I had made a purchase of Rs.20283.90 incurred at M/s. Titan Company limited which was converted into an equated monthly installment(EMI) on 28/07/2014 for the tenure of 6 months at merchant outlet directly. the purchase was on 0% interest on emi through HDFC bank credit card.
After receiving the first credit card bill with interest of 1% charged, I had contacted the store and specifically" Ms Rosemary", (the lady at the payment counter who had swiped the card and assured the transaction to be without any interest). She explained that the interest has been charged erroneously and such things do happen. they would fix it next month by informing the bank officials.
on sensing some goof-up, I wrote to the senior credit card banking officers at hdfc who has replied in his email very clearly that there was no such scheme of 0% interest on purchase through emi basis with the merchant. I shared the same information with the store.
the next month and the month after that followed with the same problem of emi being charged with interest of 1%. The officials from the store repeatedly assured that this issue will be taken care off within 3 months billing cycle. I have received the latest bill with the last emi charged for the said purchase and it still carries the 1% interest on the purchase. So if there was a chance of reversal of interest charged shouldnt have it been taken care off in the last bill?
After receiving the last emi statement, the Helios officials contacted Pine Labs(company incharge of the billing machine which is used while swiping any a card at the store). The official from the company then called up to explain the actual discount which was already provided while swiping the credit card during purchase and that the bank were charging their actual rate of interest on such transaction.
I wish and believe the sales incharge at the store should have been a little more trained in this regards to help resolve such queries upfront or during the time of purchase. This could probably be the only request to the Helios team.
But I appreciate their efforts in trying to sort things out and explaining things in the right context. Must mention is that they were all very polite throughout the entire complaint and resolution process.
-Runa Ganguly
- Thank You! We appreciate your effort.