A client of Maybank in Malaysia was surprised to wake up one day and find more than RM400 million (S$114 million) parked in her account.
Hafidzah Abdullah, director and co-founder of Malaysia HR Forum, knew she could not have become a multimillionaire overnight. Nor could she have expected the tortuous path she had to take to report the glitch and regain access to her account.
"I appreciate your making my banking experience memorable, but I think this glitch took it a little too far," Hafidzah said in a post on her LinkedIn account on Nov 29.
"You'd think I hit the lottery, right? Well, not really: It is glitches!" she said.
She recounted that because of the error, Maybank blocked her account, but without calling, messaging or notifying her via other means.
She had to go to the nearest Maybank branch to unblock her account, "which took forever, and this is not my mistake".
"They say money can't buy happiness, but Maybank knows how to buy frustration," she said.
Hafidzah described having to suffer three days of "Maybank glitches during salary payout period" that she likened to "a comedy of errors that no one finds funny".
"My personal account got blocked, the company account is unusable… and visiting Maybank has become my daily exercise routine," she said.
She added: "Talk about a glitch that takes work ethic and customer service (who directs me to other branches, calling customer services that take forever) to a whole new level of inconvenience!"
In a comment on her LinkedIn post, Maybank's executive vice-president Shaikh Munir Ahmad, who is also head of group customer experience management, asked Abdullah to provide her contact number, so his team could follow up.
He also directed her to the bank's customer care team.
"Will certainly have this checked and resolved for you," he said.
People commenting on Hafidzah's post recounted similar experiences with the bank.
One said her case "had been hanging for two months now".
Some "congratulated" her for being among Malaysia's 100 richest — even if that lasted just for a few days.
In an update on Dec 1, Maybank told The Straits Times the matter has been resolved.
"No customer data was compromised," it added.
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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
