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My company is situated in a Tech Park / IT Park in Bangalore and couple of months back SBI opened a branch in our complex. Kinda great deal that time with the recession at this pace, banks going haywire. One of my colleague said that it is always better to have an account with SBI and since it is a nationalized public sector bank, you can trust them. I joined the crowd and opened an account! I still couldn’t believe that I was doing that, based on my past experiences with public sector banks. To get anything from them is an ART!

So I opened an account and they sent me the debit card + check books in a months time. I went to the bank asking for the PIN, debit card’s (SBI do not send the PIN to your house, you have to go collect it from the bank personally, an additional security or so they say). I checked with the accountant looking guy about my PIN, he goes;

“It won’t come here”

I was stumped, then I asked him for details, so he said “it goes to another branch and we have to collect it from there”. So I asked him again, does this ‘we’ means I should go collect or the bank will do it, so the answer was the bank would do it, once they receive it they’ll buzz me was the option I had. Then I said okay don’t you need my details so that you can collect it from that branch, he says no, he will collect it (first when I entered he didn’t even know me, but he now says that he’d collect my PIN and give it to me!). I wasn’t convinced but neither had an option. I was asked to come on the next Monday to get the PIN.

I sat on it for 2 more weeks, nothing happened. So I went to the bank, the manager said, SBI used to get their card printed from a third party people and now recently they moved to their own subsidiary for printing the card and stuff like that. All I wanted to know was where the hell my PIN for the debit card is! He suggested that there are some issues and he’ll send an email. So this guy is looking into the monitor, typed something then started staring at the monitor for quite some time. Then the previously mentioned accountant also joined him. They were looking for something which I couldn’t see. One of my friend was sitting next to me, he hadn’t even received the card itself. About 5 minutes my friend was kind of struggling to quit laughing (remember we’re seated in Manager’s cabin). Then finally they said, they have let the concerned department know and will update us. We came out and my friend bursted out in laughter and he said, for about 5 minutes they searched for the ‘SEND’ button for sending the email!

Then after a week, I insisted on closing my account and get me a new debit card (by that time, the bank got their ‘acceptance kit’, with the debit card and 10 leaves of checkbook etc). So I opened another account, they gave me the new debit card. Guess what was printed on it for a name “Branch Manager’. I was shocked to see it and had some funny jokes about it with my friends. Well, what did I know

I had a very big amount transferred to that account thinking that I’d use this one for all my purchases that I’m doing for my new home. Then came thee issues, tried this card in couple of shops and it never worked.

Today I went to SBI again to tell my ‘sad story’. They looked at me like a cancer patient who is breathing his last breath. Then came the questions;

“Which shop did it not work’

“Did you make sure it was used as debit card”

I would’ve thought they’d give some respect for my age and that I’d have not simply complained for the sake of complaining. Then the lady said, it would take 3 months to get it activated. I was shocked. What the f****?

I got up and was a bit tensed and my sound wasn’t quite comfortable to anybody in the bank, then the accountant came up to say something, by the way he came to me, I thought he has a solution and he uttered these to me man;

“Even my debit card doesn’t work”

For a moment, I wasn’t sure I heard it correct. So he clarified, seems that he tried it in a couple of shops and it didn’t work and he assumed that it’ll take some time before it gets activated. For a moment I felt like I got a slap on my face. I walked up to the Manager’s cabin and told him. As usual this fella started making couple of calls like our MLA/MP’s do in movies. Then finally said, he would send a mail to some one and get some clarification. I silently walked out of the bank not knowing what to do. AND this is our public sector BANK!

PS:- The guy who opened the very first account in this branch got his ATM card only today and he has been asked to wait for 45 days and *see* whether he gets the ATM PIN, otherwise they’d close his account and open a new one. Ya, the ‘Branch Manager’ card