Many customers of Access Bank Plc have taken to Twitter to vent their anger over the bank’s alleged “criminality”.
The Twitter storm followed a post by an aggrieved Access Bank customer, Ms Arike Martins, who called out the tier-1 lender for deducting N20 from her account after she dialed the bank’s USSD code.
Ms Martins’ January 6th post, which has since garnered over 500 retweets and 447 likes, eventually created enough buzz to aggravate the matter.
Many more customers have seen been complaining about the same issue, all while mentioning Access Bank’s Twitter handle.
So Access bank debits you 20# for dialing their ussd code irrespective of using it or not. This is unfortunate @accessbank_help
— Citrus Burst 🦋 (@ArikeMartins_) January 6, 2019
Meanwhile, even though Access Bank has responded to the complaint and apologised for the “inconvenience”, many customers do not seem enthused by its explanation for the deduction.
Ms Martins, especially, is yet to understand the reason behind the N20 debit.
I dialed *901# only and the next thing I got was a debit alert of 20#. You debited me for what exactly? What have I used your ussd to do?
— Citrus Burst 🦋 (@ArikeMartins_) January 6, 2019
Here’s what the other angry customers are saying
Virtually everyone that commented on Ms Martins’ thread agreed that Access Bank is overcharging customers who dial the USSD code. Some even claimed that there is nothing else that is appealing about Access Bank, as all the good services he liked have been bastardised.
They’ve spoilt all the good things I like about AccessBank…I’m done with you guys tho✌🏽. pic.twitter.com/sYX7C5ICSi
— null (@VIC3KIING) January 7, 2019
Others claimed that Access Bank is trying to recover the money it expended in the acquisition/merger with Diamond Bank Plc.
How do you want them to recover the money they use to buy diamond bank🤷🏽♂️
— Abd’majeed (@mjaey_) January 7, 2019
Other people simply chose to be petty about the whole thing, talking about how they would clear all the money in their account before dialing the USSD code just so that the bank wouldn’t be able to debit them for the service.
If I had an account with them, I’ll clear it out. Then with my zero account balance I’ll dial the USSF code at least 50 times. Yeah I can be petty 😔
— bola badejo (@funtoarawomo) January 7, 2019
Meanwhile, others decided to drag other banks into the matter by accusing the likes of First City Monument Bank and Unity Bank Plc of being guilty of the same offence.
https://twitter.com/sesantuedoye/status/1082272637655633920
As expected, each of those banks quickly responded in efforts to clear their names.
Hello, we are concerned about your tweet, please. Shall we DM? #MyBankandI
— FCMB (@MyFCMB) January 7, 2019
The many comments that are pouring in on that thread simply attest to the fact that many bank customers are unhappy with the services they receive.
Note that the absence of customer satisfaction is one of the most serious problems plaguing the Nigerian banking industry.
Access Bank Plc is a tier-1 lender which recorded a gross earning of N375.2 billion billion in as at Q3 2018, with a profit after tax of N62.9 billion.
The bank’s stock is currently trading at N5.75 on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
