Difference Between Aadhaar Seeding Linking and Updation

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https://karve.wordpress.com/2017/08/23/aadhaar-and-bank-accounts-seeding-linking-updation-which-one-should-you-do/amp/

RETIRED VETERAN SOLDIERS SAILORS AIRMEN - FORGOTTEN AND NEGLECTED - THE MYTH OF EX SERVICEMEN WELFARE

THE MYTH OF EX SERVICEMEN WELFARE

VETERANS ARE A  FORGOTTEN AND NEGLECTED LOT

Musings

By

VIKRAM KARVE

When you are in active service, in the army, navy or air force, you are expected to carry out all orders promptly and execute all actions with speed and despatch and do your work in an efficient and proficient manner with initiative and ingenuity.

However the same reciprocity is not shown to you by those meant to serve you, especially after you retire.

One of the biggest myths being propagated is that ex-servicemen are well “looked after”.

It has been my personal experience that this is not so.

The fact is that once you retire you are forgotten by the service.

No one cares about you and you are on your own.

Let me give you an example.

A lady rang me up a few minutes ago. She is a civilian employee who works in the Navy Office in Mumbai. She had worked with me around 10 years ago in Mumbai when I was in the Navy.

She told me that there was a Supreme Court Judgement recently and, maybe, I was entitled to a hike in pension (she had heard about this on the office grapevine when her friends from the Naval Pay Office were discussing this). She told me that they were saying that all officers who were in service in 1986 were entitled to this increase in pension.

She said that everyone was applying to Naval Pay Office and that I should also apply.

I was totally clueless.

I had received no communication from the Naval Pay Office regarding this and neither had my Bank (the Pension Disbursing Authority) told me anything in this matter. I have not received any communication from an other ex servicemen welfare agency either.

I retired just a few years ago and all my current contact details are available with the Naval Pay Office and all Ex Servicemen Welfare Agencies.

I have given more than 33 years of my life for the Navy.

Don’t you think that I deserve the courtesy of a letter, or at least a simple email or a telephone call.

Why do the “authorities” want to make me run from pillar to post, obtaining and filling multiple forms, getting signatures, submitting them and then endlessly wait for my due?

These days the Government is encouraging Direct Cash Transfers.

Yes, DIRECT CASH TRANSFER is the new mantra of the Government and I do not know why the Navy is not implementing this.

All my service records and bank details are available with the Naval Pay Office and concerned account offices.

Why can’t the money due to me be directly transferred into my bank account?

I just don’t understand why the navy is sticking to archaic paperwork procedures when the whole world has moved on to Information Technology and Electronic Cash Transactions?

Why can’t the navy make efficient and proper use of Information Technology to make life easier for ex-servicemen?

I was an officer in the navy.

I am well educated and I live in a big city with reasonable resources.

If I am feeling clueless and hapless, just try to imagine the state of  a veteran soldier, sailor or airman living in a remote village.

It is terrible that hapless veteran ex-servicemen are being made to run from pillar to post to get their dues.

Most ex-servicemen are senior citizens, many in advanced old age suffering from various ailments, and they have given the best years of their lives to the nation performing their tough duties with loyalty, sincerity and alacrity.

Gratitude demands that veteran ex-servicemen be treated in a better manner.

Whether it is Pension Problems, ECHS Medical Treatment, CSD Canteen Facilities or other Ex-Servicemen Benefits, I think there is a vast scope for improvement in delivery.

I trust the powers-that-be will reflect on this and we will see some positive action.

Meanwhile, if someone from Naval Pay Office is reading this, I hope that I will get my enhanced pension dues in my Bank Account by DIRECT CASH TRANSFER

Jai Hind

PS:

It has become a fashion to blame “civilian babus” for all ills of ex-servicemen.

I would like to point out that the lady who took the trouble of finding out my phone number and calling me up to inform me about this pension issue is a “civilian babu” and no one in uniform has yet shown the courtesy to communicate with me or inform me by letter, email or phone so far!

They say that “charity begins at home”.

First, the uniformed services must look after their own ex-servicemen and demonstrate genuine care for the veterans. Only then it is justified to have expectations from civilian babus.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL and CUSTOMER CARE

Random Experiences

By

VIKRAM KARVE

An Effective Grievance Redressal Mechanism or Efficient Complaint Handling and Customer Service Management System comprises five aspects:

1. It must be easy for you to lodge the complaint. This can be either on phone or SMS or by email or on the website. (In today’s world of the internet, online grievance management mechanism is a must and the days of writing letters, submitting written applications and using snail-mail are a thing of the past)

2. Your grievance must be acknowledged in a prompt manner. This is best done by a prompt call or SMS or an email giving you a reference token number to enable you to monitor the progress of redressal of your grievance / complaint.

3. You must be kept informed and updated regarding the status of your complaint and it must be easy for you to monitor the progress of the grievance redressal process.

4. Your grievance must be resolved to your entire satisfaction in a time bound manner. A sincere and transparent attempt must be made by the customer care department to achieve “customer delight” by a mutually agreeable reconciliation of the complaint and insidious attempts to browbeat, bully, harass or confuse the customer must be avoided.

5. Your feedback and suggestions must be sought. As a part of continual improvement a good customer care department always asks for post grievance redressal feedback and suggestions, acts on the comments of the customer and keeps the customer informed. Rather than just ring up the customer, it is better to obtain feedback by email or in a prescribed format. This enables the customer to give comprehensive feedback and ensures that the feedback is properly recorded for future action.

Let me share some of my experiences of Grievance Management Systems I have encountered.

1. MARS INTERNATIONAL INDIA PVT LTD (Pedigree Dog Food)

The best Customer Service I have encountered so far – they meet all the five requirements above.

2. RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland)

Though personal interaction at the bank branch has scope for improvement, the online customer care is prompt and efficient. Lodging a complaint is quite tedious, but once you manage to do that, things move quite swiftly and efficiently, you are kept informed at each stage and they ask you to confirm satisfactory resolution and solicit feedback.

3. ICICI Bank

It is easy to submit an online complaint and the same is promptly acknowledged. Thereafter you are hounded by a variety of customer care executives and relationship managers on phone and they send you emails too – but unfortunately that is where it all ends.

Most of these customer care executives and relationships managers are quite clueless and only indulge in sweet-talk but no effort is made to resolve your grievance or complaint.

It may sound astounding but some of these customer service executives and relationship managers even have the temerity to talk about investments rather than solve your complaint.

I am sorry to say that in the few occasions that I have raised a grievance I have not received a satisfactory resolution.

Also they have pruned down their online complaint options so now you cannot comprehensively and clearly enter your grievance online on the website.

Since the online or telephonic customer service is quite ineffective, for getting my complaints resolved, I had to personally visit a branch of ICICI Bank.

4. Reliance Communications

Today I received an SMS message on my Reliance Mobile Number: “Your Subscription to Reliance Voice Chat Service has been renewed at Rs. 30 for 30 days”

I was bewildered since I had never subscribed to any such voice chat service nor had I ever voice-chatted.

I rang up reliance customer care who stated that as per their records I am being charged every month for voice chat service for the past three months though he agreed that I had never used the service.

When I remonstrated that I had never subscribed to any such voice chat service he said that it may have happened automatically. He said that he would unsubscribe me immediately but could not refund the previous monthly subscriptions already charged since a “third party” was involved. 

When I insisted on a refund, the reliance Customer Care Executive spoke quite rudely in a “couldn’t care less” type of tone and said that these billing mistakes keep happening and nothing can be done now. He also added that it is only a question of 30 rupees a month so why am I so concerned about it. Then he disconnected.

I find this the most unethical customer service and insensitive customer relations management.

I have raised another complaint long back about erratic internet connectivity and slow speeds on Reliance Netconnect Wireless Internet Service due to fluctuating signal strength and zero signal at times. This issue has remained unresolved for many months now. The only reply I get is that this is a technical issue and they are looking into it.

Well the other cell phone providers are no better. Whereas the Reliance Communications customer service is downright rude, Airtel Customer Service is slightly polite, but then they too never resolve the issue. Maybe the monopoly they enjoy has caused them complacency as far as customer relationship management is concerned.

5. State Bank of India is the ultimate in grievance redressal management – they eliminate grievances at Stage 1 itself. They make sure that you just cannot lodge a complaint so they can have a clean slate – a zero complaint regime. If you want to lodge a complaint online, they tell you to contact your Home Branch and when you go to your Home Branch they tell you to submit the complaint online – and they send you round and round in a spin till your grievance disappears.

STATE BANK OF INDIA

STATE BANK OF INDIA

If you want to observe sheer incompetence and insensitive customer service please go to The State Bank of India (SBI) especially the Tilak Road Branch of SBI in Pune. If you thought Information Technology (IT) improves efficiency, think again, because at SBI things have gone from bad to worse with the introduction of IT and the much hyped Core Banking. In fact, Core Banking has given an excuse to employees at the branch to say that now nothing is in their hands and to abdicate themselves of all responsibility and pass on the blame to the SBI headquarters.

Every time I raise a grievance at my home branch I am told to enter an online complaint on the State Bank of India website on the internet. I duly forward the complaint online and promptly receive an acknowledgement. After that a number of emails follow but nothing happens. Then, after a few days I am told to contact the home branch for redressal of my grievance. When I go to my home branch I am again told that they can do nothing about it as everything is controlled by SBI Headquarters and again I am told to raise an online complaint on the internet. I must say this is a most insensitive customer service style – to put the aggrieved customer into a spin, into circles, until he gets exasperated and gives up. I am sorry to say but the State Bank of India treats its customers like dirt.

Let me give you a recent example.

An year ago I got a letter asking me to submit some documents like PAN Card, Address Proof, Photo etc towards Know Your Customer (KYC) norms. Though I had submitted these documents before, I once again promptly submitted all these documents at the Tilak Road Branch of State Bank of India and it was confirmed to me that my KYC details had been updated against my customer-id in the Core Banking System for all my accounts. I again submitted all KYC documents when I opened a pension account in the same customer-id. I personally checked on the monitor of the SBI employee and saw for myself that all my KYC details including photo, PAN and address were updated and linked to all my accounts.

Despite this I keep receiving letters from State Bank Of India Tilak Road Branch Pune asking to personally come to the branch and submit the KYC documents. I visit the branch and tell the concerned employee that I have repeatedly submitted all relevant details (PAN Card, Address Proof, Photos etc) for KYC norms to State Bank of India Tilak Road Branch Pune and my KYC details are held in the records of State Bank of India.  The State Bank of India counter staff personally checks on his monitor and confirms to me that my KYC norms are updated in State Bank of India Records and there is no need to submit the documents again. However I receive another letter (this time in Marathi language) asking me to come to the branch and submit KYC Norms documents. As expected, the Staff at Tilak Road Pune Branch express their helplessness and blame it on SBI Headquarters and Core Banking and ask me to raise a complaint on the internet which I promptly do.

And guess what?

I get an email from State Bank of India Local Head Office Mumbai asking me to contact the home branch State Bank of India Tilak Road Pune. Life has moved a full circle. Can someone tell me what to do.

I think it is high time State Bank of India revamps its Core Banking System, improves its Grievance Redressal Mechanism and focuses on training its employees to be more efficient, competent and give better Customer Service.