Somehow they call it a service?!

Has anyone had the displeasure of working with the standard bank Forex department? They are stuck in the 1900's its a smidge better than smoke signal communication.

When you receive an incoming payment from a foreign customer you either need to phone the trading desk or book an exchange rate online prior to receiving the funds. The procedure itself is not too cumbersome, its just pointless. When you book a rate you get one option, you just have to say 'Yes", there is no negotiation, just a waste of my time. "Bank charges to follow booking".

They state that the reason for booking a rate is to allow customers the option of booking a preferential rates, their is not option to automatically choose the spot rate. "Bank charges to follow booking".

When you make a payment to foreign supplier, you also need to book a rate, (No negotiation) "bank charges to follow booking" then you are required to magically know that you need to email supporting documents to standard bank. (There is no prompt anywhere stating any of the requirements while making payments) "Bank charges to follow payment"

If they require any additional supporting documents they email you a request, when you submit the documents via email. you are then informed that the timeline has expired, and you should start the process again "Bank charges to follow"

To sum this all up, everything is done via email, Their is no online dashboard of receipts and payments pending documents. Their is no instruction manual. Their is no option to upload documents. You have no choice but to fill out documents manually and submit these via email to one of their departments. (That do not communicate with each other) "Bank charges to follow"

That fact that they call this a service and charge their customers for the privilege astonishes me on a daily basis. "Bank charges to follow"