HDFC Bank — credit card was sold as a lifetime-free card but it wasn't!

Address:

600095

I was sold an hdfc regalia first credit card on the pretext that it was a lifetime free card by an phone agent (Ms. Sathya). She insisted that i won't have to register for smartpay or any such thing, that i automatically qualified for the lifetime free offer. After i received the card i came to know that it wasn't and that i should register for smartpay to convert it to a lifetime free card. I escalated the issue but the escalation team neither confirmed that there was a fault at their end nor that my grievance will be resolved. I was just told that i have to register for smartpay, otherwise it will be a regular card. I further escalated it to the grievance addressal officer mr. Manikandan and he basically parrotted the same thing that i was told by the escalation team - "the agent did not lie to me during the application of the credit card, but that i have to register for smartpay to qualify for the lifetime free card."

There is a huge internal contradiction here but no amount of going back and forth with these people is bringing this to light.

Full details:-

On the 28th of july i filled out an online form on the hdfc website to express interest in purchasing a credit card. I got several calls from many hdfc agents and one agent by the name mrs. Satya helped me with filling the online application. I had specifically asked that i want a lifetime free card and she asked my customer id and verified over the phone that i am eligible to receive the lifetime free card. Upon persistent reassurance, i was convinced that i was getting a lifetime free card even though the online application form mentioned that i would need to apply for an offer to be eligible for the lifetime free card. Mrs. Satya assured that anyone registering for the card via the online form is eligible for a lifetime free card. Based on her verbal reassurance i bought the card and it was e-approved the next day and i received the card by courier on the 4th of august.

I emailed the customer service to verify if my card was indeed lifetime free card and i was told by the cs executive via email (Ref # [protected]) that my card is only a first-year free card and that i would need to fill out an offer in order to be eligible for the lifetime free card. On the phone, mrs. Satya had explicitly stated that i wouldn't need to fill out an offer to be eligible. I had escalated this issue further and on 6th august i spoke to mrs. Roshini from the escalation team and she said she had initiated an inquiry into this and i would be updated via sms about the status of this inquiry. After several days i got a call from mr. Balaji who claimed to be satya's senior and wanted to know more about this issue. He assured me that mrs. Satya was not wrong in stating that i was eligible for a lifetime free card and that indeed i was, but there was an issue in the backend and that he has emailed to have it fixed. I was told by him that he will get back to me with updates once they process it. But i never heard anything from him. Meanwhile, there was an email inquiry with the escalation team where mrs. Bhavana kept assuring me that i do not qualify for a lifetime free card and that i will have to complete an offer to be eligible. This contradiction between the escalation team and mr. Balaji is went on for a month and ended up never getting resolved. I cannot get all of them to be on the same page. No one seems to admit what's going on. I would like a logical resolution to this confusion and internal contradiction within the hdfc credit card team.

So i emailed the grievance addressal officer, mr. Manikandan with all the details. I even sent the phone recordings i've shared below here. I got the exact same response i got from the escalation team - which is that they've conducted a thorough investigation but there was no fault at their end and that i do not qualify for the lifetime free card unless i sign up for smartpay.

How can they not have lied about me qualifying for a lifetime free card and still i did not end up having a lifetime free card? I could never get a sensible resolution to this. I have been going back and forth with their team for the past 2.5 months now.

For reference, i'm providing these recordings of phone conversations with mr. Balaji:-
The first call made by mr. Balaji at 10:23 am on 08/08/2019 - https://clyp.it/h5o1pldr?token=4b51636cc7ecdd922adb170ea566d478
Then, the next day at 10:38 am on 09/08/2019, i called him - https://clyp.it/it5pwi1p?token=773463f839a1bc86c[protected]d5eef

Additional details:-
1) phone numbers - mrs. Satya, hdfc credit card agent (Phone - 99*85) and mr. Balaji, senior to mrs. Satya in the same department (Phone - 89*36)
2) complaint ref # with the escalation team - [protected], handled by mrs. Bhavana.
3) complaint ref # with the grievance addressal officer, mr. Manikandan - #[protected]
4) i have also raised a complaint regarding this with https://consumerhelpline.gov.in with all the details (Grievance # 1568890)