Mar 23, 2012 12:26 PM
5363 Views
I joined Angel Broking for their equity services. A friend recommended and the brokers offered me decent brokerage rates compared to my existing broker.
5 paise for intraday and 7 paise for delivery
And they also promised good tips and stuff.
A fortnight after I joined, they called me saying there was a mistake in the brokerage offered and they have to increase it to 7 paise for intraday and 10 paise for delivery. Since it was still lower than my existing provider I didn't raise a hue and cry. But it should have been my first warning.
Well the first day they gave me a call, which I took and made some profit. On the second day they made another call, which I took. I noticed that the stock had closed Rs 9 above my buying price. I was quite happy. But in the evening I got a call saying they had accidentally traded 12500 shares instead of 1250. they happened to press and extra zero and realized it only when they got a call from the HQ about this huge transaction of over Rs 25 Lakh. And they had to immediately sell at a loss of Rs 5. So instead of a profit of over Rs 10, 000 they actually managed to lose over Rs 70, 000
They came to meet me and they even gave me a cheque for half the amount saying it was their fault and they would recompense me the loss. I was fine with that. But then they asked me to encash the cheque after a month since he didnt have enough cash in his account at the moment. I like a fool agreed, and on their insistence I put in a little more money into the Angel account to continue dealing.
A month later when I put the cheque it bounced. And in the meantime in just a single day they wiped out my account of all the remaining cash. I immediately shot a complaint letter. There was no action. The dealers were unavailable on the nos they had given me. I even went to court for the bounced cheque. I shot a complaint to NSE as well.
It was only then that I realized the extent of planning these guys had gone to in order to ensure I dont stand a chance in court.
First the cheque:
They had asked me to fill in my own name in the To section. So now there were two different handwriting on the cheque.
They told the court they didn't know me at all. The cheque was probably stolen by me. the handwriting difference proves they hadn't issued it to me. Also, why was the cheque encashed only a month later.
The SEBI story:
It seems if there is some issue you have raise a complaint within 24 hours. And SEBI / NSE has to be informed within the month.
Of course these guys had made sure I wasted a whole month in waiting to cash the cheque and their bull talk.
Secondly, by putting in more money and dealing in the account again, I had proven that I had no issues. And the 25 lakh transaction was done on my behalf.
I then pointed out that you are allowed to trade to a maximum margin of 10 times what you have in your account. I only had around Rs 30, 000 in the account so how did it allow a trade of over Rs 25 lakh.(This was also the reason why I believed that it was a system error)
They accepted I was right but that if I had any issues I had to take it up with a high court. Some one in the SEBI office told me that Angel is know for such dealings and they receive 3-4 complaints like this almost everyday. And they have connects within the court to ensure that the complainant is harassed enough to give up.
In fact, the Angel representative told me as much. He said, I would like to advice you to not carry it further as it is a full time job for him to deal with such activities while I will have to spend a lot of time, effort and money to pursue it.
And in a way he was right. Between my first complaint and the first meeting with SEBI already several months had passed. I had to take several days off from work to report to the court and meet the lawyer and things like that. Also by arranging the entire episode in such a way they had ensured that lot of evidences were against me and in their favor actually.
I forgot to add, the friend who recommended me went through the same trauma. In his case he lost several lakhs in the same period.
I hope this saga proves helpful to some other soul who goes through this.
