I had taken an auto loan (Loan A/c MBVITE009040) for my vehicle (Maruti 800 DX) from Maruti Countrywide Finance in year 2000 for a term of 3 years. This was when IO was residing in Thane, Maharashtra. The loan got over in mid and at that time when the last installment was to be paid I had checked with Maruti Countrywide about any outstandings / dues and based on that final instalment was cleared. Its been 7 years since then. Now I am in the process of selling the vehicle and when I approached the RTO for NOC, they requested a NOC from the finance company. It is then that I figured that the erstwhile Maruti Countrywide has been taken over by GE Money and this where all the problem begun.
First of all it took me all of 4 calls over 3 weeks to speak to someone at GE Money. Every time I called up on their so-called "Happy Smiles" number, I was put on hold for over 20-25 minutes. However, when I did manage to speak to a customer service representative on 16th July my loan account was tracked only to be let known that there were dues of around Rs. 6500 on my account apparently due to uncleared bouncing charges. They would however not let me know when and on which bounced cheques these charges have been levied. When a request for statement was made they said that it would be charged. When I asked the female executive on the line as to why I had not been informed of the same over the past 7 years, she replied that the concerned department would get in touch with me for clarifying the same.
On the 17th of July another Customer Care executive by the name of Mr. Piyush Gupta calls me only to let me know the same things. When I queried as to why the Customer had not been informed of the same, he categorically replied that they (as in GE Money) do not "in-principle" inform (by phone/fax/e-mail/post) the customer of such outstandings and that it is the customers responsibility to check on the same. He himself clarified that as per records available with him I had called up the erstwhile Maruti Countrywide on 20th June. He later himself, without me asking for, stated that I would have to pay a minimum of Rs. 4500 to settle the same. I did not agree and stated that at the most cheque bouncing charges amounted to a few hundred rupees and considering that I would agree to pay only Rs. 1000. I was told that this amount was not acceptable. Since the discussion was entering into a kind of 'negotiation' mode, I asked the executive as to what would be the minimum amount acceptable to GE Money and Mr. Gupta replied that he would have to check and hence I was put on hold. After around less than a minute, he came back on line to tell me that the minimum amount payable would be Rs. 2500. In less than 5 minutes of discussion, the amount payable by me fell down from Rs. 6500 to Rs. 2500.
This very clearly indicates that the firm is into blackmailing and harassing customers into paying amounts without intimating or informing them of the same. No notice, letter, fax or e-mail was sent to me nor was I called in the time that I was in Mumbai till I Shifted to Delhi in April. What was the firm doing till then - waiting for the outstanding dues to accumulate so that further penalties could be levied. What is the RBI doing about such fraudulent practices being followed by such firms? This is atrocious and completely unacceptable. What is the solution?
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