It was the year 2018 when I opened an account with Axis Bank, Madhubani branch for my company Antiquecraft Private Limited company’s current account.
I opted for Axis bank after finding it strong in the market against all the mergers of banks happening around India.
I opted Axis Bank because of its reputation too.
Since the starting day of the formalities of opening account, I found the employees careless and inexperienced.
I opted for the access of internet banking in the form as well as I submitted the Board of Resolution mentioning everything I needed.
But we were not given the username and password.
Even the opening of account took more than a week and we needed to ask them every 3-4 days.
So, we were not able to transfer funds online and were only able to withdraw money with the help of cheque.
We managed for two years somehow as they wanted us to do the same formalities we did for opening the account.
As one of the two directors were not available most of the time together, it was not possible to do so.
So, we gave up the idea.
After June, due to COVID 19. We decided to dissolve our company. So there was no need to keep the account.
We went to the bank and took an account closure form to close the account.
We filled the form and put the signature done and asked for the negative amount if we had any.
Though, we tried to close the account a long before.
But due to a key employee in that branch was suffering from fever for more than a week.
We decided to wait and that’s why the account went into negative.
Irresponsive Behavior
So, I submitted the form and asked to inform about any negative amount so that I could transfer some amount to make it positive.
But the employee at the branch said, “Link is not working. I will inform you later in the evening”.
This is the usual message the bankers in small towns in India give thinking of the customers as a fool and ignorant.
They just do it to keep the customers away from them or most of the time they feel lazy to do their job.
We waited that day and for almost a week and thought that the account is closed now.
Then, the second director got a message of -1800 balance.
I was shocked to see such a negative balance.
Even though I already asked about the balance and was willing to transfer before handing over the closure form to him.
The employee said, “It’s not the fault of me, I submitted the account closure request the same day”
That was a complete lie.
Without maintaining the account balance to positive the employee can’t request for the closure of the account.
The second director was threatened that if you will not pay, you will have to face legal action against your company.
So 1800 was paid, but after a few days, we got SMS of another 1600 negative balance.
And, we went to bank and asked for clarification.
After telling about the torture and exploitation they were doing, finally, they applied for account closure.
And now we are not getting any SMS regarding the balance but we are still unsure whether they have closed the account or not.
When I wrote this to the twitter handle of Axis bank, they asked my number to contact me but never called.
I am still waiting for call from them.
Created Obstruction Intentionally
Before this incident, my father who also had the account in the same branch tried to transfer almost 1 million to another branch through cheque.
They intentionally cancelled the check saying that signature was mismatched.
When my father went to the bank for clarification, the bank manager himself wrote on a paper that the signature was correct.
It was mistake from their end.
We were so upset with the behaviour of the employee that we transferred all our funds to another bank.
It’s not that the same thing is happening in all branches of Axis bank but these employees were exploiting the customers who were lenient to them.
Moral of the story: It’s the employee who can make or destroy the reputation of the company.
A lot of companies and individuals are operating their account through Axis bank services.
But the service of one branch because of the employees there can make or tarnish the reputation of the company.
