Pretoria - How wonderful that we can now shift our money around with the touch of a few computer keys. So quick, so easy. And thanks to the OTP – one-time password, so safe.
Unless, of course, a fraudster has managed to do a SIM swap and got your OTP sent to their phone.
But that’s for another column.
Often the annoying non-arrival of your OTP has nothing to do with fraudulent activity.
It just doesn’t come in time, or not at all.
Then your EFT – electronics funds transfer – session times out and you have to start again.
That’s somewhere near the top of my “Things that make me go Agggrrrh” list.
The first time it happened to me I called my cellphone network.
“No,” they said, “we’ve had no other complaints. You’re the only one who’s complained, call your bank.”
I called my bank and it, too, said all was hunky-dory with its systems.
When it happened again a short while later, I asked my bank to send my OTP via e-mail instead of cellphone. And last week it happened again. Transaction timed out. Back to square one.
The delays have never cost me anything, except my good mood, but such an OTP delay, albeit a more prolonged one, did leave Nigel Haupt of Constantia considerably out of pocket.
On Saturday, March 16, he and his wife tried to buy three Qatar Air tickets online – for themselves and their minor son – to the US in mid-June, but despite four attempts, they didn’t receive the OTP and had to abandon the exercise.
Haupt called FNB’s credit card call centre who told him that it was an online banking problem and when he called that department, he was told they were having “maintenance problems” and advised that they “try again later”.
They did so later that day, and again on Sunday morning – with no luck.
“We called the online banking people and informed them that we were still having problems and they suggested that we tried again that afternoon.
“When we did – still no success – and when we called them we discovered that the call centre closed at 1pm.”
When Haupt still couldn’t make the booking on the Monday, he was told he needed to be online and on the phone to the call centre simultaneously to sort out the problem.
“As it was a working day this was very difficult as both my wife and I were at our respective workplaces and both have to be present while doing online transactions.”
Finally, on the Tuesday, three days after their initial attempt, they managed to make the payment, having got that OTP after being talked through how to tweak their settings by the bank’s call centre.
Not only were they forced to fly three days later than they had planned to, but the same tickets had increased in price by a total of R4 524.
Aggrieved, Haupt lodged a complaint with FNB’s premier banking division, which blamed his cellphone network for the non-sending of the OTP.
When he pointed out that this was not a logical explanation, he was told that the purchase was made on a third party website, and that “verified by Visa” OTPs were not sent by the bank, but by the “Verified by Visa” department.
FNB Online banking thus refused to refund Haupt and told him to take up his complaint with Visa.
Thoroughly fed up by that stage, Haupt approached Consumer Watch for help.
“If online banking knew what they were doing when we first called them, the problem would have been resolved.
“And I am banking with FNB; the OTP is part of what FNB offers they shouldn’t be passing the buck.”
I took up the case with FNB and received the following response:
“After investigating the query with the various business units involved, FNB has resolved matter with the client directly, the client has received an apology and will be compensated for the inconvenience he has experienced during the process.”
More that than the bank’s media people wouldn’t say.
So I asked Haupt.
His credit card was credited with his full loss – R4 524.
And he got an apology, too, which went like this: “We would like to apologise for the poor service you received from our help desk.
“This has been addressed with our training department and we trust that the same will not happen again to any of our clients.”
I trust I’ll hear from others – and not just this bank’s customers – who have also lost out, thanks to OTP failures. - Pretoria News
* Contact Wendy Knowler on [email protected]