I have applied for a home loan with Axis bank, Chennai, around October.
I've applied for the loan after talking to a sales executive called 'Sasi Kumar Venkatakrishnan'.
The disbursal of my first payment happened in Jan.
When I've applied for the loan, I've signed the loan agreement, actually 2 copies of the same agreement. I was told one copy would be returned to me after the loan has been sanctioned and after Axis bank also sings the agreement.
I did not the agreement copy till date (feb -20 - 2012).
I didnt get the copy of the repayment schedule.
How am I supposed to know the pre-emi charges?
When I've applied for the loan, they have collected some cheques from me. They were blank cheques, with no date, no money written, they were just signed by me.
As per the repayment schedule they've put the date and amount on the cheque and they've submitted it to the bank (where has my savings account is held). I didn’t know about this cheque submission (for pre emi payment) as nothing has been communicated to me, either through email/sms/letters.
The cheque has been dishonoured (in other words: bounced) due to insufficient funds. I've got an SMS from the bank where I have my savings account, mentioning that my cheque has been dishonoured. I didn’t receive any communication regarding this from Axis Bank.
On the same day I've received the ‘cheque bounced’ sms, I have asked the customer care of Azis bank ([email protected]) about my repayment schedule. They've emailed me a softcopy of my pre emi schedule. The damage has been already, the pre emi is supposed to paid the same day.
I was furious that I was not intimated about the charges and I've tried to call the axis bank customer care. That is when I've realized that they don’t have a 24-hr customer care number. I am ok if they don’t have a toll free number. I just want to be able to call them 24/7. You won’t believe it, they just have few landline numbers of their chennai office mentioned in the customer care page and the customer care never picks up the phone.
Then I've decided to go to the branch directly. To my horror I've realized that Axis bank has a single branch in chennai which deals with home loans. That is in the heavily crowded South Usman Road.
I've gone there on a Saturday (18th-Feb) and there was a huge queue. I've waited there for more than an hour for my turn to talk to the customer care. Then they've taken me to someone who is not a manager, someone who doesn't even understand English properly. After throwing my complaints at him, someone who understands English has come near us (his name is Suresh). When I've told my problem to him, he said we still need to pay the cheque bounce charges which are 552/-. I was not happy that I need to pay a penalty for something which is beyond my control. They've checked the date of dispatch of the documents. They were dispatched on the 16th of Jan but I haven’t received them yet. I live in an area called "Sholinganallur". The customer care executive went on to say that they've received similar complaints from people who were from the same area (or having the pin code: 600119).
Suresh went on to say that there has been a mistake on the bank's part and his tone was very rude and always in denial.
He went on to suggest informal protocol like the sales executive is supposed to intimate the customer about the pre-emi charges etc. And that I need to be aware of the schedule and it is common sense that it will be from the one month date of disbursement etc. I said, I am not aware of these things as this is my first home loan, and that I don’t work in a bank to be aware of these things. They said all this has been mentioned in the agreement. But I don’t have the signed agreement with me as I didn’t receive the copy the agreement signed by me.
I am unhappy that the bank has asked me to pay the cheque bounce charges when they've failed to intimate me (the customer) the pre emi charge details until my cheque got bounced.
There is a clear flaw in their system: when the agreement fails to reach the customer, immediately the customer is supposed to be reached out in other means: phone call/sms/email/etc and they need to be intimated about the pre emi charges and also the fact that there has been an issue with identifying their address etc. They fail to do so and they fail to acknowledge the problems and they are just greedy to make money. This bank's service is worse than a public sector/government bank; I don’t understand how they plan to survive in this competitive world.
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