Hi Guys,
I would like to edit this review of mine. As after writing this review, some good things happened to me. :)
One fine day, I was contacted by Zonal Sales Manager of Kotak and was told that she have read this review of mine and would like to come and meet me personally.
She visited my office and asked me about my bad experience.
I told her about the trauma I had written here on mouthshut. She accepted the flaws at Kotak’s end and commited to me that she doesn’t want to end this relationship and would like to continue setting a good example.
One quote she said changed my outlook and readied me to start a new relationship with Kotak. She said, "It was easy on our part to break a relationship and return your cheques, but now I want to start afresh and promise you that failures which happened will go as a part of learning process". I seriously believethat getting a dissatisfied customer back is the most difficult task, and she promised she will be up to my expectations.
The best part about our conversation was that she never ever tried to justify the errors. She said that we accept the mistake and vouch for corrective action.
I gave back my forms of account opening to Kotak, with a cheque of Rs. 501 this time ;o), may be I wanted to gain trust first.
You won’t beleive guys, within 3 working days, my account was activated and within 5 working days, I have my welcome kit delivered personally by the banking staff.
Ohh yes, I forgot to mention that Kotak even gifted me a token gift for new year as well.
I hope I will get good banking with them.
Enjoy!!!
Bhupesh
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Hi Guys,
I am writing a review this time again about my experience with a financial institution. I strongly feel that all should know issues with financial institutions, so that they cannot cheat others.
I had this horrible experience with Kotak Mahindra bank.
Actually, it all started with a pretty good note. I saw an advertisement of half page for this bank in a leading English daily newspaper stating a usual premium SMS number for contact. I SMSed them and after a couple of days a soft-spoken nice person called me on my cell asking for an appointment. I asked him to come and visit me in my office during lunch hour and he obliged to do that.
He came and explained me all benefits of Kotak Mahindra Bank stating free phone banking, home banking and possibility of usage of “ANY VISA” ATM around. Very frankly, I was quite impressed with the deal. I was told that I work in a company which is on their list and my salary bracket comes in the range set by them, so I can open a “Zero” balance account.
I also showed my interest in some investment options with Kotak. He agreed to come to my home on Saturday afternoon with an Insurance advisor for all options. They did come to my home and we discussed about various investment options and he took all relevant documents for opening my “Zero” balance savings account along with a cheque of higher amount. The representative told me that third party cheques are acceptable.
Everything was fine until now. However, real trauma began after this. He called me again and told that third party cheque is creating problems, so I need to give a cheque from my existing bank account and preferably of a higher amount, which will make things faster. I agreed to that too. He came to my office and collected the same.
A couple of day’s later cheque of the amount was en-cashed from my bank, also I enquired about the third party cheque, and it too was withdrawn. I presumed that my account has been open and I would receive my starter’s kit soon. However, a few days passed and nothing happened. I got a call from the bank after a few days stating that they cannot open a “zero” balance account, as I have not given my visiting card. That sounded vague to me. They said that I could however open a balance where I need to maintain a minimum quarterly balance of INR 20000. It stunned me. I said, if this is the case, it should have been conveyed to me at an earlier stage. I spoke to the representative about the same and it was told to me that there is some misunderstanding and I need not worry. My account will be open with same conditions as specified earlier.
They sat on my money for another 10 days, that representative stopped picking my calls, and everyday false promises were made to me (even by Branch Manager of Lavelle road, Bangalore branch) that it will not take another day and my account will be open. I got really pissed off with the dealing of this bank.
I really understand that sometimes it takes time to open the account due to some technicalities, but they should commit a proper date, rather than calling and doing false promises.
The most important thing that swept me off was that if they have not opened my account and there is some technical hitch, then why they withdrew money from my account. Moreover, I am not talking about few hundreds; I am talking of amount over 1.35L. They plainly withdrew money from my account and doing all hanky panky business of false promises. People from the bank did not used to pick my phone, if I used to call from my mobile, and if I call from some other number they used to pick it up.
I called the branch manager and asked him that I do not want to continue any relationship with Kotak and I want my money back. He again made false promises of one more day and all, but no miracle happened and I finally asked him to return my money back. At one stage, I thought of going to consumer court for this but then did not go to avoid any further mental trauma. However, I feel that I should tell to fellow MS members about the same.
The thing, which hurt me most, was that the representative never called me again when I wanted to know status. His phone was continuously switched off.
I strongly recommend you people to not to start any relationship with Kotak Mahindra Bank. I wanted to invest in insurance products of Kotak as well, but after looking at this kind of customer service, I refrained myself from starting any relationship with this financial institution.
I would like to sign off by saying that services shown on paper might look very attractive, but people who need to implement them are usually not capable enough.