So, I have an overseas bank account. I have this account because I worked in the United Kingdom a few years back and thought it would be good to keep it for when I travel there and need cash. I really never thought it would end up being the bane of my existence, but I was oh so wrong.
Last year in November I get a letter (via snail mail) to say that I need to register for tax purposes and let them know where I’m a resident. Now, since my address has been in South Africa for years, you think they would understand, but no; I still need to post these forms back to them before a specific date or I’ll be in trouble with the tax man.
So, I dutifully fill out all the forms and eventually make it to the post office (which is just as bad as the drivers licence place in my opinion) and ask them to mail it to the UK. I can’t send it normal mail because I know it will only end up there two months after the due date, so I say fine I’ll pay the R400 to send it. Then the lady behind the counter informs me that South Africa no longer sends post to the United Kingdom. My response was: “You have to be kidding me!”
I had no idea what I could do and started to panic a bit. I Googled the hell out of Lloyds Tsb, but found that they had NO Email address where I could scan through the documents and in fact there wasn’t even an email address for customer complaints. All I could do was bad mouth them on Twitter, or fill out an online complaint form (which I did, in detail).
I just couldn’t understand how in this day and age, with so much technology at our fingertips and a bank in a First World Country had no electronic way of contacting them. I could always phone them and be charged the exorbitant telephone fees of course! Eventually, I realised I could scan the documents through to family in the United Kingdom and get them to print it out and mail it for me. This was my solution, considering I never heard back from customer complaints.
I never heard back from them until exactly a month later. A month? Are you kidding me? Technically South Africa is supposed to be a third world country, but we can change our limit and a whole bunch of other things, all online. Even from our phones. So I get this call from the complaints department who proceeds to listen to my whole issue and then says: “I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to help you.” Good thing I sorted it out myself then, isn’t it? WTF? Then they always end the call with “Is there anything else I can help you with”? Let me think about that, “NO, since you couldn’t even help me with the first thing.”
I thought it was over after that phone call, but low and behold, a month later I get a letter (via snail mail once again even though I’ve asked to be paperless) to say they are addressing my complaint. Really, are you? Then another month goes by and I get another letter to say if I want to contact them again, here is a phone number, but the complaint is still being sorted.
My favourite part really, was the brochure that they attached to the letter which literally read “HOW TO COMPLAIN”.
All I can say to this is: “Thanks so much Lloyds Tsb for not sorting out my problem at all, putting me in a difficult and almost impossible situation in the first place and then telling me how I should complain”.
You know what, next time I have a complaint, I think I’ll just close the bank account and take my business elsewhere. How is that for complaining? I think I might be doing it wrong! 🙂
