Unauthorised debit by Axis Bank and refusal to reply!

Axis Bank is a direct subsidiary of Reserve Bank and first private Bank in public sector. Well that is the dichotomy. It is therefore supposed to be fairer than private players but it appears, it is not.

A Bank account is like trust account. Banker is the trustee of customer’s money in the account. Axis Bank has been my Bank of choice for past decade. Recent tryst with Kotak Bank reaffirmed that choice. However of late Axis Bank is becoming the corporate monster that are many busy in stealing small funds from millions thereby making millions.

Charging for NEFT transaction:

NEFT is an acronym for National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) which is an Indian system of electronic transfer of money from one bank or bank branch to another. As per my knowledge transfer of 2 lacs or two hundred thousand is made without any charges. However my account was debited with a miniscule amount towards NEFT charges, recently which surprised me. Hence I tweeted about it and as advised by Axis Bank’s twitter handler, I sent an email to Axis Bank.

My email to Axis Bank:

Dear Sir

I have two issues:

1. The NEFT transactions are being delayed too much. I transferred Rs.899/- *** on xx Oct. 2015 but it has not been credited in beneficiary account till date. The beneficiary is my credit card account with *** Bank.

2. Neft has no fee. Some times in the past I have found small amounts of Rupee or two and odd being debited in my account as NEFT charges. Why?

Kindly revert ASAP.

Regards

Stupid bureaucratic reply from Axis Bank:

Dear Customer,
We regret the inconvenience caused to you regarding NEFT transaction.
We apologize the delay in response.
Kindly provide the below details:

• NEFT Transaction Reference No. :
• Date Of Transaction :
• Beneficiary IFSC + Beneficiary Bank Name + Beneficiary Account no. + Correct Beneficiary Name :
• Amount :

We assure you the best of our services.
Regards,
Akshatha S Kumta
Customer Service – Liabilities
Axis Bank

What about the second question? Did they even read my email? It is possible that now they may have introduced some charges but the reply does not answer that at all. As regards details, Axis Bank is my Banker. it could easily locate me from my email and see the last NEFT transaction. But it is also possible that this Customer Service officer is too obese to move around and type in computer. Are you obese Akashatha? Reply is typically what is termed as “Red Tapism”. Asking so many details that the query itself is buried in details. Perhaps this is what is being done here.

Unauthorised debit in account means breach of trust punishable under section 405 of Penal Code. But for such a small amount police will term it as “civil nature of dispute” which is their doorway to shut out crimes in which there is no motivation for concerned officer or station.

Which Bank do you use? Looking for a Bank which is run by humans and who is not as devious as above or which is not run by computers, like Axis Bank!

Very disappointing. Even more disappointing is the Reserve Bank which is sleeping.

*** Amount and date changed.

Added on 3rd November:
Stumbled upon the website of Axix Bank and found out that NEFT is charged at Rs.2.50 per transaction below Rs.1000/- and no free is allowed. Why the person who replied the email could tell me that?
My guess is that the response was robotic and not human.