Standard Bank charges on dormant account and unfulfilled promises

Standard Bank allowed my dormant Student Achiever account to go into arrears for years by continuing to charge the bank fees to my account. The bank did not bother to let me know that my account was still open and that it was accumulating a negative balance. They simply allowed my account to go into debt for over a decade without sending me a single text message or email to notify me of the issue.

This is despite the fact that it clearly states on their website:

If you do not operate on your current account for 45 consecutive days, then your account shall be flagged as semi-dormant and if you still fail to operate your account for a further period of 45 consecutive days then your account shall be deemed dormant, irrespective of the amount of the balance therein. We shall endeavour to contact you telephonically and shall notify you in writing of the dormant status of your account. If despite notification, you still fail to operate your account and the balance thereon is less than one month’s fees, we shall close your account after a period of 28 days

Then I suddenly received an sms to say that if I switched my account to a 'MyMo' account they would write off my negative balance and close the original account. Tired of fighting this issue I agreed to this compromise and requested the switch be made.

On 16 September 2020 I received an sms from Standard Bank stating:"we'll make the switch to your new MyMo account and write off your negative balance. We'll send you confirmation when it's done"

I did not receive a confirmation as promised so on 26 October I emailed the bank to find out if they had delivered on their above promise. To date I have not received a reply to my email.

So on 2 December 2020 I went into the bank in an attempt to get some answers only to find out that my account had not been switched. The teller at the bank was horrified to find out that my dormant account had racked up such a large bill without any communication from the bank. She assured me that I was not responsible for paying it and the account should be closed. She emailed someone regarding the issue and told me they would sort it out.

One month later and I have just called the Standard Bank customer care line to find out that the account is still open and still reflects a negative balance!! I cannot believe it.

At this stage I am tired and frankly absolutely furious. What am I supposed to do? The bank has promised to write off the negative balance and close the account but they are just not doing it. How can you operate like this? Constant empty promises, unanswered emails... I have never received such poor service from a company before.

I'd like to add that my brother was in the exact same situation as me. He successfully switched to MyMo and his negative balance was written off. Why has the same not been done for my account as promised by the bank?

I am airing this issue on the internet in the hopes that Standard Bank finally deliver on their promises and actually sorts this issue out after all these months. If the account is not closed by the end of next week (8 Jan 2021) I am going to lay a complaint with the banking ombudsman.