Standrad Bank's Service Stinks

My wife and I recently went to SARS to obtain their assistance with my wife's tax returns for 2019 (March 2018 to February 2019). I should from the outset indicate that we are pensioners my wife being 66 and I 73. After waiting several hours we were told by the assistant that they wanted to see my wife's full bank statements for the tax period. The next day we went to the local branch of Standard Bank where my wife holds her account. As we are forced to visit the branches from time to time we are used to the fact that at the bank you always wait between 15 to 30 minutes for assistance. We were already in possession of the statements for the last six months of the tax year we requested copies of the statements for the period 1 March 2018 to 30 August 2018. We were given a number of documents and then went back to SARS for another two hour wait. On this occasion we were so disappointed when the lady at the counter pointed out that there was a gap of about four months in the statements given to us by Standard bank from 8 March to early July. So for a second time we went back to the branch to get the right documents. On this occasion the lady who assisted us, first suggested that we should just inform SARS that there were no transactions during the missing four months. As this would be clearly ******* we did not find this acceptable and insisted on the correct information. The lady continued to fumble on her computer for a long time and eventually presented us with a stack of documents which she alleged were the right ones. She actually showed us the months on the statements that were missing. As the lines were very long we did not want to keep the waiting people too long and accepted the documents. On our arrival at home I noticed, again to our disappointment that instead of giving us the information relating to 2018 as requested, she had in fact provided an excess of documents all relating 2019. The documents were therefore useless and we remained under pressure to obtain the correct information. We then decided that the people working at the branch were not capable of assisting us and decided to get help on the Standard Bank website. Unfortunately there is only one number provided as well as an e-mail address to communicate with Standard Bank. We know from experience that telephone calls are seldom successful in dealing with enquiries and complaints and therefor decided to follow the email route. On 17 October I forwarded an e-mail on behalf of my wife explaining the situation and the information that we required. I was pleasantly surprise when two days later we received and e-mail on 19 October from a Mr Darryl Hannubus of the Customer Contact Centre E-mail Unit. He actually apologised for our experience so far, and confirmed that he would assist us. He requested some minor information like my wife's ID number and Bank Card Number which we forwarded to him on 21 October. Thereafter all communications came to a standstill. We therefore decided against our own better judgement to phone the call centre to ask them to put me in touch with Mr Hannubus. I understand that Standard Bank has a procedure to ensure that the persons they are talking to are properly identified as the owners of the relevant accounts. The problem with the staff is again one of gross incompetence. The computer generates questions which the caller must respond to. Unfortunately the operators of the system react like mechanical robots. They cannot combine thinking with the questions. They ask questions that relate to the time when the bank account was opened and if your answer does not respond to that information you are blocked on your accounts. For example a question relating to property owned by my wife was answered in the negative because she no longer owns the property was interpreted as wrong. (Must I report every loaf of bread that I buy to the bank??? or every motor vehicle that I sell) A couple of human reaction rersponses could have teased out the truth but in view of their robotic training the staff are not required to think and adapt their questions correctly. We were also cut off halfway through the conversation and the person that we were talking to at the time interpreted this as the actions of ******** and blocked us off from some of the facilities on e-banking. But that is another story. I will return to my main story and confirm that eventually we found someone who was willing to talk to us about the situation but again the dreaded mechanical response. No we could not be transferred to Mr Hannabus, nor his manager nor somebody else that could follow the matter up. There was only one robotic answer and that is that the agent would escalate the matter. ( A word borrowed from the government and its parastatals which means goodbye, resolve your own problems) The lady assured me that she would send an e-mail to Mr Hannubus as well as her supervisor and that by Friday 25 October I would have an answer. My response was that I did not believe for one minute that this would be the result of my complaint but mechanically I was refused any other assistance. No one would be surprised, and I am sure this applies to management at the bank that I never received any further response from the bank. I remain unaided with the simple request of statements for six months legally required by SARS. My feeling is that they could just as well nationalise Standard Bank as it already mimics the actions of governments departments to perfection.