Hi Everyone,

I needed some advice on what action can be taken against fraudulent telemarketing of Credit Cards. To give you a better side of the picture, this is what I went through when I took up one such offer from Standard Chartered.
In April 2004, I was offered a "Standard Chartered Bank Executive Credit Card". The executive offering me the card said that there would not be any "Annual Fee" for the first year (i.e. till April 2005). I
took up the offer.
In January 2005, another executive/agent from the Bank called me up with an offer to upgrade from the Executive Card to a "Gold Card". The executive promised the following under the offer:
* A Voucher from Taj Group Of Hotels, which would entitle me to a completely free stay for 1 day and 1 night at any of the Taj Hotel sites in India, valid for a period of one year. * A Voucher for Free Medical Check-Up from a reputed hospital in Mumbai. * A Standard Chartered Gold Card without any annual charges for life. * All the above would come at a one-time price of Rs. 2499 + taxes at 10.2% (totaling to Rs. 2755.91)
I initially declined the offer. But he called me up again after about 2 days, and after much pestering I agreed to take up the offer. The Gold Card was sent to me towards end of February 2005. Along with it, I only got a discount coupon for my "spouse" to stay at selected sites of the Taj Group Of Hotels.
I called up the Helpline to confirm if this was the voucher the agent had promised, and the executive said that the "Free Stay" voucher would be sent to me once the payment of Rs. 2499 (+ taxes) was made. After getting this assurance from the Customer Service Executive, I made the payment.
Sadly enough, I kept waiting for the free stay voucher. But it never arrived. After a few days when I called up the Helpline, I was told that the Discount Voucher was all that would be sent and there is no scheme wherein a "Free Stay" voucher would be sent. By this time, the payment had been made. Only then did I realize that the Bank was taking me for a ride. If this would have been informed to me at the time the offer was being made, I would have never taken up the offer since I am still a bachelor and so that coupon is of no use to me.
The scenario now was that I had no vouchers for "Free Stay" or "Free Medical Check-Up". Just a "Standard Chartered Gold Card" for which I had paid over Rs. 2750/-. It was just not worth the deal since I was cheated in the wrong manner and I decided to cancel my card account.
I put in the Card Cancellation request on 9th of April 2005. I did not utilize any of the "so-called privileges" that come with a Gold Card (In fact, I have incurred losses to the tune of Rs. 350/- due to
cancellations of air tickets that I had purchased on the Gold Card). So, the Gold Card and Executive Card (the one I was holding earlier) were no different for me.
My line of reasoning was that since I have given in the request for Card Cancellation within the "one-year free period" of the Executive Credit Card, I think that I should not be charged any fee for that, and
also the charges for "Gold Upgrade" should be reversed since the executives of the Bank were at fault while selling the product to me. The bank has responded saying that the finance charges for one month
have been reversed and that there is a balance of about rs. 3700 outstanding on my account.
Please let me know if I can file a case against the Bank for cheating (while selling the product to me). If yes, then where can I file it and should I hire a lawyer for it? If not, then what other options do I
have? All help in this matter would be appreciated.
Thanks in Advance.