When Adeola (not real name) strolled into a branch of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) at Tiamiyu Savage, Victoria Island of Lagos on Friday, September 29, he expected a seamless transaction, but events of the last few days left him questioning his continued use of the financial institution, he said.
Adeola, who is based in America but briefly returned to Nigeria for business, had gone to the branch to transfer $3,000 from his domiciliary account in GTB to his Bank of America account in the United States.
As he told this newspaper, he had bills that urgently needed to be settled in America.
The GTB customer said a cashier identified as Lydia processed his transaction that morning, handed him a transaction receipt, and he left the branch believing the transaction had been settled.
Later in the day, he said, he saw a text from the cashier who did not identify herself as a staff of GTBank and he therefore believed the text to be from a scammer.
“Good evening sir. You moved funds from your naira account. Kindly fund account to enable me treat your transfer. Regards,” a copy of the text obtained by this newspaper read.
Adeola said, “Obviously, there was no way for me to know it’s GTBank.”
He said he therefore did not take the text seriously and told off the person.
“There was no professionalism at all. I didn’t know who she was and that is why I responded the way I did,” he said.
Adeola said after confirming the cashier’s identity, he instructed her to complete the transaction as the account was adequately funded but it had not been done as of Tuesday, October 3, even though he had been issued a transaction receipt on Friday, September 29, suggesting it had been completed.
He said he tried at various times to call Lydia on the phone to have the transaction sorted but got no response.
He berated the cashier’s incompetence and the bank’s sloppiness in handling customers’ issues, saying it would negatively impact trust in the bank.
Meanwhile, The Herald can report that GTBank has been facing a lot of criticism from customers in recent times over its new GTWorld mobile app, and slowness in responding to complaints, among others.
It is often said that if something isn't broken, there's no need to fix it… Dunno what @gtbank was trying to do with the new GTWorld app but it's a disaster. Terrible app! Really terrible!
— Temi (@Temiloluwa_07) October 4, 2023
Dear @gtbank everybody involved in that useless new app sportybet will chop your 3 months salary.
— Sporting King (@sportingking365) October 5, 2023
I go change my bank soon to @myaccessbank @access_more since morning I can do transfer with @gtbank https://t.co/mOO9nzT1Hi pic.twitter.com/tzKTiOKOoD
— Ziontech453 (@Marcusyomi) October 5, 2023