Latest update December 13th, 2024 1:00 AM
2500 sign petition to investigate Republic Bank’s business practices in Guyana
Late last year, Republic Bank Limited (RBL) announced that it was upgrading services to enhance their customers’ banking experience.
However, since that upgrading service has taken place, the issues have increased with service becoming unavailable during the transition period, lack of commitment to customer satisfaction, as well as hard earned, honest money vanishing into thin air.
Frustrated by this consistent disservice, 2500 Guyanese have signed a petition to urge the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Bank of Guyana (BoG), Financial Intelligence Unit of Guyana (FIUG), among others, to launch an investigation into Republic Bank’s business practices in Guyana.
Amir Khan, the young man who started the petition, berated Republic Bank for “severely” breaking customers’ trust over their past few years of operation.
The infuriated Khan argued that, “As part of the gift that keeps on giving, the bank has debited all accounts that purchase from Amazon and any other online merchant and has completely drained most customers’ account for overspending, offering only an apology in the daily papers, despite them being responsible for providing customers with false information.”
He continued, “Enough is enough! It is time that consumers’ rights are respected! It’s time for this billion-dollar company to treat customers in a fair manner!
“I am appealing to the relevant agencies to look into the practices of this company and penalise them severely for the wrongs they have committed! We Guyanese work too hard to be treated this way by a business whose profits come directly as a result of our money!”
A few days ago, this publication reported that Republic Bank had only recently started processing last year’s transactions to several customers’ accounts.
It appeared that thousands of customers used their Visa OneCard to conduct transactions last year during the period when the bank was making changes to its systems.
“A significant number of those transactions were never processed. That matter is now being corrected.”
This week, as the transactions were being processed, a number of customers who appeared to have made withdrawals last year but which were not processed, appeared to have taken out too much. The bank reportedly signed agreements with a number of them to pay back.
Customers’ discontents
Kaieteur News reached out to a few current customers of Republic Bank and they related issues they were faced with while transacting business at RBL.
Cowen Gittens: “The lack of commitment to customer satisfaction. They don’t post any notice notifying customers about issues they’re experiencing until these issues escalate.
“Then, there is the unwillingness to listen to customers’ complaints and stand some liability for their mistakes and mishaps. Then there is the lack of compensation for the time, monies and energy lost. But the thing that grinds my gears is how dismissive the staff get, and the attitude they use to respond to customers…as if we shouldn’t be mad that the bank we trust with our money is mishandling it.”
Rachel Lam: “Minus money missing…I’d say lousy customer service and the endless requirements to prove I am who I am. One time they made me sign my name six times and bring in my marriage certificate to prove God knows what.”
Wayne Forde: “I saw 13 discrepancies on my statement which I collected yesterday. I saw transactions for as much as $46,000 which I never made.”
One other customer of RBL, Rian Pritipaul, related that he was unable to close his account because he owed them $440.
He explained that, “What irritated me was that I requested a Manager’s Cheque since I couldn’t close the account and the teller told me I couldn’t do so because of the charge. But I was able to basically withdraw my cash from them and leave a small amount for that charge and some bank charges to resolve themselves.”
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