Review || Why I regret taking a StanC card?

My mother and I are regular customers of Lifestyle and Auchan ("pronounced as O-shaan"). Hence, we opted for an Inner Circle Membership. One day, we received a mailer wherein Standard Chartered bank was offering a credit card having a tie-up with Inner Circle (of Landmark Group) wherein, the customer was offered 3 times the points we usually get besides other discounts. Out of temptation, I applied for this card and this is a decision that I have been regretting ever since I received this card.

The Initial Impression:

Within minutes of clicking the link, "Click here to apply", I got a call from their customer service desk, despite the fact that it was a Sunday. Within a couple of hours, the verification calls were done and within 2 days, the documents had been collected. I was impressed by their swiftness, only to realize that this swiftness is a salient feature of the Sales department, unlike that of the Customer Services.

The Bads:

1. Since the initial click, I had maintained that I wanted to apply for two cards - One for myself and second, an add-on card, for my mother. I was delivered my card but the add-on card didn't come! Considering it to be a 'usual human error', I dropped a note to their email address informing them about the non-receipt of the card. Result? No response! Only after 3 emails, including one accusing them of false promises & scaring them in the name of Consumer Forum, did the card get delivered at my home.

Ironically, I received a reply on one of those emails 3 months after the delivery of the card, quoting the courier number and mentioning that the card had been received. Good Morning guys!

2. Though their online banking interface is fancy, if you don't have a savings account with them, then you'll be stuck like me. I had a card and wanted to make a payment using 'other bank account' but I couldn't find the link. After numerous searches and reloads did I realize that the "Pay Credit Card bill using other bank account" link exists on the Home Page only. So either you grab the opportunity of paying the bill without looking at the online statement or keep looking. If I have to describe the experience in one word, "uncomfortable" is the word that I would use.

3. Add-on card: Normally, if we have a primary card, say Card A and an add-on card, say Card B then we receive one bill containing transactions for both. StanC prefers to split the bills. It is acceptable, albeit not my style, because there would be lot of customers who would like it this way. However, I'm quite sure that customers won't prefer to pay for each of these cards separately. I mean, I have to make separate payment transactions for Cards A & B. Seriously?!

Since I was unaware of this, I made a total payment (Card A due + Card B due) against Card A (the primary card). And then I received the "statement" flashing a minimum amount due against the add-on card. My reaction? #Facepalm

4. Points redemption - Ah! The reason why I took this card. So when I took this card, I was told that I'd be granted Inner Circle membership if I didn't have one. In case I was an existing Inner Circle member, my membership would be linked to my card. Thus, I believed that all my points are going in my pocket. And then I was proved wrong. My credit card has been mapped against someone else's Inner Circle Membership number and both, StanC & Landmark Group are playing the Cong-BJP like blame game, i.e. StanC blames Landmark Group for the error and vice-versa. End result? I cannot redeem my points at a Landmark outlet.

But hang on, did I have points? Both Inner Circle and StanC follow a rolling policy, i.e. they lapse your points after a year. Let me explain this further. If I make a transaction on 15 Jan 2012 and get 100 points for the same, say, then on 16 Jan 2013, these 100 points will get lapsed and would automatically get deducted from my points balance.

My reaction? Thank God others don't follow this policy!

Since reporting about the wrong mapping of Inner Circle ID with credit card required numbers and other details to be quoted, I dropped both, StanC credit cards & Landmark Group an email. The auto-response of StanC is that the email will be responded to within 7 business days but I know that I won't get a response within that much time. Honestly, I don't even expect a response now. I'm so tired of all this that I want to pay my latest bills and get rid of this credit card. Also, I've stopped shopping at Lifestyle and want to get rid of their "Gold" membership too.

Whenever multinational companies invest in India, they cash in on the brand they have/build but they forget a critical factor - Customer Service. I, personally, consider the customer service of StanC and Inner Circle as BAD, primarily because I have seen the opposite end - Citi/HDFC and the Future Group. I'm sure people would've had their share of bad experiences with them too but till now, luckily, I haven't got an opportunity to rant about them.

The Goods:

Yes, everything has a good part and so do these guys. The online interface, in general, is nice (I hate to say this but the look & feel is better than Citi's interface).

Since this was my first co-branded retail card, I quite liked the entire concept of tying up with a retail major and offering membership & discounts, etc.

Lastly, I applaud their Sales team for being extremely quick & efficient.

PS - Separate blog post for Citi & HDFC to come up soon.