Temitayo Balogun, an Ekiti State-based lecturer, has told FIJ how First Bank frustrated his chance of getting a refund after a failed N24,000 online purchase.

According to Temitayo, he initiated a transaction on Tuesday, April 11, to recharge N9000 MTN airtime using the bank’s payment gateway. The transaction was declined, but he got a debit.

Temitayo said his job demanded a large data subscription and this made him retry the transaction. But while the second attempt was successful, he failed to get a reversal for the first failed attempt.

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“Due to the nature of my job, I had to subscribe to a large amount of data. I had to run to friends for support when I was broke to do the subscription for lesser amounts. This cost me more in the long run,” he told FIJ.

On Tuesday, May 16, almost a month after the previous failed transaction, Temitayo suffered the same fate. This time around, his N15,100 recharge failed, and he got debited for it.

Temitayo said for all his efforts through calls and mails to the bank, all he got were constant failed promises.

“This time, I went to their branch located at FUTA in Akure. They told me they noticed I had filed a complaint for the previous transaction, and that the new complaint was not up to 24 hours. They said I would get a response within three working days,” he told FIJ.

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He told FIJ that the promised three days went by with no action.

He went to the bank’s website to fill their performance survey. According to him, he rated the bank poorly in the survey. This irked the bank.

“By evening, I got a call from the bank to ask why I rated them poorly. The customer care representative told me she noted my complaints and saw that I had filed complaints earlier. As usual, the agent promised I would get refunds for both failed transactions in another three working days,” he said.

In one response to Temitayo’s mails, the bank said it was working tirelessly to resolve the issue.

“Be assured that we are working tirelessly to ensure that resolution is provided within the shortest time possible,” First Bank’s response to Temitayo read in part.

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Temitayo told FIJ that he visited the bank on Monday, marking over two months of his effort to get refunds. He, however, was told there were errors in his complaints.

“They said the person that logged in my complaints did not do it correctly and that was why the resolution had been delayed,” he said. “They said they could not re-log the complaint or correct it.”

Efforts by FIJ to get First Bank’s reaction proved abortive, as emails, calls and a message sent to its corporate contacts had not been responded to at press time.