Standard Bank SA - Dysfunctionality and Incompetence

Standard Bank in South Africa is in my experience dysfunctional. I am personally not a Std Bank client but have had the misfortune of having to deal with this company through administration of trusts with Std Bank accounts.

My experiences: - Systems are cumbersome, making it laboriously tedious for employees to assist clients in what should be verfy simple processes. - Software systems obstructive in allowing employees to assist clients. - Digital software systems are flawed. - Assistance is not available or don't work: when attempting to get assistance the call lines either don't answer at all; lines drop if one does happen to get a person answering; the person either can't or is unwilling to assist and bumps one off to some other department call-line (for more 20 to 30 minute waits) without asking if that's what one wants; or the lines are so ****led as to make intelligent dialogue impossible.

This applies to the general enquiries help line, digital banking help (20 minute wait before answering), business banking support (25 minute wait without answer), as well as Std Bank International/Offs**** in Sandton, who didn't answer their help line at all.

Problem Example: (one of many) SA online system blocking access to international banking platform forgotten-password reset process. Through errors in the SA card-to-profile link verification software, missing digits and pin number for a card belonging to an old account that has long since been closed, are requested in order to proceed with the new password setup, without recourse to any other alternative procedure or assistance. As the requested information is obsolete and nolonger either relevent or obtainable, the entire process is blocked, locally and internationally. Bang.

A complicated mess in the software which no-one seems available or able to fix. After five hours spent over two days, and a great deal of airtime expense trying to get through, and find anyone who can help, I've as yet had no success. Not one bit of progress has been achieved.