RK
Rusi K
Active since Jan 2021
2
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2 reviews29 months ago
FNB - LACK OF SERVICE DISGUISED AS INNOVATION
Simple comment. FNB claims to be at the forefront of innovation. Probably true, it constantly innovates to shield itself from accountability. Submit a specific query via their Secure Chat function and it does a brilliant job of securing their staff from their customers. An hour and being passed around multiple times as each "chatter"cuts out and you have to start all over again, you get nowhere. When it comes to charges, they bung any old amount against your account without any explanation whatsoever. Try and query them and you enter the merry-go-round called Secure Chat. A direct comparison with my bank in the UK. A bit boring is NatWest, but you can place a web call from South Africa, get a human being at the other end speaking to you in good time and get your query sorted in a few minutes. That would be a good innovation to introduce FNB, its called "CUSTOMER SERVICE".
1 reply
66 months ago
NHBRC Does Not Live Up to Its Claims
If there was a minus rating, I would give it Minus 100. This organisation is unusual for the public sector- it is cash rich, because a premium must be paid for each new house built. The cash thus collected should be applied- amongst other things to rectifying defects. Just doesn't happen. In 2008 we bought a newly built house in Grahamstown so we could spend weekends with our children who were in junior school there then. Huge cracks started appearing about 6 months after I bought the house. That house should never have passed any building approvals. The builder refused to rectify the defects saying he was out of business, so in accordance with the terms of the warranty I notified NHBRC and made a claim about major structural defects in 2010. It took them over 2 years to inspect the structure which continued to deteriorate. Having failed to find a builder to rectify, they agreed to a quote from a local reputable builder in 2014, led him on for 4 more years until March 2018. When it was time to finalise the contract, they reopened the tender and appointed another builder who had not even inspected the premises before he quoted. His business premises were based in Cala a 4-hour drive away from Grahamstown. When I asked to see his handiwork and references, they suddenly decided to offer me compensation. To decide whether this was sufficient I asked a neutral NHBRC registered PE based builder of repute to inspect the house and quote to the exact Bill of Quantities prepared by NHBRC. This builder produced a quote which took into account the quality of the finishings that would have to be replaced and his quote was in line with the original quote of the local Grahamstown builder. Trying to get NHBRC, at Executive and Council level to even respond to finalise the matter has proved so fruitless that with my children long since matriculated in 2015, an empty house deteriorating by the day, I managed to sell it in 2019 at a substantial loss to the original purchase price. To this day, emails and phone calls go unanswered and I am now left with little alternative but to contemplate legal action. In the meantime, NHBRC continues to pontificate about the services it provides on social media. My advice to anyone contemplating building a new house or buying one with an NHBRC warranty- do extensive due diligence on the builder, have an architect and quantity surveyor ensure that it is structurally sound and ensure that they have inspected all the building certificates. The only assumption you should make about the warranty is that NHBRC will do its utmost to wriggle out of it and even if it does eventually honour it, it will quote a so-called mandate that bears no relationship to the contractual obligations they have towards you.
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