[Resolved]  SBIcard — deliberate attempt to penalise me and harassment

Dear Sir,
This is the copy of the complaint I sent many months ago to the sbicard complaints division. I was promised (through email) to be contacted by their representative “very soon”. As I received no call even after few weeks (as is always the case with them) I sent another copy of the complaint asking for postal or email solution for the same. Following is the copy of that complaint which I sent them so long ago.

Beginning of the copy…



From,
N David Joseph, SBI card no: [protected].


Dear Sir,

Sub: Complaint no.1 Change of credit limit-reg.
Complaint no.2 The SBI credit card agents’ failure in Bill collection resulting in my
paying penalty.
and non receipt of statements at my new address despite innumerable
requests.

I have been a customer of SBI credit card for a very long time and I was even given a loan of Rs.25, 000 as a reward for my prompt payment of dues. From this position of an honest customer I have been deliberately relegated to the position of a defaulter by a self serving agent of the bank.

I was time and again penalized for a default which I was forcibly dragged into, to serve somebody’s most undeserving reward for having ‘traced’ me at the very address where I had been paying my dues for more than ten months from February 2007 to November 2007.

The details of the unfortunate situation I give hereunder; the latest blow dealt to me, my reputation and my middleclass financial situation in Complaint no.1 from a list of other previous ones dealt to me in Complaint no.2

Complaint no.1: Change of credit limit

• My name is N David Joseph, SBI card no: [protected].

• My credit limit according to 6 July 2008 statement and till the same date was Rs.53, 700.00.

• Minimum amount due according to 6 July 2008 statement was Rs. 2, 425.10

• But suddenly according to 6th August 2008 statement my credit limit was
brought down to
Rs.18, 200.00

• Because of the above sudden change the minimum amount due has shot up to Rs.28, 896.57

• I noticed the discrepancy by opening the statement only after dropping a cheque for an amount of Rs.3000 before 26th August, 2008.

• When I tried SBI card helpline 39020202, I received a message saying Rs.3, 000 has been received but as only a part of the minimum amount due i.e., Rs.28, 896.57

Complaint no.2: The agents’ failure in Bill collection resulting in my paying penalty

• I changed my address from Himayatnagar, Hyderabad, in January 2007, and informed the people calling from Chennai about the change of address and requested for the statements to be sent to my new address. Flat no.109, Partani towers, Golconda cross roads, Musheerabad, HYDERABAD-500020

• They offered to take cash payments at the doorstep and told me I need not drop cheques when I told them on a few occasions, even though I dropped my cheques well within time the statements were showing late payment and penalty deducted!

• They noted my new address and from January, 2007, till November 2007, the collection agents have collected my payments at my new address


• From that time onwards I regularly received calls from Chennai and Hyderabad asking me to make the payments. I promptly made whatever payment they asked. All the while whenever I received a call I pleaded with them to send the statements to my new address. They would politely note down the address and assure me it would be done. This pleading and assurances went on for more than a year and even though they were taking the payment, the statements never reached my new address.

• And since December 2007, the agents stopped coming despite my repeated requests to collect my payment, till February 2008. Thus I could not pay for the two months as I did not have the statements and I could only call the agents who came earlier to take the payments. They would promise to come but never came during these two months.

• Then suddenly in February an agent ( I remember his name to have been given as Mr.Vamsi Krishna ) sends a man to my place blaming me to have absconded to a new address without informing them and patting himself for having ‘traced me after a great deal of Sherlock Holmes like hunt for me’. On phone he showered choicest of abuses on me.

• This claim he continued making despite my reminding him that I had made my payments at the very new address from February 2007, to November 2007.

• I am sure he must have got a pat and promotion for assassinating my reputation by deliberately avoiding responding to my requests to collect the payment and send statements to my new address.

• I was asked to cough up absurdly high amounts of money to pay the penalty for no mistake of mine.

• I am sure this man was rewarded from my pocket and over my assassinated reputation in addition to the penalties I was awarded for nonpayment.

• To counter his claim and prove him wrong I give hereunder the receipt nos. of my payments at the new address


sno date Receipt no Book no Amount paid
1 6/2/07 6928422 138569 Rs.3, 000/- cash
2 5/3/07 7051146 141023 Rs.6, 000/- cash
3 5/5/07 8041140 160823 Rs.3, 000/- cash
4 8/6/07 8469672 169394 Rs.3, 000/- cash
5 6/7/07 8714219 174285 Rs.3, 000/- cash
6 25/8/07 9327516 186551 Rs.3, 000/- cash
7 16/9/07 9387897 187758 Rs.3, 200/- cash
8 23/10/07 9840156 196804 Rs.130/- I made doubly sure with the collection agent whether this small amount was the correct figure. But later on I was shown as the one who defaulted and a penalty was levied. cash
9 20/11/07 10049876 200998 Rs.3, 390/- cash
10 December 2007 and January 2008 collection agents do not respond to repeated requests to collect the payment and I was not receiving statements




The following and the above details show the payments I made without knowing what the statements were showing and just by the information given by Chennai callers and local agents.

To make the below payments after the December 2007- February 2008 fiasco, I took a loan from a private lender at exorbitant interest.


sno date Receipt no Book no Amount paid Cheque or cash
1 21/2/08 10973123 219463 Rs.3, 540/- cash
2 11/3/08 10973138 219463 Rs.7, 500/- cash
3 15/4/08 11451567 229032 Rs.3, 700/- Cheque no.061667, ICICI bank
4 26/4/08 11434751 228696 Rs.300/- cash
5 5/5/08 11481461 229630 Rs.3, 700/- cash In this one month I paid a total amount of Rs.11, 400/- !
6 18/5/08 11583515 231671 Rs.4, 000/- cash
7 30/5/08 11753385 235068 Rs.3, 700/- cash
Total amount I paid during this nightmarish period is Rs.26, 460/- but still the outstanding amount barely came down the credit limit even though the over limit amount due to those two months would hardly cross one third of this total! What sort of punishment and penalty is this?






Following are the payments I made at Rs.3, 000/- a month before the latest statement came as the latest blow to the person who earlier had been rewarded for prompt payments!

sno Payment
received
date Statement date Minimum amount due and credit limit Amount paid Cheque no
1 25/6/08 6/6/08 Minimum amount due:
Around Rs.2, 900/-
credit limit: Rs.53, 700/- Rs.3, 000/- Cheque no.
061668,
ICICI bank
2 27/7/08/ 6/7/08 Minimum amount due:
Rs.2, 425/-
credit limit: Rs.53, 700/- Rs.3, 000/- Cheque no.
061670,
ICICI bank
3 26/08/08 6/8/08 Minimum amount due: Rs.28, 896/-!!!????
credit limit:
Rs.18, 200/-!!!??? Rs.3, 000/- Cheque no.
061669,
ICICI bank


I am a middleclass God fearing private employee struggling to make my both ends meet without any savings staying in a rented portion. I have four family members to look after including two small children of 3yrs and 5yrs of age.

I cannot afford to shell down unjustified sums of money as demanded by some employer favour craving agent’s strategy to further its author’s ambitions over my assassinated reputation.

I did not know how else to respond to the kind of abuses I was showered with and the kind of agony I have been put through despite my best effort to keep my slate clean.


I am a small man and I cannot fight a system where all the above transactions can be shown as following rules by a well established largest bank and their credit card division.

…………….End of the copy

Soliciting justice,

Yours truly,
N David Joseph, SBI card no: [protected].