Standard bank closing accounts with money in them without warning!!!!

My wife has a 32 day deposit with standard bank for more than 20 years and receives statements every 3 months. We received the last statement on 11 December 2017.

On 6 March 2018 we went to the Irene Village Mall branch to give notice that we want to release some of the money. My wife took her ID book and latest statement. The teller asked for her ID book and then said she as no accounts. We said impossible here is the statement, she looked again and said yes, there was an account but it was closed and the balance was 0 and she cannot help us.

I then insist on speaking to the branch manager but was referred to a person by the name of Brian. After a while we saw him but he also said, sorry, the account was closed and we have no money left. I then insisted to speak to the manager or I would lay a ***** charge with the police. Suddenly they looked again and "found" the money. It was no longer in the account but transferred to a trust fund with some legal company. Apparently this was done on 13 Dec as the account was not FICA'ed.

We never received any notice from Standard bank that there was a need to re-FICA or that the account was closed. On looking at the current value of the investment it was also clear that there was no more interest accumulated since the last statement.

After a lot of arguing, Brian was not to happy to help and rather arrogant making us feel like we are *********, he agreed to sort out the problem and have the money returned to an account.

First he said my wife had to FICA, since we did not have the documents with us it required a trip home and then a 60 minute wait again to see Brian.

He then said it would take 5 working days and we must come back on 13 March.

On 13 March I tried to contact him with no reply. On 14 March I tried again, after 8 calls to the Standard bank number I was finally transferred to the Irene branch only to be told Brian is on leave. The lady I spoke to said she is aware of the problem but it was still not sorted out and she would call me back. I am still waiting.....

My wife needs the money for a trip to see her ailing mother but now we are stuck.

Standard bank Irene has the most disgusting customer service and worst attitudes I have ever encountered and we will stop doing business with them and Standard Bank in general at once!

Seem like my next step would be to lay the ***** charges anyway....