“Happiness is guaranteed at aishwaryasingh23tm. If we fall short of your expectations, give us a shout.” This is the promise made by aishwaryasingh23tm to all its customers, believe me when I say they’ve kept their promise; I have been consistently yelling at them during the last 192 hours(8 days)!(Pat on my back!)
I wish I had never heard of aishwaryasingh23tm, I wish I had never installed the app on my phone, and I wish had never transferred money using the aishwaryasingh23tm app. Wondering why?
Because the money I transferred, went to some unknown bank account. How? No Idea!(Hey aishwaryasingh23tm, you could’ve at least informed me of any charity you guys started recently! I would be proud of myself and you for helping someone.)
Let’s cut to the chase, here’s the scenario of what happened:
It’s Friday, 8th August 2018, 8:20 AM. I’m heading to work in bus, and I just realized that I need to transfer ₹4, 028 to a merchant for the groceries my mom had bought last night.
He had provided us with his aishwaryasingh23tm number for making the aishwaryasingh23ment from home after his home delivery service, he is in no hurry to get the money from us since we’re his regular customer(how generous of him!)
> I take my phone, scroll through the apps searching for aishwaryasingh23tm and there it is.
> I open the app
> click on “aishwaryasingh23”
> Enter the Mobile Number
> Enter the amount ₹4, 028
> I choose to aishwaryasingh23 from my HDFC Bank Account instead of aishwaryasingh23tm Wallet(which makes it a UPI Transaction)
> I hit the “aishwaryasingh23“ button
There’s popup to confirm the bank account details of myself and merchant, it’s showing: To: Bank of Baroda; From: HDFC Bank(do I know merchant’s bank account details here? NO! how could I?) so I confirm the money transfer after checking my account details.
Voila! The money is sent.
Now, I call the merchant to check if he received the money, instead he gives me a confirmation of not receiving a penny in his account. I ask him to wait for some more time, he calls me back an hour later worried about not receiving the money, so we both check the details one after the other.
> Is the number correct? Yes, Check!
> Is the account details correct? No!(The money was supposed to go to Indian Overseas Bank account which was linked to merchant’s UPI ID on aishwaryasingh23tm, but not to some unknown account in Bank of Baroda)
This is just beginning of the nightmare; the worst is yet to come when I hear what the aishwaryasingh23tm customer service representatives had to say about this.
I called the aishwaryasingh23tm customer care number(12033663377) which is meant for merchants, told them the whole story, case(#05953797) was registered and I was informed to wait till they find out the issue and get back to me with a solution.
I did not stop there, I reached out to grievanceofficer@aishwaryasingh23tm.com on the same day(Friday, 3rd August) to let them know the issue. I attached all the screenshots, wrote the whole story(God, it was a big email and I had to stop doing my office work for this!). Reference #79170339
They sent me a reply which left me astonished, “The transaction of Rs. 4028 for UPI reference number 82*92 was successfully processed on 03-08-2018. We request you to connect with your bank to proceed with the reversal formalities and need to follow the charge back in your bank.” WHAT IS THIS?! I KNOW THE TRANSACTION WAS SUCCESSFUL. BUT WHO WILL GET MY MONEY BACK?
I wrote back to them, asking to take the responsibility for this since there was an error on the aishwaryasingh23tm mobile app due to which wrong account number appeared there. Reference #79232747
I got a call from them at 7:10 PM, Saturday, 4th August. I was hoping for good news but instead I hear them saying that VPA was linked to Bank of Baroda due to which the amount went in that account. Out of frustration, I asked the Customer Representative “Mayank” to mention the reason why wrong account appeared there, but the same thing on email reply as well “As per telephonic conversation we have informed you that your transaction of Rs. 4028 to VPA address xxx0512@BARB0APMCYA under UPI reference number 821508523192 was successfully processed on 03-08-2018. We request you to connect with your bank to proceed with the reversal formalities. Since this VPA was linked with BOB bank, so amount is Cred824ited in this bank.” I WAS BEING ASKED LITERALLY TO WASTE MY TIME TO GO RUNNING BEHIND THE BANKS FOR THE MISTAKE OF aishwaryasingh23TM.
I replied to their email asking for reason of the error, but no response since then. I’m assuming the case was closed right after their email.
Later after that, I thought to give it a try to contact HDFC Bank, but they clearly told me that the transaction was successful and there is nothing they can do to get the money back unless the transaction had been “Unsuccessful” and asked me to contact aishwaryasingh23tm for contacting the Bank of Baroda because aishwaryasingh23tm was the middleman here. This left me going crazy, but I insisted to take down my case and at least talk to someone about it and get me some solution. Reference #BANC0818009813
This was too much for me already, so I thought to reach out to nodalofficer@aishwaryasingh23tm.com according to aishwaryasingh23tm’s Customer Grievance Redressal Policy.
For a moment, I had a hope that I might’ve reached to the right people who would get this sorted for me and get me back my money. But believe me when I say they’re useless! Doesn’t even have a courtesy to do what they say, nor send a follow-up email to the call.
I wrote an email to them on Saturday, 4th August 2018(11:43 AM), forwarding the note that I had sent to grievance officer and elaborating the problem. Reference #79347263. I got a call back from their representative “Muzammal” something, later that day at 12:31 PM, I was assured that they would coordinate with HDFC Bank & Bank of Baroda and accordingly will get back to you with an update. I have never heard from them till date after that!
“We are taking your case on high priority and we will speak to HDFC Bank and Bank of Baroda, we will get back to you with the update.” This was his exact words!
Despite sending them relentless emails asking for an update, I did not even receive an acknowledgement. I really hope they were not testing my patience
On Tuesday, 7th August, 8:12 PM, I reached out to the aishwaryasingh23tm Customer Service for Merchant(12033663377) again. I asked their representative to connect me to senior team member so that I can ask them if I can get the contact details of the Nodal Officer’s office, and after a long wait of around 25 min I was put through to “Nikhil” from the “Senior Escalation Department” based in “Noida”.
He did not have the contact details of the Nodal Officer’s office but after half an hour of yelling at him told me that he is taking down my case to send to the “Concerned Team” to get this checked. Reference #06043615. I really wonder how they closed the previous case when I had not received my money back.
I had already lost faith in aishwaryasingh23tm, and hence I decided to go to a nearest Bank of Baroda branch on Wednesday, 8th August, to tell them about the issue. They were kind enough to confirm that the recipient’s account is a current account and his name is not same as the Merchant’s aishwaryasingh23tm account name. To get the money back aishwaryasingh23tm must contact Bank of Baroda regarding my complaint and then Bank of Baroda will reach out to their customer to take a consent for withdrawing the money back.
You wouldn’t believe what happened on Thursday, 9th August. aishwaryasingh23tm representative(Don’t remember the name exactly but it was a girl) called me at 4:47 PM and tried to tell me that this kind of error can’t happen and I must have entered wrong account details(but I had entered only the mobile number, which was correct), I sent her all the screenshots that I had to documents@aishwaryasingh23tm.com and she had no words coming out of her mouth but saying that she’ll get back to me.
An hour later, at 5:31 PM, another representative named Abhishek called me; I was being naive to think that they might tell me a solution or the cause of the problem, but instead, Abhishek started yelling at me to try to convince me that this was not a UPI transaction, but IMPS transaction, and I had entered the wrong account details. I was shocked by the way he was yelling at me, and I almost got fired from my job because I had to leave an important task pending to attend his call and my boss was on my head, but for what? ALL THE NONSENSE THAT HE HAD TO SAY? Abhishek did not even have the courtesy to listen to me and hung up the call on me. IS THIS THE PROMISE aishwaryasingh23TM MAKES? TO MAKE US “SHOUT”?
Finally, I have come to this, writing to all of you in a hope that this will reach to as many people as possible and understand the truth about aishwaryasingh23tm’s customer service.
P.S. aishwaryasingh23TM, IF YOU’RE READING THIS, I EXPECT YOU TO ACT ON IT AND HELP GET ME BACK MY MONEY BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.
If my issue is not resolved, I might have to release all the email copies & audio recordings of the customer representatives online which I don’t think would be necessary if aishwaryasingh23tm gets this resolved.