This is a solid stolid bank. And I?ve reviewed it, in general, earlier here.
However, today, I?m reviewing the Baner Branch and, more specifically, an employee there.
Timeline of Events:
I had opened an account with this bank in 2001 when I was working as a part time school teacher in Gurgaon. This branch was in the Sector 14 market. Although I do not remember much of the experience, opening the account was, maybe, not so hard. Not, of course, as smooth and VIP as opening the HDFC account.
As HDFC was and continues to be my main bank, I rarely used Corporation Bank.
Then in 2005 when I had to leave for Malaysia for 5 years I tried to get my monies transferred to HDFC but the Manager convinced me not to. He spent time getting things rolling so that I felt that operating it from there would be easy.
However, it was never very easy.
When I returned in 2010 I was near Sector 40 in Gurgaon and requested the branch to shift my monies to the branch there as it was not easy for me to visit Sector 14.
Again it took barging into the manager?s room to get things cracking.
Getting my Internet banking password and all was also tedious and time consuming but there was a young lady in the Sector 40 branch who was more dynamic than the usual Corporation Bank employee. Thus, I continued with the bank.
And then we moved to Pune
Luckily, there, I mistakenly went to the main office in Aundh which faces the big Reliance Supermarket. And luckily I met an important employee there before he disappeared into the office. He at once understood my requirements and phoned someone in the nearby branch.
So when I reached the branch the process was smooth and satisfying. Also, at that time there was a fine lady working in charge there and, as long as she was there, I could go to the bank confidently, although it was still not as modern an experience.
Nor did the Internet banking experience improve.
Alas, recently that lady retired.
The new lady was not so friendly. I won?t say she was hostile but everything took a long time.
Each time I had to beg my husband for a lift to the branch and I was always tense that I was wasting his time as I waited for my work to be done.
All the while, the bank, with rarely more than one or two other customers, functioned at snail?s pace whilst employees chatted about their families, shared tiffin or snacks.
Things came to a head last November when I wanted to keep things ship shape by getting my new address registered with the bank.
Now, at HDFC, where I mainly bank, all such things are done without a glitch. The customer is not harassed.
At Corporation Bank, however, this lady acted like some Income Tax Inspector or some such thing and we had to keep visiting with some document or the other and then she would find some new problem. It was as if I was dying to keep my account in the bank and she was not sure I was worthy of it!
So I asked for my account to be closed and she said ?Fine, come tomorrow and I will close it in a few minutes? or something like that.
And so, I was done with that bank.
Or so I thought.
Some months back I began to get emails about a fixed deposit of mine in Corp Bank which was maturing.
I went to the main office and sat in the reception and waited to be asked my business but no one gave a second glance. At length I accosted a lady who was going out and she promised to look into the matter in a few minutes when she got back.
That took some time and when she got back she just went into the office. I waited some more and then went in.
She passed me over to a young man and he made some suggestions.
A neighbour, who had been a bank manager, had suggested that I open an account again. So this young man suggested the Baner Branch.
He also gave me an Indemnity Bond which I could fill and send by post to the Gurgaon Branch.
I decided to try opening an account in the Baner branch first as I was not sure how tedious and frustrating sending the Bond by post would be.
In fact, I had been trying to email the bank.
If I have a problem with something in HDFC I email them from their contacts on their website, I use their contact forms, I post on their Facebook page or on Twitter and in no time there is a response. Or if I have the time I go to my branch and someone or the other there will help out.
With Corporation bank there was no response at all, beyond an email telling me to contact the branch. The email did not provide phone numbers or anything else.
Well, at the Baner branch I was lucky to find a first class lady employee, Priyanka. She at once burst into action and kept reassuring me. This was a little before 6th June when the deposit would mature.
We had to travel next day and got back on the 11th. Then I went to her again and she again reassured me and gave me her email id.
Finally on the 14th or so I went as she had phoned: the long and short of it was that she wanted me to fill the Indemnity Bond but she could not find one. It was lunch hour at that bank but she continued to search for the Bond.
Luckily I remembered I had a copy from the main branch. At once she just asked me to sign on it and assured me all would be well.
Sure enough the next day I got a notification from HDFC that the amount had been credited to my account.
Before all this even when Priyanka had put me on the phone with the Gurgaon branch they were so unresponsive. She really stood up for me.
She should be given a bonus and promoted and really given an award or medal.
I really wish more of the Corporation Bank employees could be like her or like the earlier lady at the Aundh branch.
And Corporation Bank should upgrade its online being.
