First National, the don't care bank

Dear Michael Jordaan Chief Executive of First National Bank,

         It’s me again. Sorry to harp on about it, but the undertaking given by your bank to put more staff into one of your ailing branches hasn’t materialised.

It was nearly six months ago that Barry de Witt, your CEO of Branch Banking told me, We have arranged to increase staff numbers (see Big, Bad, Bad First National Bank).
This was at the Long Beach Mall branch in Cape Town's Southern Suburbs.

         Surely if this had been done your clients wouldn’t still be putting nasty messages in that Give us your thoughts book that you have at the branch.

         Here are some of the latest ones and I’ll include some of the ones I mentioned before just to refresh you memory.

         11/9/2012 - Liz Goate` wrote 'You have no staff available. You might as well close the branch down.'

         Liz owns the Lighthouse property management business, which involves having separate bank accounts for the properties on her books. And she told me this incredible story of what happened on this occasion when she went in to open another account.

         The man at inquiries was jumping around having apparently bumped the funny bone in his elbow and he claimed he couldn’t write. There was nobody else to help her so she told him she would wait, assuming that the pain would soon wear off.

         But the not so funny experience for her was that our manly FNB staffer still couldn’t write half and hour later. He must have been a soccer player.

        'I was surprised you could read my writing because I was so furious,' she told me. 'I have a huge number of accounts at that branch.'

         22/8/2012 - Veronique said of the service 'It’s up to SHIT!!! I pay a lot of money for your services. There are 2 people in your bank.'

         She is I assume a well healed client who expects the best service because she was previously with RMB Private Bank. As you  know this is the part of the FNB group that deals with wealth management and that kind of thing.

         She described the change as being 'disappointing.'

         9/7/2012 - K.Govender commented 'More tellers are needed. We are always waiting up to 30 min in the queue. The manager is of no help and is rude.'

         3/7/2012 - Rob Holding’s indictment was 'Always waiting at the tellers. Worst service of any FNB I’ve been to.'

         Wendy Fortune, who does the banking for the Photo First shop in the Mall, wrote, 'Most times when I come for change you don’t have any. Unacceptable for a bank not to have change. I had to go the Standard bank who could help.'

         She told me that FNB had now sorted out this problem for her.

         Tom Cooper’s complaint was, 'Find more competent technicians to service the ATMs. All three have similar defects on the screen.' And on the other side of the page there was this entry, 'Branch response. Technicians do not inspect ATMs once they have repaired them.'

         While I was looking through this classic book of how not to run a business the manager came up to me and assured me that all these comments no longer applied as they would shortly be getting more staff.

         Haven’t I heard that somewhere before? Last time when Barry said much the same thing I wrote that only time will tell whether things will improve or if the branch will remain a monument to BAD, BAD Service.

        Well this monument can’t be changed, it seems. It’s cast in stone.

         Your distressed Consumer Watchdog,

         Jon  
P.S. Barry told me the staff compliment was increased by three, but then there were two resignations and they are in the process of replacing them. 'The rest of your comments are noted and we will address them,' he added.
 

Big,Bad,Bad First National Bank

Dear Michael Jordaan, Chief Executive of First National Bank,

         The scary thing is that if it has been allowed to go on for so long at one of your 700 odd branches could it also be this bad at some of the others?

         A cancer like this could eventually destroy your entire empire.

         Have you or any of your executives ever been to the Long Beach Mall branch in Cape Town and looked at the Give us your thoughts book in which clients give you feedback about the standard of your service?

         The one there now only goes back as far as August last year thank goodness because that’s more than shocking enough.

The majority of what’s there is a terrible indictment of FNB’s management.

But the worst part is that it has been allowed to fester away for years without anybody doing a thing about it.

         If I was you I would remove this record of the Worst Service I have ever experienced. All it’s doing is telling everybody who cares to look how FNB’s management has failed dismally.

         I hate to say I told you so, but I did more than two years ago. And I even wrote about it on my blog. If you remember yours was the Bad of Good and Bad Banks (December 2010).

         Here are some of the hair-raising extracts from this litany of how not to run a business of any kind.

         26/8/11 Once again no service. Only 2 tellers. It’s Friday. The worst service in FNB – Brian Mitchell.

         26/8/11 Easily the worst FNB branch in the country. This is my second complaint about service. Nobody cares – Brad Bell.

         2/9/11 This is the worst service I have ever experienced in a bank – Rob Dent.

         21/10/11 Have never had feedback re shocking service here – Lynn Jenkine.

  

         These are followed by other anonymous ones just as damaging.

         "Rather close the branch."

         "Who’s reading our comments and is not doing anything about them?  Definitely changing banks soon."

         "Goodbye. Hello Capitec (bank)."

         "Welcome to 3^rd World Banking."

         "Where ever I am in this bank everybody around me is upset and angry – no service."
         Then there is the one that is perhaps the most telling of all. It was possibly written by somebody who works at the branch.

         "It’s not the teller’s fault. It’s all the supervisors and senior people’s fault. One supervisor ran away."

         Whoever wrote that can say that again. The senior people are entirely to blame.

         Heads should roll don’t you think Michael? The question is whose?

         Last week my wife Gayle went to the branch to pay money into our daughter’s account. She walked out on three days because the queues were so long and finally paid the money in after a half an hour wait. There was only one teller and it was Saturday morning!

         As you know when I told you about my wife’s experience you asked Barry de Witt your CEO of Branch Banking to investigate and contact me. All he did was to get the poor woman who was only appointed the branch manager two months ago to phone me.

         "Talk about running for cover in the face of the enemy and passing the buck," I then told you. "Evidently Barry didn't have the courage to contact me," my email went on. "Your manager is powerless to do anything about the situation if you and top management are not prepared to do anything.

         "In the same Mall there is Absa, Nedbank and Standard and I have been into all of them and I have never once had the same bad experience as my wife and I have had at the FNB branch."

         Soon afterwards Barry phoned to say he was looking into it. About time wouldn’t you say after three or perhaps more years of horrible service that everybody in your bank should have been aware of?

         He followed this with an email saying, "We have arranged to increase staff numbers." He didn’t say by how many so only time will tell whether things will improve or if the branch will remain as a monument to BAD, BAD Service.

         Regards,

         Jon, the Consumer Watchdog with dogged determination.

Standard Bank - What standard?

Dear Jacko Mareee, Chief Executive of Standard Bank,

          I can’t understand how your bank was voted No1 for service in the Banking Category Orange Index Awards, whatever they are, because all I got from this so called champion of service excellence of yours was a LEMON.

          If my experience is the yardstick the Standard you set is nothing to brag about. I’m sure you wouldn’t want it included in those whole page, newspaper advertisements you have been running since you won the Award.

          It’s more important to tell the world how all of us wear takkies on pay day so we can serve you faster. Well the service I got was takkie and it certainly didn’t involve speedy service because I’m still waiting after nearly three years.

          As I’ve already told you I have been trying to get your bank to stop sending vehicle finance statements and threatening letters of demand for Mr X to our address. This has been going on ever since my wife and I moved into our present house.

          The previous owner was not Mr X and from what I could establish he lived here five or six years ago. Yet in spite of the fact that your bank has been told this repeatedly and has promised to rectify the situation on numerous occasions the letters keep coming.

          My concern is that if judgment is taken against him we could have the Sheriff coming to our house to take our possessions. And I’ve heard of scary stories of what can happen if nobody’s at home to correct a mistake when the Sheriff arrives.

          I thought the problem had been finally solved a few months ago when your Western Cape Regional Director, Johan van Wyk undertook via his PA Corinda Strick, to stop the letters being sent to us. How wrong I was because it seems that this is of such mammoth proportions that one of your directors can’t solve it.

   

           

         And it’s even too big for you to handle.         

       


       The statements keep coming. And immediately after I had emailed you things got uglier than ever.     

          The latest is a letter marked URGENT on the one corner. It threatens him with legal action unless he pays the significant overdue amount. It also said that unless he paid adverse information regarding your payment performance will be reported to the National Credit Bureaux and could affect your ability to obtain credit in future.

          Instead of replying to the email I sent to your personal email address the buck was passed to Yasmin Bhoola, your Manager:  Executive & Escalated Complaints, Office of the Chief Executive.  Some title that.

          Yasmin told me in an email that the bank contacted Mr X and established that he is overseas.  She went on to say that according to the National Credit Act the bank couldn’t change the man’s address without his permission. Yet it contacted him????

          She added, We have been advised that he will be back in the country in April and we will then address the issue with him.

          A spokesperson for the National Credit Regulator told me that in the circumstances the Bank was quite entitled to change the man’s address without his permission. So who is right Jacko?

          And if your bank is No 1 for service why has it taken something like three years for it to come up with this excuse for not changing the address?

          Also if efficiency is the buzz word at Standard wouldn’t you want to have an up to date record of the addresses of people who owe you money. This is especially so if they have a vehicle in which your bank has an interest.

          What’s the point in telling Mr X, in your latest threatening letter, that We would like to remind you of your legal obligation to ensure that your asset remains comprehensively insured at all times if the letter is sent to the wrong address and your bank has been repeatedly told about this?

          Also Jacko hasn’t it occurred to anyone in your bank that it is decidedly odd that the gentleman in this case should not bother to tell you of his new address five years or more after he left the one he gave when he had his car financed by you?

          In recent months I have had reason to send complaints to the personal emails addresses of the Big Bosses of  all South Africa’s major banks, Nedbank, Absa, First National and now Standard. And only one of them, Michael Jordaan at FNB had the courtesy and the good public relations savvy to reply directly to me.

          So I thought you would be interested to know that he holds regular night classes for bank chief executives and other top brass in this sector, but so far the attendance has been depressingly poor.

          Yours hopefully,

          Jon, a Consumer Watchdog you can bank on.

PS. If our address gets much more tainted perhaps we should change it and you can go on sending the bank’s threats to an address where the delinquent Mr X will never see them. And that's exactly what you are still doing nearly two months after I first contacted you.

Buy my book 'Where have all the children gone?' on Amazon.com  It's a thriller with an underlying love story that defied generations of prejudice.

Brilliant Trail Blazer's new Consumer standard

Dear Consumers,

          Brilliant, fantastic. There's nothing like a trail blazer and hopefully they'll all be doing it one of these days.

          How come it’s taken something like a 100 years at a rough guess, for somebody to realise that consumers can’t go on being taken for a ride like this.

          It’s a minefield. Watch out; Watch out; businesses keep telling us. They’re all over the place, these warnings.

          Don’t’ think for a minute that they are there to protect you, the consumer. But you are still expected to comply with them as one of the privileges of parting with your hard earned cash.

          I don’t know when they started creeping in; those ominous words Terms and Conditions Apply. They could only have been dreamt up by some corporate lawyer determined to ensure that his client received the utmost protection from those ravenous sharks in the consumer pool.

          It’s behind these few words that advertisers hide all the nasty bits; all the things they are too ashamed to tell you openly in case they put you off their product completely.

          If they do actually let you see them in an ad why do they appear in the smallest possible print if they expect you to apply them? Looking at just a couple of editions of the Sunday Times I found these horrors in most of the large advertisements.

          One ad from Clover Dairies exhorted us to buy a bottle of milk to get a complimentary Sunday Times subscription delivered to your door. Simple enough you would have thought but the mile long Terms and Conditions torpedoed the whole thing.

          This was especially so as the print was so minute that only a forensic laboratory would have been able to decipher it. Even a paper that is in the printing business is so ashamed of them that it doesn’t want you to see them.

          All those words of warning for a bottle of milk and a newspaper; it’s unbelievable. Thankfully this dairy/newspaper team is not selling cars.

          A center spread colour ad for First National Bank told us about various aspects of its wonderful service. And in the one corner the tiny Terms and Conditions warning appeared to put the breaks on any fancy ideas you might have about asking for more than you are entitled to.

          Where you were supposed to find them was your problem. Did that gel with the bank’s motto: How can we help you? that appeared on the other side of the page?

          Other ads continued to promote this game of hide and seek. Cell C told us helpfully that for Terms and Conditions visit cellc.co.za

          Fixed line operator Telkom took up an entire page to tell us about its Gr 8 Deal which is its venture into the cell phone business. And of course the smallest print at the bottom was reserved for the catches, otherwise known as its full terms and conditions. These were hiding on its website.

          With all these big companies still stuck in a time warp it’s been so refreshing to see Riaan Stassen and his Capitec Bank cutting through this ridiculous protectionist, consumer unfriendly behaviour. Its television ad shows a man holding up a card with Terms and Conditions Apply written on it in bold letters.

          What do you think he does with it? He tears it up and throws it away.

          No wonder South Africa’s youngest bank, that is just 10 years old, was named one of the 27 Great Brands of Tomorrow by Credit Suisse. It was the only African brand to be included.

          Not surprisingly its share price has gone through the roof.

       How long have we got to wait before the rest of the business world in South Africa wakes up to the fact that Terms and Conditions are a gigantic no, no and should all be torn up and thrown in the rubbish bin?

          Do your bit consumers by keeping well clear of the Terms and Conditions freaks.

          Yours watchfully,

          Jon, the Consumer Watchdog

P.S. I have now been embarrassed into revealing my Terms and Conditions referred to in the introduction to my blog. They are: Don’t believe anything on my Blog unless it’s true. That’s the gist of them but my lawyer has managed to spin them out to 25 pages which can be found on my website if only I had one.