Lack Of Financial Common Sense Among Broker/bankers

It is said that common sense is most common. I find the lack of financial common sense quite appalling in MBA(fiancé).
Wanting to start on line trading, I was probing the systems of some private bankers who also claim to double up as DPs and brokers. One of those guys was showing the software. This is how the conversation went:-

H—HIM M - ME

M. You have reports on payments due from you on sale of shares by us. What about dividend. We loose out on dividend if we are not aware of the record date and the broker tries to fleece us.

H. “ We have clients with portfolio worth 60 crores but nobody asked this question.”

M. The dividend would then be in lakhs per month. That is also money after all and that is pure profit whereas the only a small proportion of what you may pay me for sale of shares may be profit .

H. Even if I agree with what you are saying, the other customers don’t ask for it.

M Everybody can’t . The other customers may not have my background- finance, computers and shares.

H. We believe in empathizing with the customer……..

M. Let us test that “ In case I allow you to become my broker, If I have to receive a lakh of rupees from you as payment, I have to receive from one person. However if the same amount of money as dividend, it has to be received from thirty different companies, which do you think is administratively cumbersome. ?”

H. Well I agree with you but………

M. Despite the introduction of ECS, companies still goof up in sending money. For most high net worth individuals, it is not only difficult to monitor whether all companies who have declared dividend have given the same but also difficult to determine whether dividends on all the shares held by you have been recd.

PIN DROP SILENCE

M Your bank gives the facility of viewing multiple bank accounts on a single screen. Why not give the same facility for demat accounts.

H. Our bank offers no such facility.

M. It’s also given on your website. It states that view your accounts in other banks as well.

H. Well, they maybe our sister concern but they are a bank and we are a depository.

M A depository is nothing but a bank of shares. Instead of depositing and withdrawing money, we deposit and withdraw shares.

H But our other high net worth customers…..

M I don’t care if they follow the individual system. We even get all profit and loss and balance sheet figures one one sheet. According to me, it is the draupadi philosophy.

A PIN DROP SILENCE

M You claim to empathize with the customer. You will give me a facility in your bank accounts which may have an x amount but you will not offer the same facility for amounts much more substantial than that in the Dmat account.

NO RESPONSE

The multiple bank accounts have only one variable(single bank) and a horizontal total but the dmat accounts has two variables( different companies and accounts) and has both horizontal and vertical totals. Which one deserves the facility more?

H Sir, I must leave now. I shall get back to you later.

I tried to contact him both by email and mobile but he never got back.

Some people think unfortunately that pleasing a customer is a matter of smiling politely and talking sweetly. All the nice looking girls and infrastructure in the banks is useless if the people concerned to not have common sense. In day-to-day life this causes a lot of unnecessary conflict and bad inter-personal relations. Once you become their customer (you have to choose some bank) heaven help you – they will keep talking politely without giving a specific answer. It becomes cust-se-mar(customer) and you can scream and tell them,” I don’t want “Sir”, I want “ Service”. The former without the latter is not sir but a vice.” You would be lucky to escape all this.
There are other stories as well.

You hit the nail on the head!

This is true with almost all service sectors like banking, insurance, etc.

The fresh MBA graduate who just lands up a new job will just go about promising anything without really understanding your needs and the final consequences.

Once the deal is done or the account opened their liability ceases as it will be the somebody else handling your account.

I guess our culture and our educational system is partly to blame for this.

I am sure this aptly reflects most of our FRUSTRATIONS TOO!!!

I'd love to hear more!

Another recent common sense story refers to Times Bank which was taken over by HDFC Bank. They reduced our principle amount by the amount of TDS and when we pleaded with them, they started arguing with us. Then my father finally put his foot down and said," Look my dear friend, I am a charterd accountant and I know what I am talking about. Under no circumstances can you reduce the princple amount. I do not want to discuss any further.' That was the end of the argument but the matter remains unresolved. One has to put up with so many such stupid arguments and to think that India is a country with a spiritual legacy.

HDFC bank is a good reputed bank but i had to close my a/c . i am sorry Mr. Deepak Parekh, but i too am GUJU. but have to tell the thruth.

hmmm exchanging bills and cheques for cash to generate white income from black money...is it illegal? hmmm let me see......uh.. I dont know, what do you think?

Does this really happen? Is it really offered by brokers?

Alok