Friends,
The sufferings of Mr Venkataraman and Rashmi ji are classic examples of banking apathy, apathy towards customers. The problem in the financial world of banking is that , constantly dealing with figures in lakhs and crores and billions, the mind gets numbed to apathy, insensitivity and even arrogance in dealing with customers. The billions that the banking staff deals with on day to day basis is NOT THEIRS, but THEIR customers, from whom they get their SALARIES. But no body remembers that. They take your money and make money on it and pay you pittance and behave like a Zombie or a robot in dealing with you , as they did in the case of Mr Venkatraman and Rashmiji who were put to unnecessary hardships.
Here is how I have suffered at the hands of the ICICI bank at chennai. I used to work for ALSTOM , a french MNC , which had a Rs 640 crore salary account with this esteemed bank at New Delhi where I was based . And this bank handled ALSTOM's project finance of over Rs 2,000 crores annually. And yet , despite my being the Executive Director and personal advisor to the Country President of ALSTOM , the madras unit of the bank handled my case in a very insensisitive manner
.
.
The matter is very simple. I was temporarily stationed in chennai to look after my wife who was to undergo a kidney transplant surgery. The surgeon told me to arrange about Rs 1,60,000 for an injection to be given to my wife a day before the surgery. Obviously I did not have this money in my account in chennai and couldnt take the money out of my account in delhi either because of other financial commitments. I had asked the bank for a loan to this amount. They took all kinds of papers from me for fifteen days only to tell me that they cannot give me the loan because
a) my account was in delhi
b) i had not given them by contract papers.
I told them contract papers are highly confidential and cannot be given to them. They rejected my loan application on a friday and on a monday the money had to be given to the hospital.
I was shattered and devastated by the bank's callous and insensitive attitude. It was sheer arrogance on their part to treat an employee of ALSTOM which was parking more than Rs 2,600 crore in their reserves annually.
As there was no time to appeal to higher authorities , I approached the Corporation Bank with an SOS at Mylapore.A small branch. The manager was sympathetic to my demand and understood my situation. He took the initiative and saved the day by asking me to pledge my reserve in ICICI delhi as a collateral with his bank so as to give me the money. In fact he created a win win situation for me by converting my collateral into a security backed FD , he even opened an account with his bank, where he paid me interest on the FD and on the other hand deducted EMIs towards the loan.
Get it, the interest on the loan was reduced by 4 to 5% which made a lot of difference. I got the money on Monday morning in my account and was able to the pay the hospital the money for the injection -- which is imported from switzerland, which explains the high cost.
What ICICI could not achieve in 15 to 20 days was achieved by the manager in a public sector bank in less than 24 hours. It did not require much skill , one who knew banking practices could do this. And a human touch to the whole episode. I was an absolute stranger to this Corporation Bank manager. Srinivasan our moderator is a witness to this entire episode and he baled me out of the crisis.
I did write a letter to the CMD of ICICI explaining the episode and why an ALSTOM employee should be treated like this. To my horror , neither my letter was aclnowledged nor was any reply sent to me to apologise . Sheer arrogance on the part of ICICI. This happened in 2001 and my wife subsequently died of complications in 2002, thats another sad story altogether, despite the highest standards of medical care.
I wrote to the CMD of Corporation Bank thanking him for employing good managers who were sensitive to customers needs. He replied to me for taking note and taking the trouble of writing to him about their good customer care service. A good gesture.
I suppose banks reply when you compliment them and dont when you complain. It should be the other way round, for prompt replies.
Here is another instance, but this time of an Indian Bank employee in a suburban branch in Delhi.
The teller spoke rudely and threw the pass book on my wife's face because it was closing time for him and he would not fill the pass book. My wife was enraged by this uncivilised behaviour. I complained to the manager after picking up a quarrel with the concerned emoployee. The manager pleaded his inability to do anything because of union pressure.
Since I happened to be a senior economic journalist at that time and I bumped into the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament. I told him about the incident. He was shocked and asked me to give him a complaint on the spot which I did. By evening I had six GMs and four AGMs descending on me in the office profusely apologising for the incident. But the arrogant employee till date did not apologise for his behaviour though he was transferred from that department immediately. The bank conducted a customer friendly week all over delhi that week. And all this because I complained to the Finance Minister directly. What about the poor common customer with no influence ?
So much for banking arrogance. They like to live in their fools paradise treating customers arrogantly without ever putting on their thinking caps even once to help customers -- all because they think the millions they sit on is theirs though it is not and belongs to the man he is dealing with arrogantly.
It will not be fair to generalise banks are arrogant. But there is a lethargic attitude in banks and even privatisation is not going to solve matters if the lethargic ones are allowed to continue to deal with customers.
Ashok TN
On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 11:36 AM, Rashmi S <rsnbr@yahoo.com > wrote:
call centre of the bank and the cheque processing department had a communication gap. Luckily during this time, I had the guidance from Mr. Srinivas in tracking my money and finally after a weeks battle with the bank, I came to know the money was withheld at ICICI Cheque processing department and problem was solved. RegardsRashmi
From: PNVENKATARAMAN PNV <pnvraman@yahoo.com >
Subject: Re: [prpoint] Banking arrogance - Return of Cheques when there is sufficient funds - State Bank of Mysore
To: prpoint@yahoogroups.com , "India Vision group" <India_Vision_2020@yahoogroups >, "New Media New Media Forum" <new_media_forum@.com yahoogroups. >, ushathorat@rbi.com .org.in Date: Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 9:48 AM
Cc: "venkataraman PNV" <pnvraman@gmail.com >, dgmcz@sbm.co.in , md@sbm.co.in, cgm@sbm.co.in, agm5cz@sbm.co.in , editor@poduniversal.com , "Banking Division" <Jsecps@hotmail.com >, "cai India" <cai.india1@gmail.com >
Sir,
thanks for taking up my case immediately.. Banks which cause this kind of nuisance and reputation loss to the Customers should be penalised and erring Officials should be made accountable. As you have reported, I made franctic calls to their controlling and Head Office from 11 am. They never understood the gravity of the situation and the mental agony caused to the customer. Now it is high time, as stated by you, RBI should take strong measures. The facility and advantage of Core Banking should not cause this kind of jolts to the customers. Apart from mental agony, time and money spent by me towards phone calls both local and std are also sizable. I am yet to receive the exact penalty amount from TNEB..
Thanks once again for taking up my cause.
with regards
P N Venkataraman
P.N.Venkataraman
--- On Thu, 9/7/09, Corporate ezine 'PR-e-Sense' <editor@corpezine. com> wrote:
From: Corporate ezine 'PR-e-Sense' <editor@corpezine. com>
Subject: [prpoint] Banking arrogance - Return of Cheques when there is sufficient funds - State Bank of Mysore
To: "Prpoint Group" <prpoint@yahoogroups .com>, "India Vision group" <India_Vision_ 2020@yahoogroups .com>, "New Media New Media Forum" <new_media_forum@ yahoogroups. com>, ushathorat@rbi. org.in
Cc: "venkataraman PNV" <pnvraman@gmail. com>, dgmcz@sbm.co. in, md@sbm.co.in, cgm@sbm.co.in, agm5cz@sbm.co. in, editor@poduniversal .com, "Banking Division" <Jsecps@hotmail. com>, "cai India" <cai.india1@gmail. com>
Date: Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 9:08 AM
Dear friends(Under copy to Banking Division, RBI Deputy Governor and MD of State Bank of Mysore and Consumers Association of India)On behalf of our online discussion groups, we have taken up several common issues concerning the general public successfully. Many of them found their way to mainline media, leading to solutions. Very recently, you may remember that we took up the case of ATM Claims. When one of our members used HDFC ATM machine with Kotak Mahindra Bank ATM card, the cash was not dispensed, but his account was debited. The Banks told the customer that they would take 45 days to settle the claim. When we started debating the issue and brought this issue to Ms Usha Thorat, Deputy Governor of RBI, she took up immediately and issued directions to all the Banks to settle the ATM claims within 13 days, failing which the concerned Banks would be penalised with penalty.Now, we are taking up another serious issue where Bank customers in India are harassed with the indifference of Banks.Return of cheques, when sufficient balance available in the a/c
One of our Members Mr Venkataraman and his family members are maintaining accounts with State Bank of Mysore, Chennai-Shastrinaga r Branch for the past 35 years with deposits. Three days back, the Bank returned his Cheque for Rs.1330/- issued in favour of Electricity Board, inspite of his maintaining sufficient balance in his accounts. When he went to the Bank to update the pass book, he came to know of this fact. The reason stated by the Bank was that their branch was getting into 'core banking' and the signatures of the customers were not scanned. (What a silly reason to return Electricity Board cheque).Immediately, Mr Venkataraman rushed to the Electricity Board office and they informed him that he had to pay in future all the bills only in cash and he would be barred from paying the bills through cheque. Further, he had to pay return charges and penalty for reconnection of electricity. He spent nearly four hours in the Electricity Board Office running pillar to post and nothing could be done. Mr Venkatarman had to pay penalty due to the irresponsible, indifferent attitude and arrogance of State Bank of Mysore officials.
Then he called up the Chennai Zonal office of the Bank to inform about this. The officials did not connect him to Asst. General Manager or Dy. General Manager of the Zone, under the pretext, they were in a 'meeting'. The office connected to a Chief Manager (lady), to whom he explained the problems. She was not sympathetic. except saying 'sorry'. She even refused to identify her name. She was not showing any interest to help the customer.
Without knowing what to do and under heavy tension, Mr Venkataraman, picked up the telephone number of State Bank of Mysore Head Office at Bangalore and called that number from his mobile and asked them to connect to Managing Director's Office. When he explained the situation to the Lady Secretary who was there, she asked him to contact Chennai Zonal Office and she too was not helpful and responsive. Mr Venkataraman had to contact the Head Office, only because, their Chennai Zonal Office was not responsive to his complaint. Even the MD office did not empathise with the complainant.At this stage, he called me and explained the whole issue. He was terribly under tension, as his reputation was lost due to the fault of the Bank. Adding insult, the Zonal Office and the MD Office of the Bank were not also responsive. At this stage, I suggested him to send a mail to Ms Usha Thorat, Deputy Governor of RBI, who is taking care of customer grievances at RBI level for the entire country. The copies were marked to Zonal Office and MD office.As any one can expect, within 10 minutes of receiving the copy of the mail, the same Secretary of the MD office called Mr Venkataraman and apologized for her Banks action. The Chief Manager (lady) who was very casual while listening to his complaint earlier and who refused to divulge the name, contacted him over his mobile disclosing her identity. They all promised to look into this matter. It was because, the complaint was escalated to RBI level. Sadly, this is the ground reality.As of now, the Electricity Board will black list him and will demand penalty from Mr Venkataraman for re-connecting electricity. All due to arrogance and irresponsible attitude of the Bank officials.On behalf of this Forum, I am now endorsing a copy to Ms Usha Thorat, Deputy Governor of RBI, Joint Secretary to the Banking Division of Govt. of India and also to the MD of the Bank. I am including Consumers Association of India in the loop. .This instance is only tip of the iceberg. Everyday, hundreds of innocent customers are harassed like this by all the Banks. Electricity Board officials have also informed Mr Venkataraman that every day they face such problems, like Bankers returning the cheques inspite of sufficient funds. When a cheque for small amount gets returned, (even when there is sufficient funds in the Bank), it may cause greater damage to the reputation of the person. Smaller the amount, greater the reputation loss. Since many customers do not escalate the complaints, they suffer in silence due to the arrogance of such officials, including the higher offices. In this particular case, since the matter was taken up with RBI level, the Bank got panicky.I request the readers to imagine themselves in this position, where even the MD's Office does not recognise a serious complaint and remain casual like this, after causing heavy damage to your personal reputation.OUR REQUEST TO RBI - LEVY PENALTY TO THE BANKSIn the interest of millions of hapless and voiceless bank customers who suffer in silence at the hands of officials, RBI should consider levying huge penalty to the Banks, if they return cheques when there is sufficient funds in their account, particularly when the cheques are drawn in favour of Electricity Board, Telephones, Tax Authorities, etc.The penalty to the Banks should also be of the order of 10 to 15 lakhs, particularly when the cheque is returned for small amounts. As said earlier, when small cheques are returned, the damage to the reputation is enormous. Hence, the need for heavy penalty to the Banks. A part of the penalty is to be recovered from the concerned erring officials, including the Managing Director of the Bank. (RBI has already issued directions in the case of ATM claims. If the claims are not settled within 13 days, RBI can impose penalty).I request the members to share the views. While replying please endorse copies to all, so that Banking Division, RBI and the State Bank of Mysore MD and Consumers Association of India may also be kept in the loop of our discussions.Let us hope this case study brings a good solution.Srinivasan
Moderator and
Editor-in-Chief
PR-e-Sense
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