Here is my ordeal about getting a home loan from PNB.
Unfortunately the branch with which I have a savings bank account "Anand Nagar" Branch in Bangalore does seem to have its senior manager position
VACANT since long time.
When I met
PNB official Muralidhar for loan at the branch on 27th June 07, I was not told the actual person incharge of Loans (
Zamila)in the branch was on vacation. I had applied for construction loan for an amount of Rs 20Lakhs. I was told that the papers will be
sent to the Processing HUB the same day. Mr Muralidhar scrutinized the papers and told me to get another EC and to give the EC to the HUB itself directly as it will avoid time lag. The way in which he told that the papers will be sent to HUB for sure by the EOD. He conveyed that if the papers were legally correct, I should be getting the loan as I have good repaying capacity.
When I went with the latest EC to the HUB on 2nd July, I was shocked at the response of the
HUB. Their intial comments were like
"Who asked you to come here?" Don't come here or call us unless we call you. Later they conveyed to me that they had not received papers from the Branch and to give the EC to the branch itself. They kept cursing that the
staff in AnandNagar was not proper and what not. Abusing other branch staff members before customer doesn't improve bank image in the eyes of the customer.
Finally I gave the latest EC to Zamila at Anandnagar Branch and asked them to expedite the process. I called her up after a day to enquire if the papers were sent and she confirmed that the papers where indeed sent. However I was not receiving any information regarding its processing and I checked back with her couple of times to see if she had any information and for which she replied in the negative.
Finally I got a call from the HUB on
13th July 2007 and they said that they received the papers just then. And they again blame that
staff in AnandNagar was not proper and no manager overseeing it had caused further problems. I was told that the processing would start on
16th July 2007. After that I kept calling the HUB to hear just one sentence from them " Its under processing and we will call you soon".
Repeated calls didn't help. Finally on 23rd July, I managed to ask them to state the progress till now for which they tried evasive answers and finally agreed to get back to me in an hour. Surprisingly they called after half-an-hour and they told me that the estimate looked expensive and t
hey will be able to release 15.5 lakhs and they had not yet started any legal processing.
I tried to prevail on them that the actual estimate was 26 Lakhs and that I needed around 20 Lakhs else I would have to take back the papers. I
asked them why it took 28 days to even scrutize the papers and they did n't have any answers.One
Mr Ramaraju from the HUB asked me to come to the HUB for discussion on 24th July and told me that I can collect the papers from the HUB itself.
On 24th July, when I went to the HUB, I was told by
Mr Vasudev Guttal that Mr Ramaraju was not around and I have to collect the papers from the Branch itself.
I told them that an apt in my site vicinity costs advertizes at Rs 59 lakhs for the same floor area. The cost of a independent house which is slightly bigger than the one I am constructing in the area is now priced at Rs65 lakhs. And how can they rubbish my estimate of Rs 26 lakhs. They have no answers to give.
Mr Vasudev Guttal talks pretty rudely and says "I don't know why Mr Ramaraju asked you to come here".
Its very strange that two people who sit next to each other convey two different opinions about giving back my loan papers. He doesn't make an effort to contact Mr Ramaraju and verify if he had promised to give back my papers. I had to literally fight it out with Mr Guttal who was not ready to give back my loan papers and I needed the papers to try my luck in some other Bank.
I see the same rudeness in some of the people in HUB esp Mr Vasudev Guttal similar to what I saw in my first visit to the HUB. I asked him why they took 28 days to even scrutize the papers and they didn't have any proper answers.
Instead they suggest that I should go to some private banks. Finally I had to tell him that I
am a investor in PNB and I had invested in PNB shares for long. Finally he agreed to give my papers back to me and gave a letter (after much persuasion) stating the cause for denying the loan amount. They still don't give a definite answer
about which parts of estimate were high.
To summarize:
It took me 4 visits to AnandNagar Branch, 2 visits to HUB, 10-15 calls, 28 days to realize that PNB had just started to scrutize the papers.
And the end of it, I as a customer, is back on the hunt for a new bank.
As an investor in PNB, I am extremely pained to see this state of affairs.
How can you ask a customer to "who asked you to come here?"
How can you tell before a customer that some other branch sucks?
How can you tell your customer that you are not bound to what was told by your sub-ordinate?
How can you have people who suggest customers to try another bank?
How can you be so rude to customer and expect the bank to grow?
And above all: In this internet-age, how can you expect the customer to wait for 28 days before his application gets scrutiny ?
If I as a Investor feel so sorry about the state of affairs, then what would a customer who not an investor feel like ?
