[Resolved]  Barclays Bank Credit Card — Charged Late Payment Fee even though cheque was dropped well in time

Dear Sir,

Name - Sudharma Kulkarni
Barclays bank Credit Card Number - [protected]

I started using the above mentioned card very recently & in the first billing cycle itself I got an bad experience of poor operations Management of Barclays Services.
My last bill was due for payment on 25th May 2008. I dropped the Cheque in the Bill Box which is located at lower parel station on 23rd May 08.(3 days prior to due date) Still in the immediate next statement of June 08 Bank charged me rs 634.45 as a late Payment fee. Then I started oral as well as in writing correspondence with the bank to cancel this undue late payment fee. But Bank Denied it & instead every month added further late payment fee on the original undue late fee of rs 634.45. This way from June till august it has recahed to extent of Rs 1900/-.
Even after expalining the bank several times the bank is not ready to agree & now the bank has started annying and frustrating me by sending 2-3 SMS every day saying that if I do not make an immediate payment, my name will be referred to Credit Bureau. I wanted help of the consumer forum to take this issue with the Bank.

SOME ADDITIONAL POINTS WHICH ONE SHOULD NOTE :

1) The selection of the Drop Box was done after taking confirmation from the Barclays customer service.

2) On 24th as well as on 26th may, I had received a call
from the collection department for the payment details. I had given them all the cheque details and also explained them the location of the drop box where the cheque was dropped. However as per next billing statement dated 5th June I
was charged Rs 634.45 as a consolidated effect of the late payment of previous statement of May 08.

3) I had called up the customer service on 16th as well as
on 17th June 08 to put up a request to waive of the late payment fees, wherein the executive informed me that the cheque was collected on 30th may, which means BARCLAYS took 7 days just to get the cheque collected from the drop box. And now this delay in collection is being charged to me as the late payment fee.
The executive further informed me that the cheques which
are dropped in BILL BOX takes realization time of minimum 7 to 8 days.
However this was not informed to me when I had called up the customer service on 22 may 08 before dropping the cheque to know the appropriate loaction of the DROP BOX . This fact is neither mentioned on their website noe on the product brochure. Barclays is simply cheating with their customer.

4) In anyways 7 to 8 days lead time for the collection of cheques is a very long & unjustified period for the task of collection when the other banks like HDFC, ICICI takes maximum 2-3 days for the same task.

5) Later I also started writing to the bank to waive off / cancel the charges but they simply & flatly denied it + kept on charging additional late payment fee on basic late payment fee of 634.45 which itself was under dispute with me. Barclays Can not force their own set of rules on the customers. SUCH POOR SERVICE WAS NEVER EXPECTED OUT OF A BANK WITH INTERNATINAL REPUTE LIKE BARCLAYS.

6) Considering the above situation, you can observe that I am not in fault, I have made the payment in due time still I am being suffered. Hence I would like to request you to take up this issue with The Bank to cancel the entire late payment fee on my account + also not doing such nasty treatment with any other customers.
Regards,
Sudharma Kulkarni
[protected]
New panvel