Poor customer service for a prestige account holder

<p>Recently I decided to advertise my double door fridge/freezer and a washing machine online on the infamous OLX and Gumtree websites. Needless to say, within minutes, I was inundated with calls from various interested buyers. Before I continue, I need to mention that I am in no way ****** to any race or nationality or gender. I am an American citizen, living in SA now for over 20 years and my experience in SA has lead me to have reservations when I hear the accent in the voice on the line. And I think that most of us, if we are honest, can agree to it. Eventually after the numerous calls, I received a call from a guy called Ronald Mabaso ( ********** 953 ) who had agreed to purchase the fridge under my given conditions/price. Knowing how people are ****med daily on such sites, I took the extra precaution of requesting payment upfront and waiting until it is cleared before releasing the goods. Ronald Mabaso called me to say he is depositing the money asap. And he was very willing to wait till the money had cleared. That evening I received a notification saying there has been a deposit from a Nedbank account to my Standard Bank account for the agreed amount of the goods. Again, due to the various online ****s I decided to wait until I could see the money reflect in my account. The next day I logged to my account and saw the amount reflected as a deposit among the rest of my transactions. There was no additional information from standard bank either via the sms notification I received or on their online system indicating the money deposited using a cheque was not yet cleared. Based on all this information, I allowed the goods to be released thinking I had covered all my basis (In hindsight..stupid I know!). The next day after the goods were collected, Standard Bank sends me a sms notification indicating that the ‘cheque’ deposit was unpaid and that account was closed. My first issue where Standard bank is concerned is that on the second notification I received indicates it was an uncleared cheuque which was information not given in the first sms notification or on their internet banking site. In my confusion and fury I called the bank ***** division and the only response a prestige account holder got was, ‘We are sorry but we cannot do anything. You should have made sure that the cheque was cleared first’. Why don’t they have systems to inform their clients it was a cheque deposit and has not being cleared. Why does this become my problem. The weirdest thing is that two days later Ronald messaged me to say, he doesn’t like the fridge and will be sending it back. I thought ok fine, at least I get the stuff back. However, a few hours later, a delivery person, Lucky ( ********** 263) called to say that he has the goods on his truck and I need to pay him (via direct money transfer) an amount of R950 before he can deliver the goods. With everything that had transpired, my intuition was working overtime and asked him to take a photo of the goods, to which his response was that he doesn’t have a phone with a camera. I asked which delivery company he works for and where it was registered. He just could not give me an answer. Ronald called me numerous times thereafter to portray his incapacity to pay for the items as SARS had blocked his account. He even indicated that as soon as his account was open, he wants to buy the goods again and if I could please pay for the delivery. I asked him to email me his ID and he sent me the attached which on the website ‘Windeed’ and ‘Experion’ showed as non-existent. For the safety of my family and now fully aware that these schemes are very prevalent in SA, I just had to close my eyes and allow the psychological and ego damage to slide.</p> <p>1. Why can’t the bank immediately trace this cheque (I mean who uses a cheque these days). There should be a cheque number or even a camera to capture the culprit.</p> <p>2. Why can’t the banks all have a separate section for uncleared amounts for the visual awareness of clients</p> <p> Should banks not be held responsible for their inefficiencies as well. We are all aware of the ********** schemes out there and we as concerned citizens do our part. The banks also needs to do their part and have systems which help their clients prevent such incidents.<br /> </p> <p> </p> <p>Standard Bank appears to be such a reputable entity but they fail in their systems especially *****. I am a PRESTIGE customer and they should be doing their utmost to protect their current clients and their money. I can’t be sitting here every day and watching every transaction that goes in and out of my account. I AM RELYING ON STANDARD BANK AND THEIR ***** DIVISION to safeguard my money and transactions!!!!!!!!!!!! This has made me question their systems and the safety of my money and I am actually deciding to switch to FNB. Banks should not be doing this. If the ***** division cannot assist their clients, what is the purpose of that division, if I, as a client CANNOT TRUST THEM. I am extremely frustrated and disappointed in Standard Bank and will let everyone know how poor their ***** division and customer service is. I cannot rely on Standard Bank at all now. Standard Bank ***** division did not even assist to gather more information as to what is the telephone number so they can trace the guy etc. They even said that they will not open a case against this as it was my fault. Their service is absolutely pathetic!!!!!! To date, I have not received a courtesy call from the Prestige account division or the ***** division to discuss what had happened.</p> <p>All I can say as far as Standard Bank is concerned, I finally understand how the Japanese managed to de***** them in the recent credit card/atm *****. Their systems are stuck in the ancient times and their ***** department has no concern in actually stopping such incidents and doing what they are meant to be doing. If Standard bank does not start putting their business first before their employees need for doing no work, they will not stay in business very long as they will lose many clients. </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>