To offer some balance.
The intent of this post is an education piece...
The SPP offer made it very clear to register your bank account with Automic for a refund.
It has been discussed numerous times on HC including by Dr T.
Further BPAY is a payment system and I doubt your bank details from where the funds come from are shared with the recipient, and under privacy nor should they be... So a refund to you bank account IMO is not possible if you haven't provided the details via Automic. In my case the account for the refund is different from the account I made the payment. Its been received electronically and I have already topped up
This is not intended to be harsh, but where is your ownership of this issue?
If you wish to be a passive investor, e.g. not read the information and understand the process and follow instructions IMO you don't have a right to complain. And you are adding unnecessary risk and lost opportunity to your investing. e.g. now your cheque is caught up in a pandemic effected Christmas mail system.
As to Automic's customer service I can share that I recently linked 2 separate HINs in Automic to save me logging in twice.
I did that by simply logging a request on the website. Its on the right hand side.
I got a response within 24 hours and they then used email to manage the task.
I was getting requests for more info and I got responses within an hour or two.
My request was resolved efficiently.
Clearly they are not geared for phone calls, which are costly to manage and time consuming for all.
I deal with a couple of registries and they are all the same. When you first buy a new stock you receive a snail mail letter to register electronically for communications (and bank accounts it if had the potential for dividends). A lot of people ignore these letters which increases the expenses in the company you now own! ...and your risk of managing your money.
If you find the technology challenging I suggest you ask your kids or grandkids and set it up for you.
Good luck to you all
(20min delay)