My Client ID is BO1013. This incident took place on 01-Apr-2022 when Zerodha had an option to use mandates set up by customers to retrieve the desired amount of money from the Bank Account and transfer it to Coin Wallet for payment of mutual funds.
My mandate was set to withdraw an amount of INR 11000 on the 1st day of every month linked to my SBI account. I had personally ensured that there was enough money to successfully execute the mandate until 01-Apr but for unknown reasons the money was not deducted on time. I continued making transactions using the same account without checking if the amount was deducted as they are automated until I received a message on 05-Apr that an amount of Rs.295 was charged for debit mandate failure. I spent some time going through FAQs on Zerodha and raised a complaint with the Bank. The Bank Manager called me up and after understanding my concern explained that the bank transactions are automated even on holidays and it is not responsible for the failure of automated deductions including mandates provided that the amount available is sufficient and suggested that I raise the issue with Zerodha and allow him to speak with Zerodha to understand where the problem originated.
On 22-Apr I raised a complaint (Complaint No. [protected]) explaining the issue and with all the required attachments such as a Bank Statement and Screenshots of Complaints raised with the Bank and its status. After multiple conversations with the Zerodha Representative, I was finally able to have the Bank Manager speak with the Zerodha Customer Representative on 27-Apr. During the call, it was established that I had followed all the requirements such as maintaining balance prior to 1-2 days of mandate debit date for maintaining ledger amount but a service called PayU Money who is contracted or employed by Zerodha to carry out these mandate transactions did not perform the debiting process from 31-Mar to 01-Apr but carried them out on 03-Apr instead and failed as I had an insufficient balance due to a few personal transactions.
Even though the error from Zerodha was acknowledged and I was assured that the issue with PayU Money will be taken up, no actions have been taken until now and my money has not been returned even after following up multiple times on 12-May, 02-June on their Complaints Platform and by call on 18-July. During these multiple follow-ups, Zerodha assured me that my issue was being undertaken on priority, and on-call I was assured that corrective actions will be undertaken even though the mandate debit system was ceased in June by the Government and a Manager from the Coin Mutual Funds Team would get in touch with me based on an agreed mutual availability but no such thing ever occurred.
On 21-July, my ticket was closed without my consent. I reopened it immediately but there has been no response from Zerodha as usual. I was mentally exhausted initially after explaining the issues with Zerodha Representatives and my Bank Representatives, but now I feel miserable after multiple follow-ups for an error that I am not responsible for and thus decided to have the complaint stated here.
A reader may find this complaint funny since I am salaried and foolishly running after a refund of a mere Rs.295/- but other than this refund I never received an apology be it for the error from their side or the delay in resolving or the amount of time that was used/ wasted by me albeit for the false assurances that never took place during this entire duration and this has caused me immense discomfort. It is to be noted that this can be a wake-up call for all users to be aware of a possible fraud that may have taken place for a suitable duration as I managed to find an error in their process or how this process may have been incorrectly executed with the required proof and assuming that there may be a far-fetched possibility that someone involved in the system may have used this error to their advantage on unknowing users given that they boast of lakhs o[censored]sers who generally turn a blind eye to these matters.
Thanks and regards,
Mackline Pereira
Zerodha customer support has been notified about the posted complaint.
