May 25th 2016 - Update:
After dozens of calls, multiple email escalations and few social network reviews, I have received the basic information regarding the refund. It took nearly 20+ calendar days to get this basic information.
One thing that I have to praise here is, in all my interactions customer service representatives always admitted to the deficiencies they have and understood the customer(my) pain.
I really hope, going forward, PNBMetlife will change its processes and systems to improve their customer interactions and not to put the onus on the customers to prove the things that they are responsible for.
Now I will have to chase the Cred824it card company to locate the transaction and I will do it.
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May 18th 2016 - Update:
No progress so far. I had contacted customer service few more times and still they do not give out any details regarding refund but still claim that the refund had been issued.
I had followed up with Grievance cell multiple times and absolutely NO RESPONSE. Now I wonder why they had created this cell in the first place? It can’t be a Grievance cell it should be called as Black Hole Cell. All emails just go into space.
On funnier side, even today #Fraud-PNBMetlife web site shows that my is still under review.
I literally begged the customer service reps to open up a fraud case internally against the refunds processing department and NO ONE wants to do it.
Customers please beware of this #Fraud-PNBMetlife.
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May 11th 2016
I had applied for PNBMetlife term life insurance on 29th July 2015 at their online website [url]https://pnbmetlife.com[/url]. I had paid the premium for the policy on the same day through Cred824it card. I was asked to upload documents and attended a medical exam in the first week of August 2015.
This is when the problem started. I tried following up PNBMetlife at their website and customer service(both IVR and email) multiple times to check the status of application. Each time I either received no response or the application under review. Even today website shows that the application is under review. On October 21st 2015, PNBMetlife customer service responded to one of my emails suggesting that the policy was declined with no reason given and they requested some more time to process the refund. This happened nearly 7 months ago. I still(as of 11/5/16) have not received a refund.
When I followed with PNB beginning of May 2016, this time I was given a surprise response that the policy money was refunded as soon as the policy was declined. When I asked for the date & time money was refunded, I had received the following responses.
Money was refunded in August 2015 itself as soon as policy declined.
When I referred the customer service to look at the email sent on Oct 21st 2015, they changed the refunded date to October.
In subsequent calls, I was told the money was refunded anywhere between August’15 through Jan 2016.
I challenged the customer service to give me the exact refund date and transaction number. I got the response that this information(Transaction number and date of refund) can not be given. I escalated to their floor supervisor and it is the same behavior. On funnier side, one customer representative told me that the amount was refunded on the same day it was collected on July 29th 2015.
On top of this, now #Fraudulent-PNBMetlife is asking me to prove that I had not received the refund. They are suggesting me to handover Cred824it card statements for the period beginning August 2015. I was shocked to hear this ask. I had challenged this by giving the following reasons.
When and where in the world a seller(#Fraudulent-PNBMetlife) assumes no responsibility in providing the refund processing information and it became customer’s full responsibility?
Asking for Cred824it card statements is against the privacy laws. I explained that this request shouldn’t be made without providing any information from the #Fraudulent-PNBMetlife side. 8+ months of Cred824it card statements include lot of personal information which I have no trust in handing it over to #Fraudulent-PNBMetlife.
My bank charges up to 150 rupees for each month Cred824it card statement. Who is going to aishwaryasingh23 for this? #Fraudulent-PNBMetlife certainly does not want to aishwaryasingh23 for this and customer service representatives confirmed this.
Each and every customer representative that I spoke to understands and agrees with these reasons and promised to get back in their respective first conversations. They promised to get back with this information and till today no one provided the refund details. In subsequent conversations, all of these members come back and tell me to prove that I have not received the refund.
When asked what if the Cred824it card statements don’t have the refund transaction, do they(#Fraudulent-PNBMetlife) not ask for any other bank statements? When I asked this question, no one responded and leaving this as a possibility.
I had escalated this to #Fraudulent-PNBMetlife grievance cell level 1 by writing an email to’india_grievancecell@pnbmetlife.co.in’ and requested their help. As expected, till today no response.
Then I had escalated this to #Fraudulent-PNBMetlife grievance cell level 2 by writing an email addressing to Taranjit Singh - Associate Director, Customer Services, Operations and Services, email@ [email]gro@pnbmetlife.co.in[/email]. I had received no response. I requested at least an acknowledgement on receipt of email, but no response.
In looking at all these, I suspect there may be fraudulent activities happening at #Fraudulent-PNBMetlife. They collect money from customers and claim that they have refunded. I demand #Fraudulent-PNBMetlife company to inquire and expose this fraud.
Customers please beware of this #Fraudulent-PNBMetlife.