Strike 2, Standard Bank

brad — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:46:35 +0200

Today Standard Bank makes it back onto this blog. This time it is definately their fault (before the issue was subjectively their responsibility). Let me start off by saying, at a rough calculation I pay SB over R1000/month if you add up the fees and the interest, so mentally I guess I consider their level of customer service to me should be better than my insurance provider, better than my ADSL provider, better than many things I pay for every month. I have a current account, a savings account, a credit card (well, two, but only one account), a revolving credit facility, and I have just financed a car with them. Sure, that total fee is a bundle of services, but, let's pretend we should get pretty good service, for one or all.

My (and Mandy's secondary card attached to the same account) credit card expired at the end of last month. I knew it was coming because someone pointed it out about 2 months ago when I paid for something. Now, between FICA, and electronic stuff like Internet Banking, Standard Bank knows where I live, and they know how to contact me, by phone, email, and post (I even get my CC statement as an email, which they phoned me less than 2 months ago to arrange). Except the Card Division (I have had issues before with their absurd relationship with their Card Division, they may as well be an entirely different company). They sent our replacement cards to Grahamstown. My old preferred branch, I changed my preferred branch to our local branch, at the beginning of the year. So we don't have our credit cards, we can't use them to spend money, and ultimately Standard Bank is losing out on business (as is their provider, Mastercard). Luckily, the Claremont branch (after spending about 45 minutes there today) jumped on it to sort things out, and get the Grahamstown card cancelled, and have a new one posted to their branch.

I got a very nice apology, verbally, and later on the phone, for the mess up, Claremont took responsibility for the mess up, and the supervisor is going to manage the issue herself. But, something Kyle and I have discussed before, you, as a customer should not forget that when a company does the equivalent of cutting your arm off, and offers you a cloth to wrap your stump up with, they started off by chopping off your arm. Sure it puts a company at a disadvantage, but they should not have stuffed up in the beginning (and I hold Banks to a higher standard because they deal with people's livelihoods, and they are legally obliged by FICA to be on top of their game). South African's are generally quite accepting of poor service and being stuffed around, often ending up quite taken back when there is effort to repair damage done (thankful, even).

I am happy that SB managed to start the ball rolling towards a solution, but it doesn't get back the 45 minutes I spent there today, it won't give back the 30 minutes or so it will take to pick up my card when it arrives, and it certainly won't get back the 5-7 working days I will not have my credit card to give SB money, and buy nice things. How would you treat a customer who gives you over a R1000/month? What bank in South Africa actually gives good service, because everyone I speak to has the opinion that they are all as bad as each other? I know I have been dreaming of walking into SB and closing my accounts, to move to someone who would welcome me, and work hard to keep my accounts. Even if that doesn't happen now, I know the day will probably come when I get to walk in, and say "Hi, I would like to close my accounts, and inform you that your poor efforts to surprise me in the past has lead me to the decision of not using Standard Bank as my business's banking partner".