as we are not in a position to assist you with making funds on the cheque value available in your account.

In the event that you may experience challenges in getting funds, you may contact the SAPS (South African Police Services)to open a case against the buyer.

I have requested an explanation as to why the funds were made available in my account after the clearing process had completed only to be reversed the next day. No-one at standardbank can explain this to me and quite frankly, they don't care in the slightest. I am convinced this ***** has been committed by someone at standard bank and they are in a partnership with the con artists.

I would strongly advise against the use of standard bank at all costs. They allow internal ***** to occur openly and simply ignore you when you start to ask questions about it. "Prodeant Vexilla".........more like, Let's the standards go....

*******!!