Most among us must have at some point felt cheated as a consumer especially when we are charged some extra money we feel we had no reason to pay. When it’s a bank that puts off any of its customers on such grounds, things get worse and that’s exactly what happened to HDFC recently.
Bengaluru-based Karthik Srinivasan felt he had been charged hidden fees by HDFC through e-mails welcoming customers to the virtual relationship manager programme. This programme is supposed to give the account holders additional benefits, but the fact that this costs Rs. 400 is mentioned in fine print. According to Srinivasan, the bank also signed up users for this programme by default and asked those who wanted to opt out to do so through a small link. So yes, HDFC clearly gave this customer one too many reasons to be very cross with them.
Srinivasan contacted HDFC and was told that they had been ‘fair and transparent’ in their scheme. As you can imagine, this kind of complacency does not go down well with a customer who already feels cheated. Soon after, Srinivasan decided to tweet to HDFC regarding this issue ‘every single day till the end of 2017’ and would do so till the bank apologized.
This invite-only program from @HDFC_Bank unethically assumes you are already in and are willing to pay for it https://t.co/wEbKI13c6x
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) February 1, 2017
Day 2: Good morning, @HDFC_Bank! Could you please apologize to all your customers for this unethical move? https://t.co/wEbKI13c6x
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) February 2, 2017
Day 3: Got calls from HDFC Head Office. They explained the same thing to me. I insisted that they kindly apologise to all customers. 1/2
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) February 3, 2017
2/2 They said they will call back. They did. Asked for 2 days time to revert. I said ok.
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) February 3, 2017
Day 7: Good morning, @HDFC_Bank – you haven’t reverted yet. Could you please apologize to *all* your customers? https://t.co/wEbKI13c6x
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) February 7, 2017
Day 8: Hi @HDFC_Bank, could you please not swindle money from customers without permission? https://t.co/wEbKI13c6x CC: @MoneylifeIndia
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) February 8, 2017
Day 9: @HDFC_Bank – please consider apologizing to all your customers for this blatant misuse https://t.co/wEbKI0LAHX CC: @suchetadalal
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) February 9, 2017
Please note: @HDFC_Bank – not too late to apologize for this blatant misuse f customer trust: https://t.co/jkuLMCrFTE
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) February 9, 2017
Response from @HDFC_Bank – fully appreciate all the benefits. Only question: why weren’t they communicated before starting the charge? 1/2 pic.twitter.com/iUinsK4U5s
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) February 9, 2017
2/2 Also, evasive response to opt-out. The point again, is it should be opt-in. That is the correct way. Opt-out is disingenuous. @HDFC_Bank
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) February 9, 2017
Day 11: Why charge for services clandestinely @HDFC_Bank? Why not be honest and seek permission? https://t.co/wEbKI0LAHX CC: @monikahalan pic.twitter.com/uXjLTugweG
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) February 11, 2017
Day 21: @HDFC_Bank, if you have been fair in your communication, why are *so many* people surprised by the charges? https://t.co/wEbKI13c6x pic.twitter.com/u6ztvTl34o
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) February 21, 2017
Day 22: A quick recap of @HDFC_Bank‘s monumentally unethical move.
Longer, better written version: https://t.co/LDxoYLaZVV pic.twitter.com/m2wCZ6SXYs— Karthik (@beastoftraal) February 22, 2017
Day 30: @HDFC_Bank: ‘Highest standards of ethics’ in the streets. ‘Will use opt-out mail to fool you’ in the sheets! https://t.co/LDxoYLsBkv
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) March 2, 2017
Day 31: Lawyers on my timeline: can @HDFC_Bank escape this legally using ‘estoppel’? Ethics is my point, though https://t.co/LDxoYLaZVV
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) March 3, 2017
Karthik Srinivasan has over 25,000 followers on Twitter and though his campaign hasn’t yet succeeded it’s surely garnered a lot of attention.
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