Here is the letter I had written to HDFC after they failed to make payment under smart pay facility. To summarize, they have hopeless service and seems not serious about the payment to the concern biller. I had bad bad experiance with them and according to me this SMART PAY can be every thing but not atleast ’smart pay’.
To date 26/11/2005
The Manager
HDFC Bank Card Division
HDFC Bank Pvt Limited
Respected Sir/Madam,
I am Santosh Naidu and presently employed with MNC at Pune. I hold HDFC credit card with card number as 5XXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I enrolled for your smart pay facility in the month of August for the payment of LIC premium. I had received acknowledgement from your office stating that any bill after or on 1st Aug 2005 will be paid by HDFC and the amount will be billed in credit card statement. The LIC premium for which I had enrolled for this service are
1 Policy No. 6XXXXXXXX
Quarterly Premium amount : Rs. 5902/-
2 Policy No. 6XXXXXXXX
Quarterly Premium amount : Rs 4027/-
It was a quarterly premium and supposed to be paid for the quarter starting on Q1(Mar-Apr-May) , where Q2 being(June-July-Aug), Q3(Sept-Oct-Nov) and Q4(Dec-Jan-Feb). The amount is supposed to be paid in the first month of quarter or in the following month considering the grace period.
The last premium I paid was for Q3 in the month of July (during grace period). Now the premium for the month of Q4 was needed to be paid in the month of Sept (or Oct considering the grace period). After receiving acknowledgement from the Bank I called up to ensure, and asked if am I supposed to pay for Q4 for which the payment date was 28th Sept 05 (28th Oct with grace period). I was ensured that the premium will be paid by HDFC and I need not worry, as the payment date (28th Sept) is well under the activation date of smart pay (i.e. 1st Aug). To ensure proper communication I called up the credit card service dept right from the day of activation to 28th Oct (last day of grace period). I must have made more than 15-18 calls just to make sure that premium is paid, and each time I was told that I don’t have to worry about it and the amount will be paid by HDFC without fail.
But on 28thOct 05, I came to know that HDFC didn’t make any payments. I was told that something went wrong and I will be contacted after checking the same. In the process I also had a word with Mr. Niles Kulkarni, Assistant Manager, HDFC Credit card division, but it didn’t help me. I waited for two days and again made a call on 31st Oct (Monday) and to my disappointing I was told the same thing. After making repeated calls, I learnt that the payment was not made and to my dismay I was told that HDFC holds no responsibility for that and now I am supposed to make the payment to LIC with fine/interest charge being levied.
Some wage explanation was given to me saying that the LIC billing date is prior to the smart pay activation date. I doubt this because I received the bill on 16th Aug with the mention of 28th Sept as date of payment.
Even if I consider this as the explanation, then my question is why I wasn’t told the same when I made repeated calls right from the month of August. In all those calls, I enquired and explicitly asked if HDFC is going to make the payment. If proper information would have conveyed, I would have paid the premium of my own. Should I consider that HDFC has not taken the payment of LIC premium as seriously and casually taken all those calls which I had made?
I would like to know
Why proper information was not conveyed to me in spite of the repeated calls I made and explicitly asked if HDFC is going to make the payment? Had I knew that I would have made the payment of my own.
Why all the explanation/reasons came only when the last date went by? I was left in a position to pay the premium with fine, not to mention the embarrassment I had for being a defaulter of LIC premium payment.
Why should I continue with your service when there is no respect for the non defaulter customer? It can be checked that I didn’t miss even a single payment of your credit bill. All the payment from my side was done in time with out fail.
I am enclosing some document to support my point. I am hoping for quick response from your side with valid reason in writing.
Yours faithfully
Santosh Naidu
Contact no: 09XXXXXXXXXX
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