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Did bank communicate systems crash correctly?

Cape Town – Customers trying to find out about the Standard Bank systems crash took to social media and news media platforms like Fin24 to seek information, but could the bank have done more?

Read our live coverage from Monday

The general tone from clients was that more could have been communicated, but Standard Bank said while there were lessons to be learnt, it had the right systems in place to deal with the crisis.

Customers vent their frustrations

Fin24 was inundated with messages and comments from users, who were frustrated with the lack of communication, causing embarrassing moments like being stuck at the petrol station without a way to pay for the fuel.

Fin24 user Gill Fransman asked how she was expected to run her business, “especially being a Monday and month end”.

“The worst part was not knowing when it would be restored. The news said the problem was sorted, but which in fact it had not. They must get facts right before reporting. We didn't get an SMS. Nobody knew anything. It was a disgrace.”

Fin24 user Manoj Bhoola was checking into a hotel in Europe and needed to access the bank’s online portal. “The call centre was poor in providing a solution to me,” he said.

“There was poor communication and no pro-active SMS or warning about the problem.”

Standard Bank responds

“Standard Bank made extensive use of social [like Twitter] and traditional media to inform and keep our customers updated,” the bank’s spokesperson, Ross Linstrom, told Fin24.

“Along with that, error messages were displayed on the various platforms,” he said. “Our customer contact centre was also utilised to inform customers of the systems issue.”

“However, communication via e-mail and SMS will be a definite consideration in the unlikely event that this would happen again in the future,” he said.

“Once again we would like to apologise to our customers for the inconvenience that this matter has caused.”

- Fin24.

* Were you affected by yesterday's crash? Send your stories and photos to Fin24.

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