Low Service Levels

On the 28 June 2022, Standard Bank granted me a pre-approved Home Loan. This was sent to me via a quotation and pre agreement statement which I signed and returned to the bond originator the following day 29 June 2022. On the 22 August 2022, I notified the bond originator that my financial circumstances had changed since my initial affordability assessment and under the National Credit Act I’m legally obligated to notify all parties of the change and could no longer proceed with the purchase. I was then told by the bond originator that I need to cancel this agreement with Standard Bank directly and he could not assist. I guess because he was not going to get paid he was not prepared to assist….living in SA, its all about the money. On the 23 August 2022, I reached out to Standard Bank CS Admin HL JHB New email and an automated reply was received requiring all necessary information. Immediately I sent through the documents and an email explaining the circumstances. This went on for the next 2 weeks without a single person responding to my emails or picking up the phone to contact me. Every time I reached out to the email, there was the same auto reply asking for information. I then emailed the Home Legal Cancellations Department at Standard Bank and got yet another automated reply but this time saying “Thank you for your email. The turnaround time for your query to be resolved is 5 working days, after which if no feedback is received please escalate your request to the team leader: ***” I was then asked to resend the documents and eventually received a response from Osvaldo Antonio Nhaca (Officer Cancellations Home Loans in Simmonds Street) to whom I explained the same issue all over……there was no feedback whatsoever from this point. I then escalated the issue (as stated above) to Shane Perumal on the 30 August 2022. He was out of office, then proceeded to next person in command Viola Plaatjies and her email returned as out of office on study leave. At this point I copied pretty much everyone in the Standard Bank legal cancellations department (not sure if they were all from the same department but I just wanted feedback) ….. To: Perumal, Shane S <***>; Legal Cancellations, <***>; CS Admin HL JHB-New <***>; Manentsa, Vuyo V <***> Cc: Anderson, Vaughan V <***>; Plaatjies, Viola V <***>; Barnes, Taryn T <***>; Adams, Vernon V <***>; Dibodu, Dorah D <***> To this day 4th November October 2022, not 1 person from the above list has come back to me.

I then decided to contact the call centre as my last resort, spoke to around 4 different people and all had to confirm with their superiors but never came back me. Between the 13 – 14 October I was lucky enough to reach a lady named Lungisa Madlingozi (Universal Banker, Voice Branch, Customer Contact Centre). This young lady reached out to Caron Beukes (technology and Operations Home Services Consultant) and the bond Attorneys to determine if the grant had been cancelled, from that point everything went dead. Its almost a month later from that last email and no further correspondence has been received. ……sad to think that all I required was a letter stating the Grant and pre agreement was cancelled or maybe a simple explanation on whether it can be cancelled or not. Service levels at Standard Bank have deteriorated drastically ….it’s absolutely sad.