Dear Sir,
I have sent following complaint letter to Barclays Bank with CC to Consumers Disputes Redressal Forum, Bandra, Mumbai on August 2. Till date there is neither acknowledgement from Barclays nor any initiative from Barclays to pay the compensation.
I shall appreciate in taking up the complaint with Barclays.
Regards
Hitendra Mehta
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From :
Hitendra Mehta
A/201 Seeta Mahal
Kasturba Road
Borivli (East)
Mumbai – 400 066
Cell : 97699 19275
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August 2
To,
The Incharge
Customer Service Centre
Barclay Card
PO Box 10145
GPO Mumbai – 400 001
Dear Sir,
Re: Blocking of Credit Card without prior informing.
Platinum Credit Card No : 4339 5014 9352 7676 (VISA)
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The Captioned Credit Card was blocked by Barclays Bank without prior informing me. I submit here-in-below the sequence of events
a) I visited Colombo, Singapore and Malaysia between June 8 to June 15.
b) I had done shopping at Singapore and had swiped captioned credit card for effecting payment but processing of payment was declined. The card was blocked on June 10. I had to face embarrassing situation at cash counter in Singapore Departmental store and had to borrow to make payment. Not knowing the card was blocked I again swiped at Malaysia Dept. Store but same was declined and had to forego purchase of few items at Malaysia departmental store besides facing embarrassment in presence of other customers.
c) I have Direct Debit of two Vodafone Mobile Phone connections (Nos 97699 19275 & 9820994158) linked to Barclays Credit Card. Due to blockage of Card the domestic Direct Debit of Vodafone bills was declined and I had to immediately arrange cash payment.
d) On returning to India and checking with Barclays Customer Service centre, I was informed by Arvindkumar Vishwanathan – Executive (customer service) that Barclays does not honour processing of credit card payments in certain foreign destinations like Singapore & Malaysia. He further stated that Barclays had called up on June 11 at around 7.30 pm to cross check whether it was not a fraudulent payment in foreign country but since I did not respond it had blocked the card.
Complaint
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a) The Terms & Conditions of captioned VISA card does not mention that I have to inform Barclays before swiping for payment in foreign countries. It’s an international VISA Card. Why was payment through valid VISA credit Card declined in first place?
b) Barclays had called up only once that too after blocking the card (card blocked on 10th June and the call was made to me on 11th June) and had gone ahead with blocking of card without prior informing me. Also, while in foreign countries, incoming calls from unknown nos at times are not responded as it entails heavy international roaming charges. Nowadays, so many promotional calls are made by banks, insurers, etc and hence the criticality of calls cannot be judged by one single missed call.
c) Barclays after calling once and missing response, could have communicated by SMS at time of second swipe in Malaysia which at least could have cleared the situation.
d) The Domestic Direct Debit of Vodafone mobile bills (two connections) that was being regularly honoured in past months was declined due to blocking of card. The argument that swiping of card at foreign destinations could have been fraudulent has no logical application to the Direct Debit payments.
Grounds for Compensation
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a) Barclays act of unilaterally blocking the VISA card without informing is blatant breach of Terms & conditions of an International VISA card.
b) Declining payment by Barclays caused undue embarrassment in foreign country departmental store. I had to borrow at Singapore and had to forego purchase at Malaysia.
c) Blocking of Card first and making just one attempt to contact thereafter is irrational. It does not show adequate concern for a Platinum customer. SMS could also have been sent.
d) Declining Direct Debit of two Vodafone Mobile bills have no sanctity as it’s not having any connection with fraudulently swiping of card by someone else. I had to take time out to make cash payment to avoid discontinuation of services.
e) In recent judgement The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum Bench held ICICI Bank guilty of deficiency in service and also criticised the Bank for blocking the Credit Card without informing the Cardholder and levied penalty of Rs 50000 on ICICI. It further observed that Bank is bound to inform the consumer well in advance before blocking his Credit card.
Compensation sought
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In context of huge embarrassment caused due to declining of payment in foreign country and declining of domestic Direct Debit payment and considering my status, I seek compensation of Rs 1 lac from Barclays for it’s unilateral illegal action of blocking International VISA card.
Yours sincerely,
Hitendra Mehta
cc: The President)
Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum)
Near administrative Bldg, 3rd floor) with a request to take cognisance of my complaints on
Near Chetna College) merits and instruct Barclays to compensate.
Bandra (East), Mumbai – 400 051)
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