I had a very bad experience from Bajaj auto finance here at Bangalore for a laptop loan. Loan is arranged by Acer dealer in the month of July 2007 and I gave 10 emi cheques. For first 6 months they did not post the cheques into my account. I repeatedly called the vendor and finally he started shouting at me saying "Why bother me, Call the Bajaj guys!". As I persisted, he gave me a couple of numbers. One of the number did not attend the ring. After my long repeated complaints they posted 7 cheques altogether in January 2008 and 1 cheque in February 2008.(What is the meaning of EMI.?) I was expecting this and the cheques got debited properly. Now for the rest of the two cheques, they called me and told that they have lost them and promised to send a person with the apology letter and asked me to send the replacement cheques with that person. I agreed. Nobody turned up. I called them again but no body attended those cell numbers. Later their help desk called me and accused that my cheques are bounced and asked me to immediately pay the "bounced cheques". I asked them to send me the proof of the "bounced cheques" as I know that the cheques were never submitted. There was no communication from their side till June 2009 and one fine morning I received a legal notice accusing me as a deliberate evader and calling for a settlement. I had already heard about this kind of stories of arm twisting from finance companies before and given the situation, I was expecting this from Bajaj Auto Finance too. I owed two emi worth 3755 which totals to Rs. 7510/-(for which they possess my cheques) but the legal notice demands Rs. 9010/- which could be the outstanding plus interest. I called them and made it clear that I will pay only what I actually owe them. If their collection department is callous and complacent, why should I take the punishment for that. I was ready for a legal battle if they demand more than 7510. Since I am slapped with a legal notice, I decided not to pay unless I get the appology letter they offered or the unused cheques which I had submitted to them.
Anyway I must pay back the EMI and get out of this mess, I took a half-day leave and walked into the Bajaj auto finance at GuttaHalli, Bangalore as per the address on the legal notice. Talked to their legal advisor as well as the person working in the process. They admitted that it is their mistake that the cheques are lost during their process, so they waived all the interest slapped on me as per the legal notice. The accountant looked apologetic and explained that all these happened because the entire process moved from local branch to Pune for centralized processing(!) They agreed to take only the pending EMI amount without any interest on them. As I asked them, immediately gave me the NOC right there. Looking from their side, by legally threatning the customer, he walked in and solved their problem arised from their own wretched loan collection process. They could have done this with proper formal communication and without a legal notice. From my side, I feel relieved and will never turn towards Bajaj finance or never will trust that company. Later, I got a couple of calls inviting investments and insurance. They have my cell number anyway. Do I trust them anymore? The answer is obviously NO!.
Another thing I realized is that visiting their branch might solve our problem if it is not solved over telephone/mail. In my case they looked unreachable. It is so, because a sense of "representation of organization", professionalism to serve the customer(even for their own benefits) and commitment to the customer is the last priority for these officers. Note, it is not the organization, it is the people again. Hope things will improve.