Hellenic Bank of Cyprus

The products and services of most of the banking institutions are almost same and thus, the competitive advantage can be achieved solely through excellent customer satisfaction. However, still we can observe severe lapses in not only the customer service but also lapse in the banking processes. Recently, there have been numerous complaints filed by banking customers about Hellenic Bank in Cyprus. Some of the processes of Hellenic Bank has caused inconvenience and problems for many customers ranging from ignorance, non-response, and no fund transfers. We are therefore documenting the problems, which the customers have been facing because of the irresponsible acts of the bank officials, such as Panayiotis Pantziaros, Demetra Demetriou and Christos Ioannou.

From the numerous customer complaints, in one instance there were a series of money wire transfers sent to the concerned customer’s account with the bank. After consulting the account on a daily basis, there had not been a single credit of the multiple transfers. After numerous attempts in contacting the bank officials, namely Panayiotis Pantziaros, Demetra Demetriou and Christos Ioannou, in order to enquire about the missing funds, all that was received from the officials was ignorance. This ignorance continued for over a week as they always put the customers on hold and then disconnected without providing any answer or resolutions to their queries. After several weeks of desperation, the customers received a sliver of input from the bank officials. According to the officials, the funds were being withheld by the bank pending some documentation before it could be released and credited to the account. The bank officials kept asking for various documents, all of which was already on file with the bank. Even documents out of the ordinary bank stipulated compliance where requested and provided for, and the customers faced ignorance from the bank for additional prolonged time. The review process continued for several days during which there was no answer to the numerous e-mails and phone calls made by the customer. They were always put through the call service machines and when they finally got connected to; they were again put on hold and then hanged up on. This “tomorrow” by Panayiotis Pantziaros, Demetra Demetriou and Christos Ioannou, has still not come. Customers have continued to send numerous e-mails and even those are not being replied to. The customer has been facing this problem on a repeated basis.

Such behavior of the bank employees is reflecting badly on the brand image of the bank and the day is not far when it will lose all their valued customers because of such shoddy services. This reflects that the culture of the bank is lethargic and not customer oriented. The bank is least bothered about their customers and their working pace can be said to be moving at a snail’s speed. There is no clarity on the processes or document requirements and the customers are repeatedly facing the machine instead of a personal service, which is imminent in such cases. The customers are not being attended to even if the matter has gone out of hand.

The standards of the products, processes, and services of the Hellenic Bank of Cyprus is falling continuously and is not up to the industry requirements. It is safe to say that the bank is doomed in the same manner that they are creating doomsdays for their customers.