I have an account with Bank Of India for the last 6 years. In fact my whole family has all it’s accounts with this bank, two of them being NRE accounts. My father holds accounts in the London, Frankfurt and Ballard Estate(Mumbai) branches of this bank for the past 22 years.
22 years! Considering this duration, it goes without saying that the bank has always been very friendly and co-operative with us, and has made banking a pleasure for us. Then why am I giving it such a low rating?
Well, you see, in the past one year, Bank of India has gone down in matters of service. This bank, of which I was once a proud and satisfied customer, has let me down on quite a few occasions in the past one year.
The staff has started taking both- their responsibilities and their customers- lightly!
I will not bother the readers with their attitude towards the customers or their rude behaviour, but just narrate my latest ordeal:
I hold a savings bank account with the Versova Branch of this bank. Two months ago, I was pleasantly surprised to know that Bank Of India was launching it’s ATM card. I readily applied for a card, and was very soon a Bank Of India ATM card holder. So the next time I needed to withdraw money from my account, I lazed in my bed, not bothered about the bank’s timings. After all, I had the ATM power. I reached the bank one hour after the bank’s closing time. I proudly put in my brand new ATM card, punched in my PIN, typed the amount, and waited for the transaction to be processed. Their was some rolling sound, and after a few moments, some transaction receipts were thrown out from one of the slots. The machine proudly asked me if I needed any other transaction. I did not know if the machine had deducted the amount from my account. I surely did not see any green bills. I stared dumbly at the ATM machine, and the machine stared dumbly at me! I called the guard and just blinked at him with the bunch of transaction receipts in my hand. He smiled and said that those must be the receipts of the people who came in before me, and left in anger as the machine did not give them any transaction bills. The guard also furnished me with the knowledge that the machine rarely worked.
From that day, I have been to the ATM machine on 13 occasions...and could withdraw money only once. Yesterday, I had been to the bank, and as usual, the ATM machine was out of order. I returned back, and called the bank. A person at the bank assured me that the machine would be in working condition by 7.30 pm. As I was working, and needed the money urgently, I sent my cousin to withdraw the money. At 7.30 pm, when my cousin found that the ATM was not working, he asked the people at the bank, who were working overtime. They told him that the machine would be okay by 8.00 pm. My poor cousin waited...and finally, at 8.30 pm, the authorities informed him that he should try the next day! Frustrated, my cousin returned empty handed, and told me about the whole thing. So today morning I myself went to the bank. I asked a person as to whom should I talk to about the ATM problem. This gentleman said that he himself was in-charge. After wasting 10 minutes telling him about our woes, he calmly informed me that I should talk to the manager. I gave a stern look to this self-proclaimed in-charge and stormed into the manager’s cabin. She was a manageress. After I told her about the inconvenience the bank’s customers were going through due to the faulty ATM machine, I was shocked to see the lady just shrug her shoulders- and her responsibility. She said that these are teething problems. I asked her how could they issue ATM cards to the customers without conducting a thorough check. She told me that I can check and see that the ATM machine was functioning properly. I coldly told her that I did not care if it was working now, and that it was not working when I needed the money badly. And I spent my time and money on the assurance of a Bank of India employee, who seemed pretty sure that the machine would be back in order by 7.30 pm. I asked her why I did not face this problem with HDFC. And the lady told me that HDFC does not have 2500 branches like Bank of India. For the life of me I could not understand how that affected the ATM machine’s hardware. Finally, I told her that she should give me the telephone number of her higher authorities, as evidently, she was not in a position to take care of her branch’s customers. She readily gave it to me, and I couldn’t help feeling that there was a feeling of relief in her tone at the thought of getting rid of me.
Anyway, just wanted to share this on mouthshut. So I guess I will be back to the old fashioned system of visiting the bank in it’s working hours. But I do hope that any MS member having an account at Bank Of India, Versova branch, Mumbai, should learn from my experiences, and should not depend on their ATM card in case of emergency. It’s always safe to withdraw some money in the bank’s working hours, and deposit it in your account at HDFC, HSBC etc.
Good Luck!