The Brave Pedestrian

Mumbai, 22 nd December, 2016: Think how dangerous cashless payment can be if you are a typical unwary customer. If you pay in cash, you have the assurance of knowing that nobody can reach into your wallet and take an extra buck. But if you pay online, extra money can be skimmed by your bank without your knowledge. Sanjeev Goel of Belapur, who runs a coaching academy, read his account statement and found that HDFC Bank had repeatedly made deductions that he wasn't informed about , had not permitted, and wasn't notified of by SMS alerts. Sanjeev was charged Rs. 34.50 for each of the 32 times he paid student's fees of Rs 3000/- to Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). Sanjeev immediately got an SMS alert f or debit of Rs 3000/- but not for Rs 34.50. TISS denies deduct ing that amount , so clearly, HDFC deducted it . For what? Authorized by whom? Geetha Priya, Manager Correspondence (PNO Desk) claimed in an email: "We take this opportunity to reiter...

27 th October, 2016, Navi Mumbai: Here is a real-life thriller. Justdial starts plundering the bank account of an HDFC Bank customer, while the bank acts like an helpless bystander. After the dust settles, the bank tells its customer to go to the police, while it does absolutely nothing to prevent Justdial from robbing other customers. In May 2016, Sanjeev Goel, managing partner of a coaching academy called Pure Energy Academy in Belapur, Navi Mumbai, signed a contract with Justdial for business promotion. June onwards, Justdial started sucking unlimited amounts of money from Pure Energy's b ank account by using a fraudulent Electronic Clearance Service (ECS) mandate . Although the bank managers now understand how the crime was perpetrated, they refuse to take steps to protect thousands of customers from Justdial and other fraudulent companies following the same modus operandi . HDFC Bank's excuse is that National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) – which handles ECS tra...

9th October, 2016: A lot of HDFC Bank customers are having a bad experience. Some are even having nightmarish experiences... and it's all thanks to the fine art of glibly selling them financial instruments and other stuff they don't need. One friend who wrote to me after reading my recent article about how HDFC Bank routinely abuses it's customer's trust and fiduciary relationship , saying, "Krish, your gripe about HDFC Bank exceeding the limits of fiduciary relationship is absolutely correct. But why pick on HDFC alone? I get similar spam mails from ICICI, Kotak, etc. Upon complaining, I was told to read the last line of these mails and unsubscribe if I did not want to receive such mails. " My reply to his query: " I picked HDFC because I have experience of its activities at first hand. But I also wrote about SBI Mutual and ICICI Bank in that article." And then my friend wrote: " Here's a promo mail from AXIS Bank."...

7th October, 2016: Imagine you are having a gynaec examination. With his rubber-gloved fingers inside you, the gynaec starts a casual chat about why you should buy his home-grown brand of condoms and intimate products. Creepy? Yeah, well, but that's how HDFC Bank and other private-sector banks work. Actually, HDFC Bank is like if your gynaec collects real-time information about when and with whom you have sex, what kind of sex you are habituated to, exactly when you menstruate, what kind of lingerie and sanitary pads you are currently wearing, etc. and then this gynaec goes and hires a bunch of MBAs and college freshers, calls them "Relationship Managers", lets them hang around his clinic pretending to be gynaecologists themselves till you start feeling comfortable enough to tell them about your intimate problems. Then your gynaec goes and gives these relationship managers access to your information on their computer screens, with monthly targets for selling you co...