SB won't refund me for deposit money swallowed by their ATM

I would like to share my horrible experience with Standard Bank, a bank I had trusted for a very long time.

On the 12th of October 2018, I tried to deposit cash into my standard bank account using one the SB atms at the Bayside mall in Tableview (Cape Town). The ATM number is Autobank B942. The amount was in the region of R700-R800. I inserted the amount into their ATM, and expected it to confirm how much I had deposited as it normally does before confirming the deposit. However, the ATM just "swallowed" the cash and gave me an error code 0465. It said it could not process the request and asked me to try again later. However my money was not returned.

I called Standard Bank and was given the service request number ********** 476. I was advised that the case would be resolved in about 2weeks. That never happened despite me following up with SB on numerous occasions. I was just passed from one consultant to the other. And at a certain point, I was advised that the request was not fully captured and that I have to redo the process. Fortunately I had taken a picture of the slip from the ATM with the error msg and ATM details. I logged another request on November 21 and was given a new service request number ********** 07. The process started again. Fast forward 3months later, I am still sitting in the same position trying to get my money from standard bank. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth to see how reluctant SB is to resolve queries where they have to refund the money. They make the whole process draining on the customer so that you eventually give up on following up. At a certain point one consultant asked me the exact figure of the money that I had deposited; I told them i wasn't sure but gave them an estimate based on how much I had spent on the day and how much i expected to have in my pocket left over; after all I didn't count the money as the ATM usually confirms it before you deposit it; I was merely getting rid of all the cash in my hands. The consultant advised that if the figure was not accurate I would not receive my money; is this a way for standard bank to get out of the situation very easily? Could they not do a recon of the ATM afterwards and confirm how much was not accounted for in their ATM? It is very lazy from SB and shows lack of will to resolve issues that are caused by their own system. After all, nowhere does SB tell you that you must count all your money before attempting to deposit it in their ATM otherwise you won't get your money back.

Stay away from SB and its poor service! I have had enough of them and I'm already in the process of moving to Investec. I just thought I should share this so that people know what kind of Bank SB is and how little they value their customers. They do not care about anything as long as it does not put money into their pockets.