[Resolved]  Sahara City Homes — Delay in refund and no interest paid

Address:

Karnataka

I was introduced to Sahara City homes in the year of 2006 and had paid the down payment of 2,00,000 in the month of Jan 2007. The initial date promised for possession was towards the end of 2009.
Subsequent to getting a confirmation of booking, I started paying a monthly installment of 16,717/-. In 2007 when I first started requesting for a status update, I was told that all approvals are in place and the construction is just about starting. When I went to visit Devanahalli, I was unhappy to find that we could not even locate a board anywhere near the supposed site (directions given to us). I was then told that there is no board to prevent land grabbers and unnecessary price hike in nearby areas. Later, on repeated questioning I was told that it is still stuck in approvals and it will start in 2008. In the meantime I continued paying the monthly installment. Somewhere towards the end of 2008 on repeatedly being told that “approvals are almost done”, I decided to cancel the booking as I had already taken a site in Devanahalli and was paying interest at the rate of 9.5% to 11%. Since December I was pushing for cancellation and was repeatedly ignored. I was made to fill multiple forms by Mr. Ravi but when I call Sahara City customer care I was informed they did not receive any cancellation request but they did not entertain my request for cancellation either. They redirected me to my “home” branch (Y.N.Hosakota branch, Pavagada). On pushing further and filling some more forms, it was finally confirmed that the cancellation was action-ed in the month of April 2009.
From that day onwards, my struggle to retrieve my money started. At some point Mr. Ravi started ignoring my calls and when I called customer care and found a way to escalate it to your Bangalore office then Mr. Ravi deemed it fit to accept my calls. He told me that he lost his cell phone (but miraculously found it again). I have also included my phone records to indicate the number of calls that were made (these were calls that were answered, there were hundreds of calls unanswered).
I was repeatedly calling customer care, your Bangalore office, your Tumkur RM (Mr. Ravi’s boss) and Mr. Ravi to get my refund. Sahara customer care informed me that the
funds were dispatched, but Mr. Ravi kept saying that he is escalating it, the funds are not released yet, etc. On multiple occasions I e-mailed your Kartavya council and though I did not receive a response from them, there was some action on the ground. Finally Mr. Ravi started transferring the money but it was installments.
I am attaching the list of payments made as part of the refund and the amount that I had deposited with Sahara.
Booking amount on Jan’07 – 2,00,000/-
Installment of 16,717/- every month between Apr’07 – Dec’08 : 16,717 * 21 = 3,51,057
Total Deposited with Sahara= 5,51,057.
The amount refunded to me so far.
Date Comment Amount
26 Nov 2009 NEFT-SBMYH[protected]-SAHARA INDIA 50,179
12 Nov 2009 2009RTGS CR-KARBH[protected]-RAVI H 1,00,000
23 Oct 2009 RTGS CR-KARBH[protected]-PAVAGADA 3,64,236.00
07 Dec 2009 NEFT-D[protected]-RAVI H 41000.00
Total Refunded: Rs. 5,55,415
Finally, I was told by Mr. Ravi that the final installment was credited by cheque on 27th of Nov and it will be credited the next day. I didn’t get it the next day, neither the day after that. I finally got the last installment of my principal on the 7th of Dec. I had been given multiple promises regarding the date of payment. We were also offered interest in the event of delay or on withdrawal after 6 months of joining. Neither of those promises are honored either.
Please note attached are the bonds and receipts and also record of phone calls made. Also attached is a mail I had sent to Mr. Ravi with the certificate of posting on 1st of September.
I am also including emails that were exchanged with Sahara city homes customer care and Kartavya council but did not receive satisfactory responses. Especially the mail about the refund with interest.
I request you to look into the matter urgently and expedite the payment of suitable interest. In the failure to get a response and the interest due, I will be forced to file a complaint under the Consumer Protection Act of 1986. This consumer complaint will be at your cost and expense and will be required to address the mental agony caused to me due to your lack of transparency and deficiency in catering to the issues raised. Please do not ask me to talk to your branch as I am not getting a satisfactory response from there. I assume you have control over your branches and request you to take appropriate action and communicate the end result to me. Mr. Ravi also promised to give me an appropriate communication address for redressal of my complaint but after the principal amount was paid, I do not get any response from him in spite of my repeated calls.