Thursday 10 May 2007

Absa Home Loans - WAKE UP!

Well, S.A is fed up and this is why I've decided to write this article on behalf of real estate agents, bond originators, buyers and sellers in South Africa. I seriously hope that this article gets to the right people in that "dreaded" ABSA home loans department because the wheels are slowly starting to fall off that bus!

I can honestly say that in sunny South Africa, ABSA home loans are by far the worst home loans division...

According to ABSA they've put in a new system that were meant to increase turn around time for bond applications. They have appointed a new head for their Home Loans division in Jhb and apparently hired new call centre staff. Well all 3 of those area's have not improved, in fact, they've sunk to an all time low. I've received many complaints and it appears as though hundreds of applications are still pending with ABSA. Can anybody help us?

Their call centre staff are below the industry standard. To try find out how far your bond applications are is a nightmare. They're not able to us who's dealing with the bond application which obviously means there is a huge lack of training and understanding of how the business operates. They JUST don't have that "umph" to be able to take it to the next step.

ABSA please this is a shout out to you and your home loans division... Wake Up, smell the coffee and get cracking or Nedbank, Standard and FNB are going to leap way ahead of you!

WizardMan "Currently Pending"

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting article, you sure dont pull any blows. This seems to be a yo-yo between various banks. We run an estate agency and seem to go from bank to bank with loyalty but also find certain times certain banks shape and other times they dont. We work very hard for a living and sometimes I rate the banks as efficient as the civil service.(Maybe they should also go on strike and the service will automatically improve) Easter was a disasterand if I rated them from worst to best my Worst was ABSA, then Standard Bank, Then FNB then Nedbank.
I hope the banks do read this article as next time it will be one of the others turns.

Anonymous said...

I am an ABSA employee working in the homeloans department and I dont think people realize how busy we are. We are all human and do make mistakes, like everyone. But we are very proud of our service and we are number 1 in every sense.

WATCH THIS SPACE!!!

Loyal ABSA Human!

Anonymous said...

This is unbelievable! As a prospective first time home buyer I am now asking myself - who do I go with?? I want to be confident that the bank who gets my hard earned money is going to give me excellent service.

Anonymous said...

I live overseas and last year bought a property in Cape Town and the home loan was approved by ABSA, the mortgage was finally lodged 3 months ago but ABSA never setup the direct debit from my account at Nedbank. I filled in the direct debit form twice, spoke to them on the phone once and have sent numerous emails and 3 months down the line have still not paid anything off my mortgage, the money is sitting in my Nedbank account and waiting to be paid but they don't seem to be in any hurry to get their money back from me, meanwhile due to this I am now 3 months in arrears on my home loan. As I'm sitting overseas I have limited options open to me to try to resolve this, so far I have not been very impressed with ABSA but I live in hope that things get sorted and the service improves.

Anonymous said...

Dear anonymous living overseas
I suggest you email a gentleman named Chris Green at chrisg@wizard.za.com and ask him to help you else you are going to lose your property....Give him your bond account number etc Its not worth the problem.

Anonymous said...

I used to be an ABSA home owner and switched to FNB ..talk about from the frying pan into the fire. Now I bank with ALL the banks its so much easier and no-one calls the shots but me. Dont me a sissy be your own banker. Charles M from Vereeniging

Anonymous said...

I am a Bond Originater and totally agree with anonymous (estate agent) We just don't get approvals anymore!!!! What is really going on???

Steven Green said...

Don't get me wrong anonymi... I'm not saying the banks are good right know but the reason we don't just get approvals is becuase South Africa is in financial POOP!

They gave too much money out to people who couldn't afford it, then brought in the credit act.

the problem is that it's the people who do afford it and with no problem at all that are feeling the brunt of the crappy service...
I hope it's teething problems, but that should have been completed by now.