A Bitter taste in Dhabba Express

Guru & myself went for a dinner at the Dhabba express in Chenotaph road. Food there tasted good as usual but the experience was bitter and hurted me for a long time. After the dinner I placed my debit card for the payment and by a mistake the bearer entered a wrong value while swiping the card. He entered Rs. 5250 instead of Rs. 525, and knowing the mistake he has canceled the transaction midway and entered the correct value once again. One of their captains(thats what they call their leads) informed me about this while I signed the bill copy. And he added that the amount will not be debited from account and gave me a mobile number for any assistance if that happens. I was not so worried at that moment, as he clearly said that the transaction was canceled.

The next day when I checked my account summary online I was really annoyed. Both the transactions were successfully processed and a total of Rs. 5775 was debited from my account. So I called them up the next day to the number which they gave me. I told him that both the transactions were processed and Rs. 5775 was debited. He replied that he will look into this and the amount will be credited back to my account in 5 working days. And he also told me there was no need for me to visit them in this regard as this process will definitely be completed in 5 days. As he gave me such an assurance I did not go to their place. I waited for 5 working days but without any use. I had to call them again regarding this after 5 days. The response I got this time was not proper, they just told that the cancellation of the transaction was in progress. The reply this time came in a hesitant manner. So I decided to go there directly to find the proceedings. When I reached their place, there was no one willing to hear my complaint, they were pretty busy with work. I spotted a person who was responsible for the proceedings near the reception. I went up to him and explained him what happened, he just replied that this was a common problem and has happened before while using debit cards. He also told that this will not happen in case of a credit card. He asked me to wait for another 5 days so that the problem will be resolved definitely and the amount will be credited back to my account.

The next time when I called them after two or three days, they were reluctant to reply & did not give me a proper answer. Then I had to call them frequently & visited them two more time. Most of the time when I called them I would not get a good response from them, they'll just keep saying that this under process & you will get back your money. Finally when I visited them for the third time their finance team gave me a copy of their bank statement stating that the problem was from my bank's side and they had nothing to do with it. It took them almost 25 days for them to conclude this. By now I was really very upset & frustrated. Then very same day I launched a complaint in my bank using the phone banking facility. I got back my money in another three to four days. So it took almost a moths time to get back my money. All this happened due to a mistake made by a bearer at the Dhabba Express. Had they told me the actual status early I could have contacted the bank earlier & that would have avoided a lot of frustration. Making such mistakes are common but they should have to take up proper responsibility and act accordingly so that the customer doesn't gets irritated.

So, please be very careful the next time you use your debit card while you pay bills anywhere. Please avoid using debit cards in the cash counters as much as possible. Use credit cards or pay by cash.