I am placing below, a long letter I wrote to the bank on 25th of March 2013, after over half a month of struggling with my account manager and the bank branch to sort out issues with my internet banking. At the time of making this post on 2nd May 2013, the issues with my internet banking have still not been sorted out. The only explanation I received from the bank was that it is just an ’aberration’ and not an indicator of the quality levels of their services. Please do not get stuck with Axis Bank.
Read on to know how some of the simplest of issues are given no attention and a customer can be left in dire straits.
Dear all, It is with great pain and despair that I write to all of you at Axis Bank. We hold a current account with your bank in the name of ’Cap Inde Value Chain Solutions Pvt. Ltd.’ (Ac No. 911020010298906) at the Adyar Branch, Chennai. Everyone in my business organization and many who have an association with my business activities have been left in complete chaos because of the irresponsible activities of your bank and some of your colleagues. I am an entrepreneur running a start up firm which has severe cash flow constraints. As a start up and due to lack of collaterals, we have been struggling over the past couple of years and through the hard work of my people, we have continued to successfully keep our company running.
Despite having a Business Select account and paying enormous amounts as maintenance charges for our account, the services offered by the bank have been more than just pathetic. The internet banking services have always been a severe pain point and we have raised complaints regarding the same on multiple occasions.
The internet banking services at your bank are pathetic, failing on several occasions. I had placed a complaint as recent as February where the money I transferred to my personal Axis bank account got deposited to a business account of one of our suppliers after five days. Your bank never bothered to give a valid explanation for that. I was left to do all the homework to find out the errors due to the irresponsible activities of some of the officers of your bank. The internet banking services come to a stand still very often. It is hard to get the attention of account managers and they give extremely irresponsible or tangential replies to questions posed. While I am currently making this complaint, my suppliers have stopped production, my stocks have not been transported and several labourers who are dependent on our business have been left hungry because we could not make the payments on time. My company has faced notional losses of over 100000 rupees. This occurred when Axis bank decided to reset our account passwords during the last week. The proposer account for our account has been disabled and we have not been able to make any transaction since last Tuesday. Though we have been trying to approach the bank, the official phone lines have not been working and have never been attended. After our repeated attempts to contact our account manager Mr. Karthik Mohan on his mobile and even after I sent my representative in person, the internet banking account was not working. Mr. Karthik Mohan promised to sort out issues and have our account password reset on Saturday. The problem has not be sorted out at the time of my writing my mail. I have been travelling on work, attending a training programme and I have been unable to go to any Axis Bank branch to withdraw cash in person today. I had therefore sent my father (One of the directors of the company) in person with a cheque signed by me to the Nagercoil Branch of Axis Bank. I sent him with an original Identity proof and it’s copy. The bank declined to honour the cheque stating that it is supposed to be jointly operated by me and my brother V N Reju who is also one of the directors of the company. We had faced a similar issue in March 2012 and few other occasions earlier and to get the issue sorted out. I had submitted a letter to the bank through my office staff Ms. Sasikala in person to enable single operations by either me or by V N Reju.. On stating that I had already submitted a request, Mr. Karthik Mohan asked if I have any authenticity to prove that I had submitted a request. The only proof that I have is the filed I created on my computer on 19th March 2012. I have enclosed a copy of the same to this mail. The bank staff seem to have lost the letter and we came to know about it about one month later when we made an attempt to reconfirm. We had later submitted another requisition letter which we followed up actively and were informed that single operations had been activated. From the time of opening my account, I have issued 63 cheque leaves with just my signature and every one of them have been honoured. I wonder where the insightful views of your bank disappeared. I would like to understand the basis for passing every one of these 63 cheques. Why am I being stopped all of a sudden when I am not in town? Today my father (Mr. N. Vethamuthu) was made to wait an entire half day and I had two of my administrative staff leave out their regular work to follow up on the status of my account and the money. I still have not received my money and the bank has still not managed to trace the request letter I gave in March last year. I do not see it being practical to hold and operate an account with your bank. Despite the exorbitant charges that are being slapped on us, all we get to see is your rotten face. I want the issue to be sorted out immediately and if possible, a facilitation to enable a smooth exit from the account I hold with your bank.
Regards,
V N Shiju.