Incompetent systems and personnels

My name is Prajakta Prabhakar Joshi. I'd initiated a transaction on 7th October on the YONO SBI app from my mobile. The transaction did not go through but the amount was erroneously deducted from my account. I even received a message stating the transaction has timed out and failed. The amount did not auto-credit in 24 hours.

I contacted the customer service, they were not helpful and were in a hurry to finish up the call, with one executive downright refusing to connect me to the supervisor. On the second day after lodging the complaint, I saw that the status of the complaint has been changed to "null". I contacted the customer service regarding this. They said that the taxation ID was incorrect and hence, the complaint can't be resolved. My concern is while registering the complaint, they asked for other details - transaction date and amount. On the fateful day, there is only one transaction made by me. I had worked in customer service years ago. If one of the details is incorrect, the technical team can pull up transaction details even with the provided date and amount information and clearly see that there is a failed transaction. Disregarding my case tells me that they are not interested in solving the problem.

Another very important concern I have is - Why is there a need to raise complaints for failed transactions in SBI? Other banks don't do this. If the transaction did not go through and the beneficiary did not receive the money, where does it go? Does it remain suspended in their systems? If I wasn't so frustrated, I would've laughed at the sheer stupidity of it. Shouldn't the system detect any incomplete transactions and return it back WITHOUT the account holder having to chase the bank for it? Raising a dispute for unauthorized transaction or erroneous EMI deduction or even loan not getting passed can be considered valid reasons. But needing to raise a complaint for getting back the failed transaction money is downright ridiculous and even outrageous if you think about it.

I'm really curious as to what happens to the money if the said person does not raise a complaint. Does it stay stuck for years on?

How am I affected?

Frankly speaking, I'm more than afraid of online transactions, mobile banking, and net banking now. If the government wants people to go cashless, make it a point to improve the bank systems and train the executives better in resolving issues.


How can this be resolved?

I want the erroneously deducted money to be returned within 3 business days instead of 10!

Here's the funny part. When I called the customer service, they TOLD me that this complaint is labeled as null because your problem can't be solved without proper TXN ID despite me telling them that there is date and amount info, which is pretty specific. If they are insinuating in any way that the system and personnels are incompetent enough to not pull up my information with my account number and transaction date & amount alone, then I'm very much disappointed in SBI and that's why have decided to take this up further.

Thanks.