Mr. Privileged Customer ... Please get in line

As a blogger I am really very happy with my bank ... one of the two largest private sector bank. It always amazes me and gives me great material for my posts on what not to do to your customer and how to improve your customer relationship. My relationship with this bank goes back more than a decade and a half. In fact my first salary was credited to my account in the same bank. I take pride in saying that my customer id is a 6 digit number whereas the bank has already moved way forward into allocating 7 digit numbers to new customers.

All along the bank has communicated to me on how important I am as a customer and how privileged they are to have me as a customer. It was happy - happy relationship.

My first brush with disappointment came when my employer, TCS, was launching its IPO. As employee I had access to the employee reserved quota which almost guaranteed my allocation of shares that would be applied for. Considering that the general public got a 1:7 allocation (that is one share for every seven shares applied for), a 100% allocation was a big bonus. During the period of the IPO, State Bank of India had setup a counter in the office premises. They were offering to fund 90% of the application money. The catch was that this money with some interest to be returned in 4 weeks time after the listing. Considering that the stock was expected to list at 25% premium, this was a sure shot win-win for both SBI and the employee. It was kind of short term financing for 8 weeks at about 6% annualized charge. If the money is not returned within 4 weeks, then the amount would convert into a unsecured loan on the employee.

I walked into my bank and met the manager. I presented the SBI offer to him and asked if the Bank would like to forward a short term loan of 8 weeks to me. He always reverted to standard clauses which said a minimum of 6 months Personal Loan. He left no stone unturned to tell me that he is doing this as a special case since I was an old customer. But all he was offering to me was the standard package which anyone walking into the branch would get. I told him he had to provide a better offer than SBI. I told him to consider the fact that I was not even a customer of SBI and yet was holding this offer from them. But all this was to no avail. Finally, I did not use finance offered by the Bank.

My second major disappointment was when I wanted to move my base branch from one town to another. I was told by the local branch that I will need to close the savings account in the old branch and open a new one. Seeing no option, I agreed to it and found all my automatic bill payment settings vanish. I had a lot of problems resetting the same and at the same time paying current bills by cash ensuring that the current due dates are not missed. Afterwards I found this was not required. The base branch had nothing to do with the savings account. Apparently, the branch manager made me open the new account in his branch since he was credited for opening new accounts and not on change of base branch.

My recent case is few months old. I had recently upgraded myself to the higher class of customer. Imagine my amusement when the first response I got that the bank needs to find a relationship manager who will agree to take me in her books. Anyways, eventually I did get upgraded. One of the eligibility criteria is the value of portfolio with the bank. A couple of months after the upgrade, I ran into a good opportunity of procuring a retail outlet at an upcoming residential township. I again approached the bank for commercial financing. Back came a prompt reply that the bank only does commercial financing for minimum of Rs. 25 lakhs. The property was for Rs. 20 lakhs and so the bank could not advance any loan. I again played the old customer and (now) a privileged customer card, but to no avail. Finally, I had to liquidate my portfolio with the bank to finance the purchase. This liquidation has brought my portfolio worth to less than the eligible balance.

Now I wait and watch what the bank will do. Will it demote me to the lower level or will it fine me for not maintaining the minimum portfolio. And all this when the portfolio could have been richer by another Rs. 20 lakhs had they forwarded the loan for the same.

Till further developments, fingers crossed.....

And what do I do with the outlet... maybe a franchise for cakes (since I love cakes) ... or a outlet for http://www.askforpets.com/ (a portal started by a friend for pet lovers.. do check it out).