I finally learnt first hand how corrupt the Indian police is.
The players:
ICICI Bank – (the awardee of the worst customer service in the history of the world award. I am not the only one saying that)
Subway Galleria (in a cameo role)
Janakraj and Mahendra Singh Verma (Bharat ke corrupt cops)
Big Bazaar (Location, Location, Location)
Me (A somewhat careless credit card holder)
A month and a half ago, I lost my credit card at the Subway in Galleria Market. However, I did not realise that until much later – and by then it was too late – someone had spent Rs. 17,650 on my credit card – and I managed to get my card blocked only after the transaction was done.
ICICI Bank in typical we-don’t-give-a-f**k-for-our-customers fashion told me that any dispute can be raised only 21 days after the transaction was made.
I figured I should atleast lodge an FIR. But that attempt seemed doomed from the word go. First I was subjected to some needless abuse from the officer I asked first, such as – “Daaru pee rahe honge .. chohd aaye saale credit card”.
Another assumed and hotly insisted on the fact that I am there only to get an FIR because I needed to get my credit card renewed. Finally one inspector, a certain Mahendra Singh Verma, rose up to the challenge, when I told him that the card was used to buy 2 phones from Big Bazaar Gurgaon.
They went to Big Bazaar with me, took the IMEI numbers (the Big Bazaar guys were extremely helpful), asked me to write an application about the incident (I was supposed to receive the FIR later on the basis of that application), and then I left.
1. Even the most upmarket restaurants may have the wrong people employed so tread with care. In my case, it was the Subway at Galleria Market, Gurgaon.
A couple of weeks later, I get a call from the manager at Subway Galleria ,who had earlier told me that I couldn’t have lost my card there that and all his staff is extremely trustworthy. He said, it turned out that, the card was indeed taken at his restaurant, but now the police has tracked them down using the IMEI codes and was harassing them. They asked me if I could help.
Having been the one who had lodged a complaint, I figured I was in no position to retract it, so I said, No, I can’t. (Also, the whole business appeared a little fishy. They had apparently fired the employee who had stolen the card promptly, and kept the phones with themselves. On top of that, the manager himself had put his own SIM card into that phone (what the f*** did he think he was doing) and was thus caught).
2. Indian Police is not inefficient, just plain corrupt.
I was really impressed with the work that the Indian police had done and was singing songs of praise to all and sundry, until I got a call from the cop who was handling this case - ‘Sir, un phones ka to kuch pata naheen chal paaya. Bank waalon ne kya kaha - aapko bharna padega kya bill?’. I was aghast – What bastards! There was nothing I could do since I needed the FIR – to raise a dispute with the bank. After making me come to the station for 2 days, they finally lodged something (don’t even know if it was an FIR – they made an entry in the register and gave me a copy) – and I was only allowed to write that I had lost my card – the cop was literally dictating what I should write and any deviation was met with admonishment. I ended up writing something like “Maine so-and-so date ko apna card khoya, aur usey aaj tak dhoond raha hoon!”. What’s worse is I recently received another call from the guy “Arrey aapka number dikh gaya diary main to socha pooch len. Oh! bank ne aap pe penalty laga dee. Ab to kya karenge – de dijiye – instalments main de dijiye”. What audacity!
3. ICICI Bank has the worst customer service in the world.
After procuring that ‘FIR’ I finally managed to raise a dispute with ICICI Bank. Weeks later I was informed that the case had been settled in the bank’s favor. After being in a state of distress for a short while – I decided something must be done – after all I had seen those receipts at Big Bazaar - and they were a clear case of forgery (unfortunately, I was too trusting of the policewallahs then, and hadn’t asked for a copy). So then I wrote to ICICI Bank, they directed me to a special inaccessible unit called the “Chargeback Department” – the only was to contact them is via postal mail (which I did and got no response) or a single fax number (which had been engaged all day). I have finally managed to send something to these guys – but still no reply.
Another thing I learnt about ICICI Bank which really shocks me – I visited Big Bazaar again in the hope that I might get a copy of those receipts – and I was told that the ICICI bank investigator was too lazy to even look at those signed receipts simply because he had to get them from Big Bazaar’s corporate offce – thus he closed the case in the bank’s favour without even bothering to look at them. What a shit bank!
