Religare dupes me... Review on Religareonline

Recently opened a trading account with Religare Securities because of their low brokerage charges. But now I feel cheated and enraged with what happened to me...

Recently(Oct 2008) I tried to open an "Online Trading Account" with Religare Securities after watching all those ads they have been running.

I opted for Religare because they offered me the lowest brokerage of 0.3 % for delivery. I called up their Jayanagar, Bangalore office to get more details. On the very next day their sales guy showed up at my office.

I asked him about the brokerage charges, the account opening charges etc.and I was satisfied with their low charges. As I am not a big time investor I opted for their basic account.

The sales guy told me that the opening charges were 500 Rs. He also offered to install their terminal software on my home computer. But before I went ahead to filling the application I had a few more concerns.

1. I wanted to know if their web server had good capacity (I have seen my friends have problems with ICICI direct in that respect) so that I could make quick transactions. The sales guy gave a response in the affirmative.

2. This was one of my major concerns.I wanted to know if their web-site supported Firefox well as I run Linux on my home computer (I have seen mangled pages on ShareKhan when viewed from Firefox).

He again gave me an affirmative responseand offered again to install their terminal software on my home computer. I grew a little suspicious here.

I again emphasized that I DO NOT RUN Windows on my home computer. He told me that that was not a problem. Never heard companies in India writing software for Linux.

I was plenty sure that their terminal software didn't support Linux. But that was not so much of an issue because AFAIK none of their competitors did either. And anyways I always had the web interface to transact.

3. This was not so much of an issue for me but, just in case, I wanted to know if their web interface was easy to do transactions from like ShareKhan OR ICICI Direct. I again get an affirmative from the sales guy. No surprises there. With all those ads they are running on the TV I don't expect a crapy interface from them.

And. I decide to open an account with Religare securities and give him a 500 Rs. cheque and all the necessary proofs.

The guy then showed me a 30 to 40 page booklet and asked me start signing all over the booklet. Some 50 odd signaturesinall.

I was getting a little worried because I was not reading what wasin their and signing all over the place. Who knows? I could as well behanding over all my property to Religare.

So I stopped and asked him to give me a duplicate copy of the applicationso that I could read it later. And he agreed to supply me with one.AndI supress my suspiscions for a while and continue signing all over the booklet. Done!!

The guy then told me that he was currently running a short supply of the application booklets so he would bring me an empty-one the next day morning and I agreed.

Days passed and the guy never showed up to give me my copy of the App booklet. I called him up many times but it was of no use. Finally I get my account activated in about 2 weeks.**I realize I was cheated by Religare.

Someone from Religare called me up to give me my User ID. I asked her as towhen I will receive my password to start trading online. The lady tells me that **I CANNOT TRADE ONLINE THROUGH A BROWSER!!!

RELIGARE DOES NOT HAVE AN ONLINE TRADING WEB INTERFACE!! That was a complete shocker. I just got dupedby Religare.Thesales guy had given me a false impression that I could trade onlinefrom a web browser!!!

I was totally enraged. I immediately went to their Jayanagar 4th Block office to speak with some body there. And... they didn't have a help desk!!Buta lady sitting there and speaking over the phone recognized me. She was the same person I was talking to over the phone.

She called up somebody and a guy showed up to assist me. I calmly told the guy about whathad happened. What the sales guy had told me and what I finally hear from them.

He completely understood and told me he couldn't help because they simply didn't have a web interface. Then I told him Iwanted to close my account and wanted my Rs. 500 back. He took me to his managers office and explained what had happened.

The manager(Mr.Reddy) immediately shot back saying that he had fired the sales guy because he received similar complaints from other customers.And therefore I should feel safe and satisfied with Religare.

What?! I asked him how that helps me unless I am getting my Rs.500 back. He tells me that it is not possible to return my money.

I shot backsaying, "if you agrees that Mr.X, who was a sales guy on the rolls ofReligare representing Religare in the publics eye, goes around duping the public; is it not the responsibility of Religare to pay for the damages caused to the public by Mr. X"? The manager did not agree.

He took things a little personally here. He started questioning me as tohow it might be possible for him to control Mr.X who was out on thestreets spreading false information about Religare products. I tell him That its not my problem to bother about how he should go about managinghis sales team.

All I cared about was that, from my perspective, someone who was representing Religare Securities Pvt. Ltd. duped me. For, obviously in order to deal with Religare I will have to deal with someperson/program representing Religare Securities Pvt. Ltd.

To mehe/she/it represents Religare Securities Pvt. Ltd. Anyways... Irealized that there wasn't much that the manager could do in thismatter and therefore I asked him how I might file a complaint.

The manager started getting irritated (why?) and started threatening me saying that he has the application form with him on which I had signed.

I told him about the way they go about filling an application form and it was not fair to expect their customers to read the whole application in about 15 min.

I also told him that I had requested for a copy of the application from the sales guy so that I could go through, which he never gave.

I understood that I was wasting my time talking to the manager. I was not interested in debating about managing operations and sundry with this guy. All I wanted was my Rs. 500 given back to me.So I asked him again as to how I could file a complaint with Religare Securities.

The manager told me that Religare Securities did no thave any formal means to file complaints. And even if it had one, he wouldn't tell me!! Wow!! This guy seems to easily take things personally. He does not seem to know how to deal with customers.Moral of the story

Don't believe the marketing/sales guys. At least not in India. Do your own research before opening up your wallet. Don't put your money into something if you don't completely understand what you are getting into.