By Babajide Komolafe

You were dissatisfied with the service of your bank. You made a verbal complaint, the issue was not resolved. And as advised in the last edition, you have written a formal letter of complaint to the management of the bank, with copies to the CBN and NDIC. But you have not received any response. What should you do next?

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You must make up your mind not to give up. Decide to follow up your complaints with constant reminders. While it is not uncommon for banks to be slow in responding to customers complaint, it is however unusual for regulators not to respond on time.

But irrespective of when the response comes, the determining factor is the determination of the customer. For example, a customer received a debit of over N700, 000 in his account. He made complaint at his branch, and he was told that the debit was to cancel an erroneous credit of same value in his account more than a year earlier. The customer insisted that his account did not receive such credit.

He argued that even if that was the case, the bank should have brought it to his attention, and sought his consent before his money was removed. He insisted that the bank returned his money but his request was ignored. As a result, he wrote a formal letter of complaint to the Managing Director of the bank, copied the Executive Director in charge of retail, and the CBN.

When he submitted the letter to his branch, the branch manager, begged him not to submit the letter to the MD, appealing that the money would be returned. That was how he got his money back.

Some other customers would have relented or give up. This customer did not, and it was his determination that brought his money back. There have been instances where customers said they made complain to the CBN and there was no response. The real problem is that they gave up.

While it is possible that the complaint was not properly addressed, the fact is that even if it was a case of manhandling or delay, your determination to get a response is what will compel a response from the authorities. There is the case of a customer, whose money (close to N1 million) was fraudulently withdrew through Point of Sale (PoS) purchases. He complained to the bank via the branch.

He did not get reprieve. He later wrote to the headquarters, and still no reprieve. Subsequently, he sought for a way to get the personal telephone number and email of the Managing Director, and sent his complaint to him via text and email. When the Managing Director received the text, he directed his staff to repay the customer.

The customer was determined enough to employ desperate measures to get reprieve. That is the attitude that elicits prompt response to customers’ complaint and helps improve on the quality of banking services in the country.