Customer complaints: PSU banks better than private ones

These figures were revealed by the RBI in its report on the Banking Ombudsman scheme.

During 2010-11,the ombudsmen received 71,274 complaints,compared with 79,266 complaints received during the previous year,the RBI said. “The large number of complaints received against banks,especially first resort complaints,indicates that the internal machinery for grievance redressal in banks needs to be strengthened and made more responsive and robust,” the report said.

“Complaints relating to card products (ATM,debit and credit cards) constituted 24 per cent of the complaints received.”

Complaints over card products mainly related to unsolicited credit cards,unsolicited insurance policies,recovery of premium charges,charging of annual fee in spite of being offered as ‘free’ card,authorisation of loans over phone,disputes over wrong billing,abusive calls,excessive charges,wrong debits to account and skimming of cards.

According to the RBI,the main reason for these complaints is the difficulty faced by customers in accessing the card issuing banks from various locations where a person could be using the card or may have lost / misplaced the card. Further,most of the queries relating to credit card are handled by the call centres. “The staff employed at these call centres is not very familiar with the banks’ card products or the banks’ customers. As such,the response from the call centres is not helpful in resolving customer grievances,” it said.

“Banking ombudsmen disposed of 94 per cent of the total complaints received. 31 per cent were received against State Bank of India and Associates,29 per cent against nationalised banks,private banks 24 per cent and foreign banks10 per cent,” it said.