May 19, 2010 01:31 PM
2635 Views
(Updated May 19, 2010 01:36 PM)
I had a Maruti-Indianoil credit card which was a tie up between Maruti & Citibank. In January 2010, SBI gave me a call saying that they had now tied up with Maruti and would be providing a similar card in place of Citibank. I welcomed the move, as I am a customer of SBI for the last 25-30 years and always thought it was a trustworthy bank.
The events unfolded as under:-
SBI people called me in January 2010 saying that they are offering me a card which was a tie up with Maruti. They told me the rates and the annual fees etc. and I agreed for the same. At this time, I also told them that I already hold an SBI card No. 4192. The person said that this is not a problem and it had nothing to do with this application.
My previous SBI Card was not quite convenient (petrol of 500/- or more only, etc.) and I was looking forward to this card which provided better facilities for petrol & Maruti payments.
A person with SBI came to my residence in second week of January 2010 and got the application form (No. S0006409319) filled and took copies of Pan Card, my Citibank card’s monthly statements for last 3 months, identity card and what not.
In the third and fourth weeks of Jan 2010, SBI called up my office, my residence and my boss to enquire about everything and satisfy themselves.
SBI sent an SMS to me on 2nd Feb 2010 to say that ‘your application No. 1303260000279 is under process. Please give us 15 days time…..’.
About two weeks’ later, when I called up to enquire about the delivery of the card, I was told that my application was rejected. When I asked for the reason, they refused to give me a valid reason. Upon insisting and on telling them that this was an insult, the Customer Service guy says ‘Sir, don’t you know that you cannot have two SBI cards?’. On explaining the facts (Point No. 1), he says ‘Sorry that our guys have given you wrong directions, but your card cannot be processed.’
At this stage, I called up SBI again and asked them to cancel my existing card also as I was not satisfied with the way things were handled. They said I will get a call in 4-5 days.
After 10 days I called again saying that my card had not been cancelled. The guy again went through the whole thing and said you will get a call back.
On March 13, 2010 one Mr. Mahesh/Mukesh called me up thrice asking me the reason why I was cancelling my card. On telling him about the reason, he said ‘please don’t cancel the card sir, we will give you the additional card. It can be done. Your old card will have limit of Rs. 10000/- and the new card will have limit of Rs. 20000/-. Give me one week.’ I asked him to go ahead when he called up the third time on the same day.
After some days, a girl calls up and says ‘Sir, first you have to submit an application to get a card from SBI’!! Again the explanations. Some days later a guy calls up ‘Sir, have you applied for an SBI Card? I see no application?’!! Again the explanations. He says ‘we can very well give you two cards – it is now SBI’s policy. There will be no problem.’.
Yesterday, a girl calls up and says ‘Sir, I am sorry, but your application has been rejected. Please continue using your old card’. Now this was the limit. I told her to cancel my card and don’t call me back again.
I just have two questions for someone in SBI Card Division:-
Doesn’t SBI need customers – the way it is treating them? And
Is SBI hiring cheap rejects of other private banks as Customer Service & Backend Operations people?
I hope my credit card No.4192 has been cancelled and my relationship with SBI Credit Card has ended. This whole process has been quite painful/insulting and I think SBI has no reason to deal with people like this and put black marks in their CIBILs for no fault of theirs.
A. Srikanth
Mayur Vihar Ph-2
Delhi-110091
