More on HDFC

Here is the latest communication between me and HDFC. Unbelievable stonewalling:

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Dear Mr. Keerthi,
Really, I must say HDFC Customer Complaint representatives and managers seem to be highly trained in avoiding the substantive issues and deflecting complaints. None of the points I have raised below have been addressed. So let me start with just one point and I would like the Banks' response to it:

To state the issue under dispute in the simplest terms: There were fradulent transactions on my credit card in early May 2008 and these transactions were credited back to my account in November 2008. I have the following questions regarding this:

1.) Does the Bank consider this an acceptable quality of service ? (I was told by the Bank representative that 45 days was the turnaround time for action on this. Clearly this was not met). If the Bank agrees that this is not acceptable quality of service, what then should the Bank do about it ?

2.) During the period from May to November, there was no proactive communication from the Bank's side at any point regarding the status of this matter (other than one written communication in July/August that said that the amount would be credited in the next cycle. This did not happen so this is worse than non-communication, this is a promise that was not followed through on).
Does the Bank consider this acceptable quality of service ? If not, what then should the Bank do about it ?

I look forward to an honest answer to these two questions,

Best wishes,
Vijay Krishna G

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Dear Mr. Guntur,

This is further to your e-mail dated 12.02.09 regarding your HDFC Bank credit card account. It is disappointing to note that we are unable to convince you despite the best efforts taken by the bank. We once again wish to summarize our findings with the bank for your ready reference.

We are deeply concerned to note your feedback on the previous interactions with the Bank. We wish to reaffirm that it is our constant endeavor to ensure that each and every interaction of our customers are made pleasant and satisfactory. Your feedback has enabled us to introspect and reinforce our efforts further in this direction.

We regret to note your concerns expressed with regard to the credit of disputed transactions on your card account We wish to clarify that post completion of the investigation at our end, we had credited your card account for the disputed transactions amounting to Rs.33376.00 along with the associated finance charges. Please be rest assured that your specific feedback has been shared with the concerned for appropriate review.

We reaffirm your credit card is invalidated from further usage and there is an outstanding balance of Rs.10622.09 as per your February'09 statement. We acknowledge receipt of your payment of Rs.9869.24 towards your February'09 statement. We request you to effect payment towards the remaining due of Rs.752.85 as on date within the stipulated payment due date to preclude levy of further bank charges.

Mr. Guntur, please feel free to get in touch with our customer service representatives at the contact number: 080 – 66224332 or write to us at customerservices.cards@hdfcbank.com for any further assistance / clarification that you may require and we shall be glad to assist you.

We trust we have addressed your grievance in a fair and equitable manner and that the issue has been resolved to your fullest satisfaction. As part of regulatory requirements, we also mention that if you are not satisfied with our response, you may approach the Banking Ombudsman appointed by Reserve Bank of India.

Kindly log on to http://www.hdfcbank.com/common/customer_center.htm for details of the Banking Ombudsman Scheme - 2006 and procedure for lodging complaints.

Assuring you of our best attention at all the times.

Regards,


Rajeswari Jayasekar
Senior Manager - Service Quality
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HDFC Bank sucks...

..and the Reserve Bank of India Ombudsman Scheme is not much better either.

Previous posts about this here:
http://vk-writtenword.blogspot.com/search/label/hdfcsucks

I went to the Reserve Bank of India Ombudsman scheme to get this redressed and they ruled in favour of the bank. I'm not happy and I think they were wrong and didn't understand the details of the case. I'll stomach the decision but I'm glad I went through the process and pushed the matter to a conclusion.

To recap:
There were fraudulent charges on my credit card in April. These wern't taken off till November and after repeated calls and complaints. In the meantime, since they were not responding to repeated calls regarding the status of the fraudulent charges, I decided to stop making payments as I no longer had any faith that they would redress the matter, and they were charging me for the fraudulent charges also. At the same time, there was a separate issue where they turned on automatic withdrawal from my bank account for a cash loan that I had taken and continued to apply that direct withdrawal even after the loan had been paid off. They also have an interesting system where you can turn on the automatic withdrawal on the phone but you have to write or fax in to turn it off. They gave lots of instructions to turn it off through the online account none of which worked.
Overall a whole bunch of fines and late charges had piled up which they refused to withdraw. Oh well, I'll pay off and cancel the card and never use their services again. But wait -- that's expecting too much of them. I closed a bank account with them 2 years back but it stretched their capabilities too much to do it and the account is still alive and waiting to be misused.

Rudeness and harrassment from the customer service personnel trying to recover the money were in evidence right through my dealings with them, but an apology for the incredible delay in dealing with the matter was never ever forthcoming.