Today I met with Andy Bray, the regional manager for Kiwibank business and Wellington area manager Brian Davies – in response to the previous post on Kiwibank Business. I’d left Brian a message last night, but I’m pretty sure they also got the message though several other channels – including Bernard Hickey’s email missive to bank execs.
We met almost exactly 24 hours after the previous event, and in exactly the same location. Only Andy and Brian where there when I knocked on the door, so I wasn’t able to pass on the offers of employment for Sean.
Andy and Brian get it.
They are very concerned at the experience I and others have had, and they are definitely reacting – though they would not (and this is fair) say exactly how. They won’t get my business as I’m pretty sure that the folks in that office wouldn’t tolerate that, but they did listen and they are endeavoring to improve.
This is a great customer service moment for Kiwibank, and how they reacted is important. By calling back early, using the people on the ground to do so, and by inviting me back into the lions den they are demonstrating that they want to get this right. They could do more – but they are, for example, constrained by policy from commenting directly on the post.
What happens next will be interesting. I’ve given face to face feedback to BNZ a number of years ago, after I made a lengthy comment by internal bank email about their website. However at the time I got the feeling they were not listening nor able to react, and sure enough very little has changed since.
So we shall see whether Kiwibank Business changes or not. The branch happens to be in a post office which I use now and then, so any physical changes will be evident. I’d also love to see online sign-ups for business banking – calling an 0800 number is so 1980’s and face to face banking is so 1960’s. Andy promised a coffee sometime in the future – and I will take him up on that.
Lance Wiggs 
I had a similar experience with BNZ bank – I hadn’t made an appt yet there were staff milling round. To give them their dues though, once I pointed out the futility of their process of ‘must have an appt’ they did see me and the guy who signed me up was very helpful.
Good post. Good result.
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“ss I’m pretty sure that the folks in that office wouldn’t tolerate that,” – struggling to understand what this phrase means ?
Do you mean the two managers you met with wouldn’t tolerate taking your business now ?
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Not them – they asked for my business. I mean the employee that said “Sorry No” is probably going to be pretty conflicted.
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Got you.
Presume will Bernard will post another link to this story in todays email ?
I will check with him via MSN.
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They are not banking professionals… I should have known it better.
I recently refinance my mortgage with KiwiBank.
The counter staff/at the postshop are not pretty useless when it comes to banking.
KB’s first mistake.
Be ware they’ve got their own team who does conveyencing. That means there will be no legal fee contribution towards to your mortgage. They will send you the home loan agreement directly to you not to your lawyer even though you give your lawyer’s full contact details. My lawyer went through the roof when I signed and returned the document back to KB without consulting them. This has not been done properly from the start.
KB’s second mistake.
Home loan settled with KB on 20 October 09.
Checked the status of the home loan and the balance on 22 Oct 09 and found out the repayment option was setup as $1500 monthly. I have given her a sufficient time to fix this option.
I always choose weekly home loan repayment option and wanted the same with KB.
I’ve asked so called manager to change the repayment option to weekly as it was not what I instructed her in the first place. She emailed me back 6 days later confirming this has been done.
So the first payment was due on 4 Nov 09. Had enough money for a couple of bills and some left over for me to get through until next payday.
Third mistake – a nightmare.
5 Nov 09, I went to get something in a chemist and the transaction declined twice. It was very embarrassing and rather odd as I always make sure I have enough fund in my bank account. Got back to the office and check the bank account and there was a $1000 over draft in my account since the first re-payment. Checked the home loan payment options just to find out they changed the frequently of the payment to weekly correctly but did not change the payment accordingly. Also there’s another $1500 to due next Wednesday.
I hit the roof and called the counter manager. Her response was ‘oh, really~!!’. That was it. She could have shown me some empathy toward to what they have done. No eagerness to resolve the issue. Just like that. She was going on leave next week and her excuse not being able to fix this issue ASAP was that she couldn’t get hold of the follow who has amended the re-payment details. Surely as a ‘so-called-manager’ she should have taken ownership of such issue as I wasn’t sure who made a mistake either she was responsible for not delivering proper instruction to the maintenance officer or the maintenance officer who failed to apply a common sense to practice.
Forth mistake- believed in what she said
I did not have any access to my fund so I asked her to resolve this and contact me first thing in the next morning. Also asked give instructions to another officer at her absence so I did not have to repeat myself to someone else to resolve this issue. She said she would give Shannon a clear indication what needs to be done.
Following morning I had to go out for business. I still did not have any access to my fund. I was increasingly stressed and worried. I called so-called-manager to see where I was at only to be told that she would come in after 11am. Disaster!
Again it was an awful situation I was thrown at again by the same person. I had to repeat myself what went wrong to that other officer Shannon. The officer’s response was much better than so-called-manager’s as she was showing me some sort of empathy towards to me and the situation I was in. She said she couldn’t do anything regarding re-payment of homeloan. Instead, she gave me 0800 number to call. OMG~!!! That means I had to repeat myself over and over again!!
I called 0800 number to repeat myself again for third time. The guy i was talking to got it straight. He assured me that this would be as soon as possible and he would give me a call back. I arrived at the site in Manukau and got a called back from him saying this has been resolved. However, as it was clearly OD there’s would be a fee and an interest incur. Interest has been resolved but the fee would still have to be charged against me but they would reimburse me.
This could have been done on the spot when I first called the ‘so-called-manager’. If she couldn’t resolve it on the spot then she could have escalated to rectify such issue.
Please people beware that they have been post shop workers and they will be the same. Unfortunately I’ll have to put up with this another two years since I have fixed my mortgage for two years… it only has been 3 weeks and I had more drama than in my whole life. Wish me luck.
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OMG your story sounds a bit worrying as I have just asked for an appointment with KB Manukau to refinance my mortgage when the fixed rate ends with ANZ at the end of Nov…now I don’t want 2 years…maybe 1 will be enough for me..
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