Bad business ethics - Kotak Mahindra Bank

I wanted to take a moment to write about a really bad business ethic followed by Kotak Mahindra Bank (from now called KMB).

I have a home loan via KMB. Recently I did a spot check and found that I was paying around 13% interest on my loan. I read about the SBI Happy Loan scheme which is giving Home Loans at 9.75% and decided to switch.

As a part of submitting documentation about my property to SBI, I had to collect some documents (viz, Foreclosure Letter, Loan statement and property NOC) from KMB. I called up a representative called Etesh Jandial who handles my case at Kotak and requested him for these documents. Pop came a reply that it will take 7 working days for him to procure the same. On arguing with him about why such a long time, he said, the documents come from Mumbai head office and take time. I stopped arguing and waited for exactly 7 working days and gave him a call again.

This time he said that the documents are available and I should collect it from the Sorabh Hall branch. I went in there and met him. He told me to wait and went inside his cabin. I could see him in his cabin which was luckily visible from the reception where I was sitting. He was typing away something on the computer and then collected some printouts, stamped them and then came out and handed over those documents to me.

Notice that this entire process took 1/2 an hour and was done on the fly when I came physically to the office. So the 7 working day crap which I was given on the phone was just an excuse to delay the process. This entire thing was just an attempt to fool me which I am pretty pissed about.

Its so disappointing to know that professionals of such a large and reputed bank follow shallow and disgusting business practices. I'd really advise anybody to not deal with Pune office of Kotak's Home Loan department.