WL
Werner L
1 reviews | Active since Aug 2009
02 Aug 2019, 09:17
Standard Bank prepaid electricity link to Tshwane utterly dysmal!
I've been with Standard Bank for decades and their banking systems have always been top notch. Lately the stability of their systems has declined sharply. Today marks the third occasion where I could not purchase prepaid electricity through the Standard Bank app or the Standard Bank Internet Banking website, because their link to Tshwane Municipality's recharge systems was down! As always, they casually shrugged and blamed Tshwane for having technical issues. They showed zero concern for the fact that my prepaid meter was flashing red, that is was Friday and we would be in darkness for an entire weekend in mid-winter, or that I would have take off work on Monday to queue at the Tshwane offices if my prepaid meter finally ran out of battery backup. Luckily, I can ALWAYS count on my local Total service station. Somehow, Total's link to Tshwane's prepaid recharge system is NEVER down, and they have saved my household several times now -- like they once again did this morning. If a damn Total garage can always remain connected to Tshwane, why can't Standard Bank?!
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Replies (3)
Standard Bank's replyOfficial
04 Aug 2019, 05:31Hello Werner
Thank you for posting your comment.
We assure you that as an organization we are committed to providing the best possible service and assure you that this will be addressed as a matter of urgency.
We apologize for the inconvenience and undue frustration, this has caused.
We greatly appreciate your continued support
Kind regards
Tshilidzi Mulaudzi
Complaint Resolution Centre
**** *** ***
**** *** ***
*** *** **** (fax)
Standard Bank's reply04 Aug 2019, 05:31
Official
Hello Werner
Thank you for posting your comment.
We assure you that as an organization we are committed to providing the best possible service and assure you that this will be addressed as a matter of urgency.
We apologize for the inconvenience and undue frustration, this has caused.
We greatly appreciate your continued support
Kind regards
Tshilidzi Mulaudzi
Complaint Resolution Centre
**** *** ***
**** *** ***
*** *** **** (fax)
Standard Bank's replyOfficial
06 Aug 2019, 15:11Dear Werner
Thank you once again for posting your comments.
I refer to my email correspondence and can confirm that this matter has been attended to.
Kind regards
Clint Petersen
Complaint Resolution Centre
***
Thank you once again for posting your comments.
I refer to my email correspondence and can confirm that this matter has been attended to.
Kind regards
Clint Petersen
Complaint Resolution Centre
***
Standard Bank's reply06 Aug 2019, 15:11
Official
Dear Werner
Thank you once again for posting your comments.
I refer to my email correspondence and can confirm that this matter has been attended to.
Kind regards
Clint Petersen
Complaint Resolution Centre
***
Thank you once again for posting your comments.
I refer to my email correspondence and can confirm that this matter has been attended to.
Kind regards
Clint Petersen
Complaint Resolution Centre
***
WL
Werner L's updateReviewer Update
06 Aug 2019, 17:05From my perspective, a prepaid transaction originates from my end via the bank's systems. Tshwane come into the picture subsequent to that, and if they failed to connect to the bank's payment gateway owing to whatever ****** municipal incompetence on their part, Standard Bank should know about that immediately. Your systems should be aware that a transaction which I attempted to perform via one of your platforms, had failed. It would time out, or Tshwane would return some sort of error code to your banking app.
And since this is a fairly critical transaction - especially one o' clock in the morning when we ran out of power - and since unrestricted access to electricity could actually be described as a basic right, the fact that the bank would then simply shrug and allow this transaction to fail, is a bit callous in my view.
I work in IT. I write highly available, fault-tolerant billing systems for a telecoms company. The strategy we follow when critical transactions fail between decoupled systems, is to cache and retry. And if after a set number of retries the transaction still keeps failing owing to infrastructure failure, we park the transaction and deal with it later. And you know why we are able to do this? It's because we know our customers. We know which customers have money and are good for it, and we don't penalize them for a systems failure for which they are not to blame - especially not for a fault that is bound to clear up within a short period of time!
Now ask yourself, Clint - between myself, Tshwane and Standard Bank, if there is one single party who should know me well as a customer, who would most definitely know whether or not I am good for it, and who should know whether it is worthwhile to simply give me my electricity coupon now and then try to bill it to my bank account later - who would that party be? Who would have the best and most reliable insight into my bank balance? Standard Bank, I should think.
And yet, somehow, none of this has ever occurred to your systems architects. And why is that? Because Standard Bank is not customer-focused. If you were, your systems would be completely fault tolerant. I don't have to go ask Tshwane why I can always buy electricity at Total, 24/7. I know why. It's because the payment device their staff use was developed by a company that specializes in these kinds of third party payments. To me it is clear that Standard Bank could definitely stand to be a little less ****y and could learn a thing or two about keeping the lights on. Failure is never an option when it comes to basic services.
WL
Werner L's update06 Aug 2019, 17:05
Reviewer Update
From my perspective, a prepaid transaction originates from my end via the bank's systems. Tshwane come into the picture subsequent to that, and if they failed to connect to the bank's payment gateway owing to whatever ****** municipal incompetence on their part, Standard Bank should know about that immediately. Your systems should be aware that a transaction which I attempted to perform via one of your platforms, had failed. It would time out, or Tshwane would return some sort of error code to your banking app.
And since this is a fairly critical transaction - especially one o' clock in the morning when we ran out of power - and since unrestricted access to electricity could actually be described as a basic right, the fact that the bank would then simply shrug and allow this transaction to fail, is a bit callous in my view.
I work in IT. I write highly available, fault-tolerant billing systems for a telecoms company. The strategy we follow when critical transactions fail between decoupled systems, is to cache and retry. And if after a set number of retries the transaction still keeps failing owing to infrastructure failure, we park the transaction and deal with it later. And you know why we are able to do this? It's because we know our customers. We know which customers have money and are good for it, and we don't penalize them for a systems failure for which they are not to blame - especially not for a fault that is bound to clear up within a short period of time!
Now ask yourself, Clint - between myself, Tshwane and Standard Bank, if there is one single party who should know me well as a customer, who would most definitely know whether or not I am good for it, and who should know whether it is worthwhile to simply give me my electricity coupon now and then try to bill it to my bank account later - who would that party be? Who would have the best and most reliable insight into my bank balance? Standard Bank, I should think.
And yet, somehow, none of this has ever occurred to your systems architects. And why is that? Because Standard Bank is not customer-focused. If you were, your systems would be completely fault tolerant. I don't have to go ask Tshwane why I can always buy electricity at Total, 24/7. I know why. It's because the payment device their staff use was developed by a company that specializes in these kinds of third party payments. To me it is clear that Standard Bank could definitely stand to be a little less ****y and could learn a thing or two about keeping the lights on. Failure is never an option when it comes to basic services.