State Bank Of India [SBI] — credit card membership fee

Address:

Mumbai City, Maharashtra, 400058

I took a credit card from sbi, elite signature card where i was told that there will be an annual membership fee of 5000 plus tax however, this is will be returned to u in form of a gift card. The first time when i took the card and paid it. I got the the coupon and i was able to use it successfully. Now when one year is over i was charged annual fee for the card one more time for which i called the customer service for the coupon. The customer service agent informed that it was a welcome coupon which was one time thing and it is not credited every year. For which i asked them to close the card and refund the membership fee. For which i was informed that they will not refund the fee even if i cancel the card. (I have other credit cards too but i've never about any such policy, as every card company refunds the fee on prorated basis.) the customer service officer informed that i will have to pay the fee and there is no other option left. The only thing i can do is use the card forcefully till the end of the year and call back before the next year starts. Which is not fair cz firstly i was given misinformation that i will be getting a coupon every year against the fee and the second thing is i will have to use the card till the end of next year. I've called the customer service where everytime the first reply that i get is "my system is not working" and then my call is dropped. Then if i get through anyone they don't know how to solve the query. When asked for a manager i've been put on an endless hold. I'm on hold with them now while i'm typing this message. And this was supposed to be an elite card with 5k membership fee with premium customer service. Instead m dealing with a bunch of # who cannot speak english and don't know what the policies are.