Between Marks & Spencer and our GTBank, is this simply a difference in brand culture, customer service orientation or a reflection of how corporates here treat Nigerians as opposed to how people/corporates in other parts of the world treat their customers? Not for the Bank the thought of saving face…
I had bought some items from Marks & Spencer in London with arrangement made for home delivery. For some reason, M & S had an issue meeting up with the schedule and called instead to alert me on the day they were supposed to deliver that delivery would be on Monday rather than the Friday I had been assured of, at the time of purchase. I was due out of town Saturday morning and I told them that would not work for me. It was a Friday afternoon and I advised that they would have to deliver before my flight on Saturday or else I will take it as a breach of contract. Though they had insisted it was impossible to deliver on Saturday, they obviously must have gone beyond the normal call of duty as they still delivered on that Saturday. Unfortunately for them, at the time they did, I had already left. I was already in Lagos when I got to know about the delivery in London. So, I sent a message to M & S to find a way to retrieve the package from where it was and arrange for it to be delivered in Lagos.
I noticed that there was a bit of foot-dragging on their part, so I took to M & S’ Facebook page to lodge a complaint. The response was immediate. A message came appealing for our conversation to go inbox rather than continue on the page, which was public. We went back and forth for a while. They insisted they could not deliver in Nigeria, as they do not, as a matter of policy, but opted instead to make a full refund of the over £200 I had paid, while leaving the items to me as compensation, appealing that I make private arrangements to get these delivered to Lagos.
On December 16th, 2016, GTBank debited our account for $9.52 purporting it to be our Visa card maintenance fee. We do not have one and we lodged a complaint with the bank. Days after, no response had been received. So, I took to the bank’s Facebook page on December 29th to lodge a complaint, with the relevant details including our account number. The response was, putting it mildly, hasty: “The N100 debit to your account is a maintainance (sic) fee for your gtbank Naira mastercard, which is charged ONLY once a year. This fee is in line with CBN’s circular; FPR/DIR/GEN/CIR/03/002.”
Even when I further explained that the card here referenced is no naira Mastercard and that the real question is the fact that we hold no such card in question, the Bank’s response was still: “Please note that as long as you haven’t disabled naira mastercard card production on your account the fee is still levied.” The Bank eventually realised its error, but that did not stop it from digging further around the issue. “Our review shows that in the Month of December, 2013 you were debited for a debit card which has not been picked up. For more clarification, please contact your account officer. Thank you.”
How is it that a Bank will claim it has a right to charge a ‘maintenance fee’ of almost 5000 naira on a card it claimed to have issued in 2013 but which has not been picked up by the customer since then? What is this annual ‘maintenance fee’ for in the first place, as the Bank still charges fees for issuance, replacement, renewal, and withdrawal beyond a certain threshold? What’s the Bank actually maintaining?
Well, in our case, we were indeed debited for a card in 2013. But contrary to the claim by the bank, we did pick it up. How the record does not indicate that or show that the card has expired is only known to the bank. The Visa card expired in 2015 and an attempt last December to foist a renewal on us was robustly resisted. The bank had to refund the 38 dollars it had debited as renewal and maintenance fees in 2015. So the simple questions that are up for determination, in this case, are these: Can a non-existent card which the bank effectively withdrew and refunded what it charged for its renewal and maintenance in 2015 suddenly be charged ‘maintenance fees’ in 2016? Can a card effectively killed by the bank in 2015, when it was rejected by the customer and the bank forced to make a refund of renewal fees, suddenly resurrect in 2016 for a maintenance fee? Or Is GTBank now in the business of raising the dead and charging it for maintenance?
Possibly unconcerned about the effect of the back and forth on its page could have on its brand equity, GTBank was comfortable to engage the customer on a public forum with empty platitudes for over 24 hours, with other customers weighing in with a litany of complaints. But one Peter Cj also showed up on the thread to tackle us for lodging this complaint. His comment, coincidentally, echoed that made by the Bank, except that it descended into a personal attack. Perhaps it is only a coincidence that this poser has since deleted his comments and taken down his Facebook page.
A closer look at GTBank’s engagement with the public on its Facebook page shows a worrying consistency in its refusal to take ownership of complaints lodged by customers, just as in this case, rather resorting to ways of dodging responsibility. If it is not pushing the customer back to an Account Officer, who if he had lived up to expectation would have prevented a number of the complaints going public in the first place, it takes no action to resolve the complaint made. One leaves with the impression of a poor customer service culture or a policy to skirt around complaints raised by customers. One is left to wonder about the essence of the platform itself, if the public interface does not add value to the customer. Or is it that the Social Media page of a corporate in Nigeria is just another platform, not rooted in form and substance; another form of pretence without enduring root in brand values and a robust tradition of customer care?
Between Marks & Spencer and our GTBank, is this simply a difference in brand culture, customer service orientation or a reflection of how corporates here treat Nigerians as opposed to how people/corporates in other parts of the world treat their customers? Not for the Bank the thought of saving face by going inbox to engage its customer or even conduct preliminary investigation of the matter before issuing a response. Marks and Spencer was willing to let go of its own 200 pounds to make a good impression, GTBank is not ready to let go of a meagre 9.52 dollars which does not even belong to it. Not for the Bank is the thought of a refund, not to talk of compensation! Is this a reflection of the Bank as an entity or who we have become as a people?
Simbo Olorunfemi works for Hoofbeatdotcom, a Nigerian Communications Consultancy. Twitter: @simboolorunfemi
