Never use your atm card in Standard Chartered Bank ( All in the name of quality Service)
Today I had in urgent need of money. I thought to use my debit card belonging to Allahabad Bank, but due to low number of atm machines, I was forced to use an Atm of another bank. Unfortunately this atm machine belonged to Standard Chartered Bank in Indira Nagar, Lucknow. The second optional bank from where I use my bank atm, was Standard Chartered Bank. But today I had a real bad experience. So, I entered my card in the slot and pressed some digits here and there, as soon as I entered a value and pressed ok. The machine went off, the card got stuck and I went motionless.
I needed cash and it was urgent. I called up the guard and he asked me to goto main branch of Standard Chartered the next day if I wanted my card. So I asked him to tell me the customer care number so I can contact them. He told me to use the telephone inside the atm and dial 2. I called up the customer care and after 4-5 attempts they picked up. The lady on the other side. Someone named Mamta told me that I will have to wait for the executive to arrive their and I will get my card after showing an ID proof I said it’s fine I can wait no problem. Soon, minutes went to hours and after an hour of delay the electrician came in he rebooted the machine and took the card. I asked him to return the card to me after seeing my id proof he said no we can’t give you the card, I told him I needed money for my college admission and it was urgent he refused to hand it over to me and said you can not get it now according to our bank’s policy and it will be destroyed because it belongs to a different bank. So I went to their main bank’s branch in Hazaratganj Lucknow, and met someone at Teller counter one, after a short delay from their useless phone call chats they managed to give some time to me. They said sorry we can’t give you the card or any written statement as of why we are destroying your card you can come after 4 and we will punch your card and you can collect it. Seeing their attitude and stupid way of talking I was disappointed without a written application as of why my card was destroyed Allahabad Bank wont issue me a new card that easily. So I came back at for and they nailed my card with 7 punches. Aaah my poor card was destroyed. I asked them to hand over to my bank if they were reluctant in giving it to me for security reasons they said no we wont take that much pain u can now take your card and leave. So I took my card and left their counter saying I wont ever use your atm nor will recommend any one to use your atm or open an account at your bank. The places where I felt improvements could be made were The customer care people who said card could be returned to me even if it belonged to a different bank. How can a customer care person not know the bank policies or how can her words differ from the person sitting in Lucknow branch. 2 ) The people at the bank in Standard Chartered most of them were busy in personal phone calls, and were not paying attention to a customer’s query ( thats me) 3) Destroying a card because your atm had a fault is not justified, why should I suffer when the power at your Standard Chartered atm went off. What if the need for money was really urgent what if any of my relative was at hospital. Because I have no cheque books from my Allahabad bank yet I would have been forced to see him/her die. All in the name of good customer service. 4) My final verdict says never use your atms in other banks I am not sure if other banks have this policy because my allahabad bank people said they return the card to which ever bank it belongs to and the act of destroying cards is a punishable offense. Never ever use your cards or open an account in Standard Chartered Bank and before opening any account in a new bank private or government if you want to use an Atm card please ensure that it has abundant amount of atm across the place of your residence. -Neeshu