[deepug]

I do not know how far these things are true. But interesting to read. Got this by mail today from one of my friends

" IF WE CAN'T SOLVE THE PROBLEM, THEN WE ARE THE PROBLEM "

BEWARE OF THESE BANKS
Looking at the rising complaints against ICICI Bank, Citibank, and Standard Chartered Bank , we request consumers to properly read their documents and keep a record when dealing with these banks, especially regarding credit card and housing loan. These three banks are biggest defaulters and do not resolve consumer problems easily. Be aware of their terms in writing. Keep a perfect record of all correspondence with them. If they do not agree to written communication, immediately stop their services. If you ask some nationalised bank to take over the housing loan from ICICI Bank, even after paying full amount, you will not get back your original documents for months. You will be told that the documents are in Mumbai and they are trying to retrieve the same. This is the answer you get everyday.

BEWARE OF NOKIA
Nokia assures that their handset is covered under insurance. They even provide a certificate of insurance. But the condition is that if the handset is lost/stolen, you have to lodge an FIR to seek claims. The catch here is that the police station does not lodge FIR for loss of handsets, they only register NC. So you will never get insurance claims on basis of NC.

Nokia is selling some of its degraded products that have software problems. If you come across such problem in a new set, do not waste your time in running around service centres as it is not going to help much, ask for a replacement with a new set. All those who have purchased 3230 set, have experienced that there was software problem in every set. Nokia is simply dumping the sets, which can not be sold in other countries.

BEWARE OF AIR DECCAN
Their confirmed bookings are highly unreliable and of no guarantee that you will be allowed to fly . The booked tickets get cancelled without intimation to consumer only to be known by him when he goes to the airport to catch his flight. You will not get refund immediately, if you have booked your ticket through credit card. If you call up their call centre, if you press numbers relating to refund, you will not be attended at all even if you try for hours together. If you talk to somebody regarding refund, you have to press options relating to ticket booking, so that someone will attend to you. Then you can ask for refund. They are following very good trick.

BEWARE OF COUNTRY CLUB, BANGALORE
They advertise that if you take their membership, a plot of land will be given free of cost near Golden Spa at Coconut Grove. Please note Golden Spa is 35 Kms from Bangalore and the said plot of land is over 100 Kms from Bangalore . Based on false promises and with arrangement with Citibank and ICICI Bank, this team cheats the consumers of his money by asking payments through credit card.

BEWARE OF PRIVATE BUS OPERATORS/TRAVEL AGENTS
If you book your ticket in a private bus operator, you will find that your seat is allotted to somebody else also. Many a times, though you have booked your ticket to some destination, you will dropped few kilometres away, if there are not enough passengers for your destination. Then you will have to depend on other services to reach your destination. Keep the records/proofs and give a complaint to the nearest police station, when you come back. If you find that the police is supporting the travel agent, immediately inform his higher ups or give a complaint to consumer forum. Always try to use government transportation services. They may be bad in service but will never cheat you.

BOOK TELESALES & RECOVERY AGENTS
If you receive unwanted advertisement / telemarketing call from any company or recovery agents. You will find it annoying especially when you are on roaming network. Ask their telephone number and report to the police. File a police complaint against the Chairman of the company.

BEWARE OF SOME HOSPITALS
If you happen to get admitted (or admit your family person/friend/relative) for any operation in any hospital, keep all the records. Even if the doctor scribbles any information on a piece of paper and give it you, please keep it with you. In future, for your bad luck, if some adverse thing happens due to wrong dialysis or wrong operation, these things will come handy to fight it in a court. Please be clear that consumer forums are not of much help to you because they do not have good doctors in their panel. Many a times they do not have any doctors in their panel and even if they have, a doctor in the panel will try to help a doctor. In such a case you will have to fight tooth and nail. Hence keep all the records/proofs with you carefully.

BEWARE OF TATA INDICOM BROADBAND and WIRELESS FIXED TELEPHONE
Their promises to get you a broadband connection within a week is not to be relied upon. Once your money is stuck (about Rs. 2000), it takes lot of pains to recover it back. If you book Wireless fixed telephone, the Tata indicom sales person will tell you that you can send/receive fax, send/receive e-mails in other service providers' account also (for example vsnl, touchtel etc). Once you install the telephone, you will find that the instrument can not support fax machine even if connected through EPABX, you will find that you can receive e-mails in other accounts and can not send e-mails at all. You have to send e-mails only through Tataindicom e-mail service.

CAREFUL WHEN DEALING WITH THESE COMPANIES / PRODUCTS
LIST OF WORST COMPANIES AGAINST WHOM WE RECEIVE COMPLAINTS VERY FREQUENTLY

1. AIRLINES: Air Deccan
2. BANKS: ICICI bank, Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank
3. BUILDERS: Parimiti Buildcon (Thane), Madras City Co-op Bldg. Soc (Chennai)
4. CARS: Tata motors, Hyundai
5. CREDIT CARDS: SBI credit card, Citibank, Standard Chartered
6. CELLPHONE SERVICES: Tata Indicom Broadband, Airtel, BPL mobile
7. HOME APPLIANCES: Videocon,
8. HOME BUSINESS: Kenya Star Tea
9. INSURANCE: National Insurance Co., New India Assurance, generally all
   private/Multinational Insurance Companies
10. MOBILE PHONES: Nokia 6260, 3230
11. TIMESHARE: Royal Goan Beach Club (Goa), Happy Home Constructions (Bangalore), Country Club India Ltd. (Bangalore)
12. TRANSPORTERS: Sky Packers and Movers (Mumbai), Packways Pvt. Ltd.(Mumbai), Sai Packers and Movers (Mumbai)

ARE U BEING HARASSED BY CONSUMER COURTS?

WE ARE GATHERING INFORMATION ON CORRUPT JUDGES, REGISTRARS & CLERKS
We have received many complaints from consumers that they are being harassed in the consumer courts when they go there to submit consumer complaint and attend hearings. They are not being served properly by the clerks, and the judges keep on giving hearing dates without arriving to judgment. These acts are contrary to the purpose of setting up of consumer courts that were basically meant to help the consumers. Please inform us if you have experienced or witnessed harassment or corruption. Inform us the exact time, date, and location of the incident in writing through duly signed letter. Your details will not be disclosed on this website, but you should be ready to co-operate when action against these people is initiated by nabbing them through proper channel.

For further clarifications you may contact:
Sri.ARUN SAXENA
International Consumer Rights Protection Council
B-9/55, Vijay Nagari,
P.O . Kasarvadavali,
Thane (West) 400601
Mumbai - India .

[GTO]

Arun fought Daimler in my Mercedes case. And successfully. I can vouch for his services.

[nitroxx]

Deepug, I think this information is incredible.And yes now that you put it into perspective I do have a FEW things I need to settle with one of the banks listed. Thanx a ton.

[elf]

At this rate, stay at home & don't use any services at all including electricity & water.

On second thoughts, don't even own a home!

Stuff like this is all over the internet. Pay heed & it'll make you paranoid.

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by elf

At this rate, stay at home & don't use any services at all including electricity & water.

On second thoughts, don't even own a home!

Stuff like this is all over the internet. Pay heed & it'll make you paranoid.

I agree with elf here...
Imagine this.. step out on the road, u will get knocked down... zebra crossing or not. Go for a walk, your chain and mobile will be snatched.
blah blah ....

We shudnt let this be the all-deciding factor. We should learn to be careful about how we deal with these companies, but we cannot avoid them altogether.

[n_aditya]

Good one there deepu.

Just a request to add HSBC credit cards to that list.

My experience goes like this.

A couple of years back while i was working in the night shift I was offered a HSBC credit card by one of the DSA (direct sales agency) representatives. This poor soul was selling the HSBC credit card at 4am and out of pity i chose to sign up for the credit card. Following incidents have no relation to the DSA rep and he is not at fault whatsoever.

Now coming to the events:

I signed up for HSBC crdt card for ONE sole purpose.

* Petrol transactions at any bunk across india was free of service fees / surcharges *

I received my card and all necessary documents and statements on time.

Problems started a few months later.

I did not recieve a statement for a particular month and therefore the payment was delayed. I called the customer service and they replied that statement was dispatched and a duplicate would be sent as I had not received it. They also denied any waiver of subsequent late payment and finance/interest charges. Their justification was that I had a T-pin and i should have checked outstanding amount and made payment.

To this i denied saying that i would make payments after i see it on paper. They waived off the fees as i was adamant that it was a miss from their end.

When i moved to chennai it got worse. Some @$$ updated a noida address instead of chennai and i failed to get statements again. I refused to pay since i hadnt received the statement.

They threatened to involve the credit bureau by sending me a letter and i retailated by saying that I would send a court notice and lodge a complaint for harrassment. This went on for months.

Finally upon talking to a manager at the call center they waived off all finance/late payment charges and I paid off the outstanding amount, cancelled the card, availed crappy gifts for existing reward points and i thought there ends the story but i was wrong.....

Every month for the last 8 months i recieve a statement saying "Outstnding - Rs.0.0" please pay by this month etc.

Basically a paper that is useless. I dont owe them a penny and they send me a statement saying nothing is pending or due but please pay 0.0 by xyz month.

I again called a manager and blew my top. My account was still active and hence meaningless @$$wipes were sent to me. She assured me it would be cancelled but to no avail. I STILL get the @$$wipes.

I have vowed to never use HSBC in my lifetime be it a credit card or anything.

BTW i have had a credit card with Citibank since the year 2000 and thankfully to Dear God i havent faced issues. I have overpaid at times and its been calculated dead accurately everytime. The customer service is generations ahead than HSBC.

[bangboy]

I had this experience of using ICICI Credit card while making a phone call from Paris to Bangalore. For an 8 min conversation , they had charged me $65.I was shocked.

Can any one let me know if the charges can be so high?I still feel that I was cheated.

[Rtech]

Funny. I've had exactly the same experience with Citibank! I have used HSBC for decades and find them the best I have come across!

[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by Rtech

Funny. I've had exactly the same experience with Citibank! I have used HSBC for decades and find them the best I have come across!

Looks like both are in a rat race to be the best of the worst.

I hope someone responsible from Citi & HSBC and other companies are reading this.

[sreedotk]

Well indian companies apart even the Well know US companies are some times at fault.

My personal case involves the Yahoo Marketing (Searchmarketing.yahoo.com) . I set up a online advert account with a daily limit of 3$ for testing out the service. It worked well for the first fifteen days and i made a few changes to the way the account worked to better focus on the prospects by doing content matching. It ran the next few days again with out any issues and the final 3 days of my campaign the account charges shoot up to 9$-30$-9$ . Though in all fairness to Yahoo they did try to solve my problem and issued me a refund of 25$.

The main problem with the banks in India are they run an automated system of billing and correspondence but the qualified personnel and the quality control over input required to run them are few and far inbetween. The Customer Service Personnel are ill qualified to answer the calls of customers and some customers treat them very bad when politeness could easily solve the problem.

Dont know if the above post was inline with the tread. Apologies in advance to all in case it is not

[deepug]

We dont need to be paranoid , we just have to be extra careful. I had a very bad experience with Amex. Amex if you know , charge membership fee. When I saw the member ship fee charge in my statement, I asked for a waiver, with the ultimatum that I will cancel if the charge was not waived. Also at that time my card usage was minimum. The manager called me and said they will waive the charge on a condition that I start using the card. I had a shock when I got my card statement. They had reduced my credit limit to just INR 3000 from over 1L and charged me a hefty interest and service charges since I over shot my credit limit. After lot of arguments I had to pay the amount , but I stopped using the card after informing them. This just goes to show that we have to be careful when it comes to putting our hard earned money on line.

One more thing is that we tend to judge these kind of information as paranoia till we have a bad experience. So it's always better to be extra careful. Just my views.

Best regards
Deepu

[Godfather]

Actually the irony of this is that i have faced the exact same issue as n_aditya and even though all the dues are cleared and account and card stopped i still receive statements saying that min amount due is 0.0 please pay by date..and the issuing bank was none other than HSBC..

Also i am very much satisfied with my Citibank and HDFC cards.. No issues with them till date

Godfather

[pjbiju]

I had a bad experience with HSBC - but my persistence paid in the end.
I had exchanged the reward points from my HSBC card for a couple of gifts. After nearly two months since I did not receive the gifts, I sent them an email (emails or letters are always more effective than telephone calls) enquiring about the status. They replied saying the gifts were sent to my address and sent me the courier receipt copy. They had sent the gifts to my old office address that was incomplete and the address did not even have my name on it. I wrote back to them to send the gifts again or credit the points back. After several email exchanges, they finally credited the points back. Going soft on these people does not help.