I am putting down in words today, my horrible experience with one of the so called reputed and popular banks in India, the Bank of India, its NEFT transaction mismanagement, coupled with pathetic to ZERO customer service, which haunt me to this day like a terrifying nightmare, I want to make people aware and be alarmed!!
I am an NRI currently working and residing in South Korea for the past 5 years. Couple of years back (21 December 2009, to be precise), unfortunately due to circumstances I opened an NRE account in Bank of India (BOI), of course at a Kolkata (Garia, Kolkata) branch, as it the was most accessible option for me since I hail from Kolkata. Ever since that time I had been regularly operating that account for the purpose of sending money from abroad to India. Once the money was transferred to India, every time, I eventually moved a major chunk of my money to my another ICICI (Indian) bank account through BOI’s NEFT funds transfer service using my BOI retail customers internet banking facility for taking care of my various monthly household cores such as bill payments, premium payments etc since in BOI I did not have that online bill payment facility linked to my net banking id.
Like every month, this month too I transferred funds from my BOI NRE account to my ICICI account, this time on 20 February 2012 and the amount was Rs 75,000 (seventy five thousand rupees only). But, still today, which is, 1 March 2012 my funds have not reached the beneficiary bank account which is my ICICI bank account, neither the money got reverted back to the remitters bank account which is my BOI NRE account. My money remains untraceable for the past 10 days without a single notification from the bank to me (the customer) regarding any problems at their end that might caused this out of all proportion delay (usually as per RBI guideline NEFT Funds transfer normally takes place on the same day or at the most the next working day depending upon the time of requesting / effecting such funds transfers). Now, all my payments and household cores are overdue and I am in financial mess and in extreme harassment.

Initially I did not panic at all as I quite tolerant customer. But as 3 working days passed (that was Friday, 24 February 2012, I did not count 21^st since it was a holiday due to Maha Shivaratri) without the money transfer considering the volume of my funds and the effect which will have on me and my family for not having it on time, I started to worry. I called up my Kolkata NEFT contact and spoke with Mr. X with whom I had spoken quite a few times earlier as well regarding other transactions in the past. He could recognize me by my name and as I illustrated my problem to him he told me that its not in his hands directly as these NEFT transactions are looked after by their NEFT centers located in Mumbai and I need to contact Mumbai for that. But he assured me on the grounds of holding a customer friendly relationship with me from the past, that he will help me and take up the matter immediately with Mumbai himself and assured me that this matter will be resolved by the end of that day itself. I also requested him repeatedly thinking of the troubles that I may face if the money did not get transferred on that day because the next two days were weekends. The worst part of BOI is that they do not have a customer service in place where customers in distress, like me, can reach out too, that’s what I hate and regret today for opening an account with BOI (the number 022-40919191 is just an information/inquiry service mind you, its completely useless for its enlisted customers). But obviously nothing of that sort happened; I did not get my money on Friday, so I had to wait impatiently for the weekend to get over and had a restless weekend myself. Monday morning (it was already 27^th Feb) I called him (Mr.X) again, my only contact in BOI, (making over expensive international calls in the process). He seemed to have no clue whatsoever regarding the problem and why the delay in funds was and suggested me to call up Mumbai NEFT and gave me few Mumbai numbers such as 022-22820749, 22886680, 22830074, 22834063 (by the way, all these are useless numbers, try these and you will find out yourself), also contact my branch (Garia, Kolkata) at the same time sent an email of my problems to Mumbai NEFT. Feeling completely helpless and out of place there was no other doable option left for me than following his instruction. So I hovered the internet, collected all relevant email ids from BOI website, I drafted an email elaborating my entire situation with all minute details and account numbers (both remitter & beneficiary) along with the ‘successful funds transfer receipt’ which got generated immediately as I transferred the funds online through net banking on 20^th Feb, this was just to show and prove that there was no typographical or technical error from my end, and sent the email to the following: to my Garia branch manager (garia.kolkata@bankofindia.co.in), to Mumbai NEFT branch (boi.neft@bankofindia.co.in), to Kolkata zonal office (zo.kolkata@bankofindia.co.in) and finally to Mumbai head office (HeadOffice.CSD@bankofindia.co.in). Next, I called up my branch Manager to inform about my situation and the email which I have sent relating to that, in hope for some help from the Manager, my very own bank’s branch Manager. To my shocking disbelief the Manager (Ms Y) seemed to be very reluctant after hearing my side of the story, said there was nothing much she could do from her end as the transaction went successfully from the branch, now rest all is in the hands of Mumbai NEFT, and as far as the email which I sent was concerned she said she was very busy and will have a look later that day when she was had the time. I was left stranded, not knowing what to do, always had the fear in mind that if I did not get the money by today then again I will have to wait for another couple of days because the next day (Tuesday, the 28^th ) was again a holiday (Bharat bandh). In desperation I searched the net again, found BOI’s Mumbai Head office number and dialed, got myself transferred to the NEFT cell through the operator. There I spoke with a person not exactly knowing his designation but when I asked for NEFT manager he proclaimed to be the concerned person at the time at that place. So, as I spoke with Mr.Z there, he seemed to be little aware of such NEFT delays lately due to some software crashes and also searched and found my email. But I wondered even though there was a major software crash how can in God’s name it take 9 days to repair and still not function?!? In 9 days a whole new software can be developed. Then came another shocker, Mr Z told me that this was again not in his hand as it was not the NEFT division (the same NEFT division which cannot be contacted with all these crap phone numbers which I mentioned above). Anyways, he told me that he will immediately contact the AGM of Mumbai NEFT through whichever way possible and he did for that matter, even sent an email to AGM and marked a copy to me stating that ‘please help this NRI customer urgent basis”. He also gave me the same assurance that the work will be done by the days end. To add more subtance to my critical situation I sent another email personally from my email id as well. But, nothing happened as usual, there was no reply from AGM’s end and eventually I ran into 28^th February which was all India holiday. Then came today, Friday the 29 February 2012. Today I made several international calls again out of desperation, frustration and anger. Spoke with my branch Manager, she was reluctant in her attitude as ever, even said that I should have spoken with her earlier as if she could have solved the problem at the blink of an eye. Like everyday I called up Mr.X at the Kolkata NEFT center to know if he has come to know about any possible reason why was this huge delay, he seemed bit fed up with my case, I told him that this kind of service from BOI apprehensive and that I may withdraw my bank account on which he said that is my decision and if I am thinking of closing my account why should he keep carrying on helping me instead he should look after the 250 new prospective clients waiting and dying to open an account in BOI (completely ignoring my existing relationship with the bank just imagine the customer service here, just awfully pathetic!!). Again I had a word with Mr.Z to know whether he was able to contact the AGM’s office and does he know the reason particularly in my case for the delay. He said he was unable to contact the AGM over phone all day long, but there are 3500 pending cases like me it seems but not to worry I will get the money by the day ends (the same old liner). And the outcome you all know by now.

So, here I stand today, Wednesday 1 March 2012. It is the 10^th day since I had transferred the funds on 20^th February 2012 and still no trace of my Rs 75,000 of hard earned money. My NEFT funds transfer got lost oblivion.

The above is a brief illustration of how BOI treats its customers, how horrible their NEFT system is, how pathetic their customer service is, how helpless you can feel unlike any other private banks where if there is a problem there are people to work around that 24/7 and you can expect a solution and at least you don’t feel helpless. It can happen to you and very well you could be next especially if you are an NRI be aware!!

Stay away from Bank of India!!

Thanks for your time!

Regards,
Utathya Bhadra