This is with reference to my HDFC A/c , which was opened as a salary account by my employer Ilin Computers Pvt. Ltd. in September 2007. An amount of Rs.9296/- were blocked by the recovery department of HDFC and later on an amount of Rs 9296/- was debited from my account, without any prior intimation on 7th June 2008.
On enquiring from the phone banking department of HDFC, I was told that there was a long pending outstanding payment against Credit Card for which the said amount was debited from my salary account.
I had a credit card from HDFC Bank which was not in use by me for past three years. The last outstanding on that card was Rs. 500/- against a transaction of petrol purchase, which was un-paid due to non-receipt of the bill for the month of October 2005 & for last few months also (but for that I used to regularly make the payments by checking it with the HDFC customer care executives). I was charged a heavy interest against this outstanding (& that too after making regular complaints with the HDFC customer care about the non receipt of the bills).Some recovery agents were sent at my home who abused and misbehaved with me & my family also. Daily I was harassed by the torturing phone calls from your recovery department, who used fowl and abusive language with me. The people about whom I am talking are not any recovery agents; they were the executive staff of HDFC Bank.
I had lodged a complaint at the Customer Service Desk, and was given a response from your executive Raj that I will receive an apology letter from HDFC Bank's Credit Card Division for such behavior of your staff and waive off the unnecessary charges that were levied on me along with a revised statement. After so many follow ups with your staff at Customer Service Desk by me, I neither received any apology letter nor was any revision of charges done. Hence, with a request letter to close my HDFC Credit Card, I dropped the credit card at one of your ATM.
I got some calls after that from HDFC,and I told the executives that I am not holding any card from HDFC. But in May 2008 again, after three years, I started receiving some phone calls from your recovery department for this outstanding payment. Since I had no clue, after three years which payment they are talking about, I denied that the payment Outstanding belongs to me. I received an SMS in last week of May 2008 that an amount of Rs. 9296/- has been blocked on my salary savings account. And after few days this amount was debited from my account without any intimation.
I never received any kind of information or communication from your credit cards division about the outstanding amount. When I tried speaking to your executives, again the staff on phone abused me badly. For your information, I had spoken to Ms. Shweta Kapoor at your Janak Puri, New Delhi office (Phone no.[protected] /[protected]. Repeatedly on speaking to her, same response was received. I was informed that a notice was sent to me for the payment, whereas I have not received any kind of communication. If any notice was sent to me, please furnish the receipt / acknowledgement. On asking Ms Shweta, she told me that it was sent by a normal post, but I feel that if you send any notice to anyone, it is generally sent by a courier or through some registered post (which surprises me that a bank like HDFC doesn’t know this norm).
The story didnt end here, as after barging into my salary account illegally, I again got a call from HDFC recovery department from an Executive called Richa, who was again asking me about that amount that its still due. I dont know what kind of records HDFC updates as they themselves dont know about the customer updations. And to my surprise, after so many month of all this issue, I still havent received any clearance letter from HDFC. It will not surprise me if after a year again, HDFC people comes up again with the same amount due on me as they still arent updated on anything.
After few days, I again got a call from Mr. Ashish Sharma (his contact no is [protected]). He again raised this matter & told me that this time the matter would be finalized & I will get a proper redressal on it. Initially he informed me that whatever money has been deducted is deducted on the facts & is genuine. But later, after a lot of discussion, he started negotiations with me which lasted at Rs 3000/-. He said that I have to pay at least that much amount to close this chapter forever. I dont understand, that HDFC only said that the amount deducted is the actual & genuine amount (which was Rs 9296/- according to them & suddenly the genuine amount got reduced to Rs 3000/-), which was really surprising. I didnt have any problem in paying & closing that chapter with Rs 3000/- as well but my issue was that if HDFC is ready to negotiate on it, then why I was harassed with such a huge amount deduction. And when I denied to negotiate and settle down at such a small amount against a huge financial loss, Mr. Ashish also stopped the communication on the same & never replied on the solution to this problem. I have sent repeated mails to Ms Rajeshwari & escalated the matter to Mr Aditya Puri as well, but again no response has been given from their side as well.
This is absolute harassment to the customer. The account from which this amount was debited is my salary account (I was regularly facing some other issues also with my salary account), and this kind of act from your end is absolutely illegal. It is like a theft from my account from your recovery department. I maintained a certain balance in my account just because I had to make apayment to someone which was also stuck because of this unprofessional act of HDFC.If it had been another bank's account, were you able to touch it. Just because it was an HDFC account, you simply barged into my account and debited it. This is highly unprofessional and unfair act from your end. Such kind of harassment was not expected from HDFC Bank, which is India's leading bank and boasts on its customer service.
Aug 14, 2020
Complaint marked as Resolved 
