Shyft app, remove “ft” and replace with an “i”

Tick tock, Standard Bank.

There is no patience or understanding left.

I have now received an outbound ticket advising that I must wait up to two days simply to log into my share-trading account. Is this seriously your response to a failed platform migration? I have been unable to trade since last Thursday, and you are now telling me to wait until Wednesday in a volatile market.
That is not merely poor service; it is a serious and unacceptable risk to my investments. A trading platform that can lock a client out of their account for days, provide no meaningful support, and offer no credible resolution timeline is not a platform I can trust with my money.

Your message was sent at 10:20, stating that someone would contact me directly. It is now 12:20, and I am still waiting. I called your call centre at 09:37 this morning and was promised a call back then as well. That call has also not happened.

And now, after two hours of silence, I finally receive a call, not to resolve the issue, not to restore access, and not to provide a timeline, but merely to confirm that I am who I say I am and to tell me that the matter will now be escalated.

You had two hours to complete that basic verification and begin the escalation process. Instead, only now are you starting it. This is ridiculous. It demonstrates exactly why I have no confidence that this matter is being treated with the urgency it requires.

So where is the actual ownership? Where is the person empowered to fix this? Where is the leadership?
I remain locked out because your migration failed. Your call centre cannot assist, your escalation team has not provided a resolution, and all I have received are generic apologies, repeated promises of a call back, and instructions to wait.

Please stop sending automated, AI-generated responses and arrange for a competent person with the authority to resolve this matter to call me immediately. I require a clear explanation, confirmation that my investments are secure, and a firm time by which access will be restored.

At this point, I have lost confidence in Standard Bank’s ability to manage my investment affairs responsibly. I will be winding up my relationship with the bank and moving my banking and investment business elsewhere.

Thank you. The issue has now been resolved.

I escalated the matter with the service provider and requested confirmation that my email address had been properly whitelisted. Once this was completed, all outstanding emails came through. My apologies, it appears that the problem was on their side rather than Standard Bank’s.

That said, I would like to raise a broader concern regarding the migration experience from a customer perspective. I have been involved in core banking migrations for many years, and this has been among the poorest migration experiences I have personally encountered.

On the day of migration, there was no clear outbound communication explaining what was changing, how the new process or platform would work, where customers could find supporting information, or what benefits the new system would provide. As a result, although the technical migration may be regarded as successful, the customer experience was not.

A successful migration should extend beyond moving customers onto a new system. It should include proactive communication, clear guidance, accessible support, and a compelling explanation of the value the new service offers. Without this, customers are left uncertain and frustrated, regardless of whether the underlying technology is functioning as intended.

At this stage, I remain unconvinced about the benefits of the new system and will need to assess whether it meets my needs going forward. In my view, the change-management process was poor and did not reflect the standard I would expect from Standard Bank.