Following a bank transaction failure at the ATM in my locality quite a long time back, I wrote this letter to a person who promised he would assist me in the best way possible. It has been more than a month since I wrote it and I still haven’t heard a word from him. Here’s the letter verbatim -
Hello Sir,
This is to apprise you of the unsuccessful transaction recorded on the 9th of November, 2009 and the incidents thereafter. While trying to withdraw Rs 5300 from the Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) , Madipakkam, the ATM failed to respond - the screen went blank and a couple of seconds later, the debit card popped out. The transaction, it seems, had happened but the money, I’m quite sure didn’t return from the ATM. Or the transaction slip either. I enquired to the security who was seated there, to which he responded that the HDFC site would have been down. A few minutes later, I received a text message on my mobile stating that ‘an amount of INR 5,300 debited to account’. Without any delay, I contacted the HDFC customer care and briefed them on the incident. The phone banker jotted the information down and promised it would take 12 days to get back to me. The stipulated time elapsed but I didn’t get any response from them. When contacted them again, they had already closed the case with a proof saying the transaction was complete. I called up another phone banker the very next day and she too had the same thing to say. Futile, I thought it was to argue with these phone bankers, so I directly approached the HDFC branch at Gopalapuram. After relating the entire incident again, the woman at the help desk asked me to fill up a form. She promised it would take another 12 days to look into this case and come to a conclusion. Here again, the specified time elapsed and they were callous as always. Annoyed at the miserable response, I decided to get things done somehow and this time, I approached HDFC’s branch manager at Gopalapuram on the 18th of January, 2010. I requested him to look into this matter seriously and get this issue sorted out. Predictably, the branch manager promised it would take a couple of days’ time but he got back to me on the very same day only to say that the transaction was complete. Meanwhile, I visited the Oriental Bank of Commerce and spoke to the Manager over there. He wasn’t inclined to help but for some unfathomable reason asked me to write down my bank account details and the date when this incident happened. Issues relating to an individual’s bank account should be dealt by the respective bank only and that they were free from blame is what I could gather from the conversation. He further added that OBC’s ATM at Madipakkam doesn’t have a camera installed yet, so it was in no way that they could offer any assistance on this matter. More than 3 months have passed by and I still haven’t got my hard earned money back. I can’t wait any longer and I kindly request you to assist me on this issue.
Yours truly,
Sarin Gopan
