Apr 28, 2006 06:03 PM
4818 Views
(Updated Apr 28, 2006 06:06 PM)
Here is yet another bank which is a lot of bells and whistles and ku-coo ing by customer service officers (hmm!) who can speak a lot but doing anything out of the ordinary in-terms of speed or real-customer service that leaves a lot to be desired.
The knowledge their officers/customer service lot have nor build during service is focussed to talking sweetly, without end result that you expect; atleast that is what is my experience in dealing with the people of the bank at various level.
They have not so bad a technology; thank god; I need to interact with fewer & fewer novices to get what I need to do, as I can do it myself getting on to their online banking service. Their Online system with good features like 'auto sweep in-out of savings to FD' for eg is a simple and efficient mechanism to make your SB money, truly work for you.
Having said that, should you need any service out of the ordinary savings a/c (ie besides online transfer, debit card, cheques), you would be well off to avoid Kotak. Thanks to competition, from the peers, the charges are OK. But, for eg, donot ever ask them to issue a draft; they will take an arm & a leg.
Draw the cash needed from their ATM & go to the good old inefficient PSU bank; even if the draft charges are revised up, by the time it reaches thru the multi-layered chain of their babus, you could possibly get the draft out still at the older charge! Even if it current, trust me, they have priced it in line with their inefficiency which is just as well & low. The difference is such magnitude that it is worth shunning Kotak & wait at the PSU bank to get the draft!
Kotak's senior staff are least imaginative; despite their authority, sadly, I found them unable to move an inch beyond the run-of-the-mill transaction need.
Once a friend of mine had a need for SIN $ draft for his kid's college application requirement; as the notice was short at near closing hours on a Saturday, I offered to take him to my Kotak bank & get it done right away for him to courier the same day. I was horrified to know that ''sorry saar we cant issue any draft other than USD, UKL, YEN, Euro...''.
Excuse me, that is what I expect to hear from protected PSUbanks as these currency names have atlast reached them due RBI drumming it for decades! Over the phone the bigger snobs like CITI & the smarter high-street lots like ICICI just confirmed that they can issue SIN$ draft but ''come on Monday saar'', as our branch is closing! So whats so special & difficult about SIN$ at Kotak alone?! Barring technology, the internal inertia is the killer in Kotak. So, I realised I was talking to a brick wall, pretty soon & ditched Kotak, discovered accidentally that the recipient's website accepts online credit card & finished the payment on behalf of my friend, at a cheaper cost, faster time & without having to courier a paper taht ould hav costed an arm & a leg!! Too bad, the one opportunity that Kotak had to rip me-off was lost by them, thanks to their sloppiness.
Have a 'working channel' for anything that is expected to be out of the ordinary & for everything else that you can do, sitting at your home or office PC, open a Kotak bank & use them.
By the way, Kotak has an excellent home-banking service; they can collect one cash remittance per day from your place of residence & upto 5 checks without any charge. With parking problem being there at almost anywhere your bank branch is located & prospect of having to interact with largely knowledge void ku-coo ing 'Officers' ending up buggering up your time or account or both, home-banking comes in handy!
You can call & book the previous day & a guy shows up before 1630 next day to accept the transaction. I was wondering how this alone works well, despite the human interface; thanks; they have outsourced it to a expense-conscious & hence efficient outsider to collect check & cash, from home!!
Sign once on a (agreed inevitably) complex terms & conditions, most of the things you want to do with your a/c, you could do in the comfort of your home, using their online system!
Atleast their terms & conditions are reasonable & not that much one-sided as CITI Bank.
If you have a magnifying glass & plenty of time, go back to the terms & condition of CITI bank you signed last that is deliberately printed in font 0.6. You should not be horrified to find a statement such as ''...by signing this consent you are agreeing irrevocably that CITI can come & slit your throat at any time of day or night & that hereby you are also confirming that you requested us to slit your throat retrospectively/prospectively & sign further an undertaking that you shall not revert this request, quoting any reason whatsoever, including but not limited to insanity, made by you implicitly or explicitly irrespective of whether the bank is able to produce any written or otherwise evidence of the same. Further CITI retain the right to pass on this right to slit your throat to any of its associate, joint-ventures, subsidiaries who we may so appoint, at anytime prior to or after you sign this agreement & you agree to the condition that CITI does not have any obligation to notify you who they are...''.
So, back to Kotak...mixed blessing. Better than PSU Bank, thanks to their technology. Interact with their staff, if you have patience & want to have a good laugh & not get the job done. Buy a steel plated armour if you instead dare to open an account with CITI!
