“Absa tried to kill me”
According to HelloPeter’s industry complaints tracker, Absa is currently at the bottom of the list of banks when it comes to the compliments and complaints ratios on the site – though only marginally.
Of Absa’s total posts (5358), 83.4% (4,472) are complaints, and 16.6% (886) are compliments. This gives Absa a compliment-to-complaint ratio of 1:5.
The average compliment-to-complaint ratio on the site for all companies is 1:4.6 based on the total posts (25,010) where 20,197 posts were complaints, and 4,413 were compliments.
While complaints surveyed by BusinessTech had a response from Absa, few detracted from the copy-paste or variant of the statement:
“Dear Customer, Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We will investigate the matter and furnish feedback shortly. Kind regards.”
Of the 4,472 complaints, the biggest portion of complaints are directed at billing and account issues (23%), as well as the bank’s lack of feedback and response (18%) – while other, unspecified issues make up most complaints (32%).
Complaints against Absa range from simple adminstrative errors – to an instance where a life was allegedly put at risk.
“Absa tried to kill me”
On Monday (20 August) HelloPeter user, “Booi” lodged a complaint against Absa claiming the bank indirectly put his life at risk twice in one week.
“When a Type 1 diabetic asks ABSA bank to be 100% certain about the time taken for a new card to work, and whether or not my account will be blocked due to FICA, it isn’t curiosity that drives me,” Booi wrote.
Before allowing the bank to take his old card away, Booi claims to have asked the Absa employee dealing with him seven times whether there would be a chance he wouldn’t be able to access his account.
“My card has now not (worked) for 7 days, and in those 7 days I have twice had my sugar drop low enough to put myself at risk of going into a hypoglycimic coma,” Booi said. “On both occassions I tried desperately to access the cash in my accounts with ABSA with no success.”
At the time of publishing, Absa had not responded to Booi’s claims, nor to BusinessTech’s request for comment.
Banking industry trends
Despite Absa having the worst ratios on HelloPeter, it’s a marginal position between it and FNB. The bank is also definitely not the only bank facing an onslaught of dissatisifed customers on the site.
First National Bank (FNB) has the largest number of complaints, overall, at 7,288 (83.3% of total). FNB also has the highest amount of compliments, with 1,466 (16.7%).
This makes FNB’s rounded compliments-to-complaints ratio the same as Absa’s at one-to-five; though FNB’s decimal value (1:4.97) puts it slightly above Absa (1:5.01).
Total HelloPeter complaints and compliments for SA banks
| Bank | Total posts | Compliments (CMP) | % | Complaints (COM) | % | CMP:COM ratio |
| Capitec | 946 | 250 | 26.4 | 696 | 73.6 | 1:2.8 |
| Standard Bank | 6,626 | 1,194 | 18.0 | 5,032 | 82.0 | 1:4.2 |
| Nedbank | 3,326 | 617 | 18.6 | 2,709 | 81.4 | 1:4.4 |
| FNB | 8,754 | 1,466 | 16.7 | 7,288 | 83.3 | 1:5 |
| Absa | 5,358 | 886 | 16.6 | 4,472 | 83.4 | 1:5 |
| Total | 25,010 | 4,413 | 19.2 | 20,197 | 80.8 | 1:4.6 |
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