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Chandigarh: Bank fined ₹50k for ‘ruining’ Europe trip
Complainant Harsh Garg, 38, of Sector 21, Chandigarh, filed a case against RBL Bank Limited, having its corporate office in Mumbai, and against regional branch of RBL Bank Limited in Chandigarh
The district consumer disputes redressal commission has imposed a penalty of ₹50,000 on RBL Bank Limited for deficient in services as it “ruined” Europe trip of one of its customer.
Complainant Harsh Garg, 38, of Sector 21, Chandigarh, filed a case against RBL Bank Limited, having its corporate office in Mumbai, and against regional branch of RBL Bank Limited in Chandigarh.
The complainant said he went to Europe in June 2019. With some international currency, a forex card issued by the HDFC Bank, he was also carrying a credit card issued by the RDL Bank Limited, having credit limit of ₹3.86 lakhs, to meet the expenses there.
He said when he tried to use the credit card issued by the RBL Bank, the transaction was declined. He made several calls to the customer care officer requesting the bank to unblock the credit card, but the card was not activated.
Stating that his international trip turned into a nightmare, Garg said due to non-activation of the credit card by the bank and their callous response, he had to suffer a lot and had to restrict his purchases and day-to-day expenses in Europe to enjoy the vacation.
Alleging the act and conduct of the bank as deficiency in service and unfair trade practice, he filed a complaint.
In reply, the RBL Bank Limited said the complainant never visited or raised his concern to designated officials for inability of credit card usage whereas the complainant wrote email only which was replied by call centre executive not by deciding authority that is top management of the bank.
The bank submitted that the complainant never followed instructions conveyed in emails written to him.
The district consumer disputes redressal commission observed: “It is obvious that the complainant had do suffer a lot of inconvenience and difficulty in making financial transactions in a foreign land due to the failure of the bank in activating the credit card of the complainant despite his making numerous requests, which cannot be justified by any plea of bank.”
Stating that there is clear cut deficiency in service and unfair trade practice on the part of the opposite parties in not activating the credit card of the complainant for overseas transaction, which certainly has caused harassment, mental agony and loss to the complainant.
The commission directed the parties to pay a lump-sum amount of ₹50,000 to the complainant towards compensation for the harassment and agony suffered by him due to deficient act and unfair trade practice adopted by the opposition parties and it also includes litigation expenses.
