I had been customer of SBI since almost 1 year. It was my first experience ever of opening a bank account. I didn't face any major problem during opening my bank a/c in SBI. When my account was opened successfully after my ID verification, I was handed a cover by SBI which contains a passbook, cheque book, some Manuals, ATM Rupay card and PIN, Internet Banking ID and password and sone other paper stuff. For healthy operating of my account I was asked to deposit Rs 1000 in my account which was for to show that your account is not dead. I was given an advice too which I would like to share that never leave your bank account dead, atleast once a week or if possible daily, do a minimum transaction whether debit or credit, but don't leave your account unoperated as it may become a victim of some fraudsters and your savings can be compromised. The internet banking pin and password are accessible only after 72 hours after opening your account. So, after 4 days I tried to access my internet banking using the id and password provided by bank but unfortunately the id and password didn't work. I tried for many times but no results. At last I managed to create a new username and password ( through https://onlinesbi.com ) and finally I was able to gain access to my account online. The online services of SBI are good but sometimes you get lost in their menu so its better if you go through the site map. I was given a Rupay debit card with my opening of account but I needed a MasterCard, so I applied the request for the same in my home branch, they asked me to fill a form and I did so and the next day I was charged 221 Rs for new issue of card. I was ok with that as bank has already informed me about that charges. But since now that is from one year I hadn't received my new card. I had written 3 letters to the manager of my home branch but still no response. This was the first bad experience with SBI. The second disappointment from SBI is their worst ATM services. More than 70% of the time their ATMs are out of service. According to rules, in an ATM maximum 2 persons can be inside an ATM, but the in SBI ATM I have seen whole crowd in the ATM and that also before demonetisation. The security guard is also like ATM, absent 70-80% of the time. I complaint about the same to the SBI helpline, they registered my complaint and took no action. Infact I had a row with the other customers in the ATM queue because as I said at a time 2 persons were only allowed so I quarreled others to leave the ATM because I was aware about the PIN threats. And during demonetisation it was very much expected the worst services from SBI as the best quality banks also failed to handle the public, but surprisingly the SBI seems to be somewhat efficient in handling the crowd than expected. But as usual its ATM has never dispensed a single 2000 Rs note. Its CDM was the only machine which was working and that too for very short interval.
Overall its was a year of up and down with SBI. But its continuous improvements are somwhat satisfying, its staff is also somewhat kind?? and its online services such as state bank buddy( online wallet) and SBI freedom are good services.
I would prefer SBI for students and household ladies and small business people, but SBI needs to improve itself a lot.
