*UNRESOLVED* - WOOLWORTHS UNABLE TO CONFIRM WHETHER A BENEFICIARY HAS RECEIVED AN EFT OR NOT

Your complaints resolution consultant from Woolworths Financial Services - Lucienne Gabriel seems to have lost his voice.

Is he a nute?

I'm all for employing people with disabilities but it would be nice for Woolworths just to let me know if Lucienne can't speak and only communicate in writing.

Nonetheless let me articulate my problem once again.

I have complained to Absa about a payment I made to a beneficiary because I know that Woolworths is using Absa's platform to manage the credit card offering.

I have complained again to Absa about Woolworths not getting back to me last week about my issue.

Woolworths made first contact today at 10 am via an email I received.

Now I know for a fact that Lucienne has read my complaint from Absa about my refund because the automated email I received from this consultant is requesting that I provide evidence in the form of the beneficiaries statement of account to confirm that the beneficiary has never received the money that I have paid.

Now, I am sitting with POP which Absa has issued and with Woolworths branding on it that says the transaction was successful.

I have spoken to various call centre agents and I'm getting conflicted information as follows:

The one consultant says the money has been definitely been deducted from my account and is definitely with the beneficiary.

The beneficiary has been informing me from 14 February no payment has been received. Please refer to my detailed complaint to Absa.

The other consultant says the transaction has declined on Woolworths internal systems and I have to pay the beneficiary again because the transaction never went through.

Ok, so I went ahead and paid the money to the beneficiary from my FNB account and the beneficiary has now received the money. Great problem is solved.

BUT

Now the issue is the money is off my credit card and it's not being refunded.

Woolworths is requesting a statement from the beneficiaries account. The beneficiary has informed me that she isn't comfortable sharing her personal finances with either Absa or Woolworths.

She was willing to show me transactions from 12 February to 16 February because she knows me but she doesn't want to send me a screenshot or a statement of her account to forward to Woolworths or Absa.

Now I fully understand where the beneficiary is coming from because I will NOT share my personal finances with another institution than my own bank.

Because we live in this so called civilised democracy where we CAN'T TRUST ANYONE BECAUSE IF THEFT, ***** AND *******ION. I'm being sarcastic over here just that you're aware.

Furthermore we are living in the year 2024, which we have amazing technology as humans.

BUT

Do you really want to tell me there is no way to prove that the money was not received by the beneficiary other than requesting a statement of account from the beneficiary, which by the way bank with Capitec.

Does the banks or institutions not have agreements in place to cross check whether payments have been received or not. By the looks of it apparently not.

I have seen with my own eyes that there was no money coming from my credit card to the beneficiary yet my credit card is showing the money as deducted. So now the money is somewhere floating in cyber space. I don't know?

The only payment that reflects on the beneficiaries statement is the FNB payment they I have made.

Secondly do banks or any institution that deals with financials request proof of statements from other clients because there is really no other way to prove that money was not recieved?

I am sure that a wealthy client from for example Absa or Fnb or wherever will have the time or energy to do this ****ty task that I have to do because I'm not part of the 1% elite or wealthy clients.

Now as an example if Anglo Gold says that they cant find a payment by a customer but the customer has a proof of payment from their bank let's say FNB. Does FNB now request the client to go to Anglo Gold so that Anglo Gold can send through a statement of their account to prove they have never recieved the money. I THINK NOT!

I can guarantee you that Anglo Gold WILL NOT IN A MILLION YEARS give their statement of account to the client so that the clients bank FNB (as an example) can study Anglo Golds statement of account to determine whether the payment was received or not.

This request from any financial institution is ludicrous, insane and down right impossible to do.

So in giving you this scenario neither Absa or Woolworths is willing to reverse a mediocre amount of R250 back to me because according to their records the money was transferred yet the beneficiary has not received the money and I can confirm this because it's not on the beneficiaries statement from Capitec.

So now it's up to me to convince the beneficiary to please send me her statement of account. If not I can't get my money refunded.

In closing basically I'm the loser if a mediocre amount of R250 because neither Woolworths or Absa is willing to take responsibility or admit there was a system issue and I WILL PROBABLY NOT IN A MILLION YEARS GET AN ADMISSION NOR AN APOLOGY?

So can Woolworths please explain to me what am I supposed to do?

I can assure you I can handle the loss of R250 and so can Woolworths or Absa. But I think if the amount in question was in the millions I would have probably gotten better service in resolving this issue.

PS: Please read my detailed complaint in conjunction with the Absa complaint and once you have done your homework please get a senior manager to discuss with me the resolution on this matter because neither Lucienne nor the call centre agents are in a position of power to make a decision on a mediocre amount of R250. It's probably only a GM that can ensure there is no loss to his or her business unit for the amount of R250.

And please I beg of you do your homework before contacting me. I have taken the time and have provided you with everything you need to resolve this matter.

Please take the time to read the complaint and then get back to me if how we will resolve this.

You are more than welcome to use this real life scenario in your training programs as there is a lot of context and content created.

Thanks, Emil