Get ready for a tale of a bank with a charge of fraud against it - for 33c. Yup, that`s 33c, as in a third of a buck. Not the US hip hop star of a similar name, although with about as much bling, as we`ll see later.
Well, the story starts early this month, when said customer checked his bank statement and discovered an amount of 33c in interest had been charged on a debit amount. As the customer had never been in debit, he logged onto the bank`s Web site and tried - three times - to send an online form, which failed each time. So, he clicked on "contact us" and pulled up a page displaying the bank`s call centre number.
Pity the poor person who answered the call, as she was given 24 hours to put back the 33c and get someone to call said customer and explain why the account had been debited. Or else, said he: "I`ll lay a charge of fraud with the South African Police Service."
The customer consultant had, up until this point, concurred with the customer that the debit had mistakenly been taken off his account, but baulked at a 24-hour turnaround time. "Forty-eight hours," said she. Still at loggerheads, the call ended.
Monday morning blues
Just over 48-working-hours later, the customer popped along to the local police station and laid a charge of fraud. The at-first incredulous desk sergeant was only too happy to take down the statement when she heard this was a war against unscrupulous bank practices. Charges are high enough, as the Competition Commission has heard, without extra "charges".
And this is where the saga gets interesting, and now we can go public with the names too, as it is under investigation. First National Bank, after being informed by my husband, from my last column, called back in 45 minutes. Not bad.
The at-first incredulous desk sergeant was only too happy to take down the statement when she heard this was a war against unscrupulous bank practices.
Nicola Mawson
Then it told him that what had happened was that a transaction made on 23 June 2006 was only banked on 1 July 2006. So, it backdated the transaction, putting him into debit. When asked why "in-contact" had not informed him of this via SMS, the bank said it would look into it.
But hubby ponders a while, and comes to the conclusion that, as the bank does not backdate cheques to the date they were written, it should not do so with debits.
And here the whole thing stalls for a while.
Paperwork
Then, hubby does something a bit unusual. He empties out his wallet and throws those little pieces of paper away. And finds the slip. And discovers the transaction was charged to his account a week before he made it. By now he has an appointment with a police inspector, who stands him up, and leaves another message for the bank manager.
Eventually, some important person gets back to him and admits the bank had a small systems problem around about the beginning of the month. So it has probably overcharged all its debit card customers. Possibly.
So, what did hubby get out of this? Nothing really. He spent hours trying to resolve the issue, loads of cash on phone calls, and still does not have his 33c back. Which actually was never the issue. Instead, he was offered a petrol card and asked to never lodge complaints with the call centre. Call the branch instead. He`s also still waiting for written confirmation from the bank about its error.
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