Is HDFC an Overrated Bank?

Warning: It is a vent post

People here have been advising others to open an account in HDFC, mostly to get their credit cards. But hardly they discuss the customer service. HDFC possibly is generous at giving credit card offers to its customers, but it seems to be offering an complimentary frustration as well.

Though SBI gets made fun of by everyone when it comes to the customer service, in my case, HDFC has beaten SBI by miles.
HDFC bank is the chu**yest bank ever (I don't use such words for anyone, but in case of HDFC, I am unable to stop myself). SBI is 1000 times better than HDFC.
Its been around 9-10 months since I had a relationship with HDFC and nothing has went smooth at all.

The recent communication with HDFC has left me dumbfounded. I booked train tickets through SmartBuy using the ES Platinum debit card and thought I may get 5% or 5x cashback or reward points.

After not seeing the cashback/reward points after 4-5 days of the transaction, I mailed HDFC asking whether the transaction was eligible for the cashback and if it was, when the cashback is supposed to be credited (I mentioned all the transaction details in the mail).

I received initial responses only saying 'we are looking into the matter' and after a week, their actual reply came asking for the transaction details to 'investigate' the issue!! One entire week to ask the transaction details which were already in the email!!

I copy pasted the content from my original mail and sent it. They took one more week and replied saying 'we are unable to know whether the transaction is eligible for the cashback or not.' 🤡 And also said that if eligible, the cashback will be credited post 90 days of offer end month.

Upon receiving this response, I escalated this to the upper level. Again, they took nine days to give the exact same response.

I escalated it further asking to whom I should reach out in order to know whether the transaction was eligible for the cashback and when I will receive it. Again after 4 days, I have received the same response saying they have no way of knowing whether a particular transaction is eligible for the cashback or not.

The pno went on and suggested to wait for 90 days and if I don't see any cashback by then, it would mean that the transaction was ineligible for the cashback/rewards!!! 🤡🤡🤡
This is much more than being stupid!!

SBI hasn't been the best, but I haven't received such stupid responses from them ever.

I have no words to say to HDFC. If such a person is a pno of the bank, I don't know how I can 'bank' on them. Have to wait for a few more months before I could correct my mistake of opening an account with them.🙁

 

[helloworld]

No bank is perfect, if we get good experience then its good bank otherwise okay to bad .. everything depends on experience.

And bank experience has number of factors to decide that, like branch, people we interact, customer support we interact, queries we had, expectations we had etc. based on that our experience will vary from worst to best and it mostly depends on people.

If we interact with knowledge person then its a different experience, if they don't know anything then its another experience.

PNO is not single person, he/she has assistants to handle such requests and those may or may not familiar with the whole banking products. we need to double check and get what we want. Agree, they should know about it and respond, but again its human nature and we're dealing with humans who behaves differently and may not be as per our expectations.

Same can happen to all banks, nothing is different.. everything has flaws. Move on or adjust to their knowledge, its all we can do.

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Regarding your query, ES Debit card on payment of train tickets through smart buy..

As per this, you're eligible for 5% cashback points (reflect in netbanking section not credit to statement), which we have to redeem manually.

Deals

SmartBuy is a platform only for display of offers extended by Merchants to HDFC Bank's Customers

offers.smartbuy.hdfcbank.com

- this only possible, if you receive 'smartbuy' in sms transaction details (to make sure you performed on smartbuy and session still active at that time).

time period: within 90 working days.



Next time for any smartbuy related queries, do check with 'support@smartbuyoffers.co' instead of banking support (who may not know banking related itself might confused with other offers).

Hope you'll get the cashback points within mention time period and have better experience. Good luck!

 

[Sourabh_13]

I totally agree with you. No bank is worst or the best. I was just 😵 after reading the mail from pno, and looking back at the time they took to give the same nonsensical reply made me want to question the hype there is about the bank.

I did not mention in the post but I started with reaching out to SmartBuy support. They asked to me to contact the hdfc bank's support.

Thanks for sharing the SmartBuy TnCs! I had read them but was thinking that since specific debit cards are not mentioned, the timelines could be different. I have heard, in general, Millennia DC gets rewards points after 90 days, but ES DC gets it in 1-2 days. So I thought the is applicable in case of SmartBuy transactions as well and therefore reached out to support.

 

[helloworld]

I have heard, in general, Millennia DC gets rewards points after 90 days, but ES DC gets it in 1-2 days. So I thought the is applicable in case of SmartBuy transactions as well and therefore reached out to support.

this is for billpayments done through netbanking, smartbuy all debit cards upto 90 days.

even till 2022, ES DC takes 90 days along with millennia for bill payments too, they improved it to upto 5 working days.

smartbuy is kind of affiliate program, where they'll credit only after return period over incase shopping. In your case too it wait upto 90 days (that is max, you may get earlier) and provide only if your IRCTC not cancelled.

if your sms has 'smartbuy' then you don't have to worry, it will credit in due time.