By: Rishipal
Here goes another tale of how a common man suffers in the hands of these real estate giants.
I signed up a booking form and paid 5,76,000/- towards one of the upcoming properties Nitesh Estates, British Columbia in Bangalore. I was allocated a flat on the 15th floor (top most floor) in one of the blocks. 3-4 months down the line, when it was time to get into a tripartite agreement with the bank, the developer informs me that they didn’t get approvals for 15 floors and hence they cannot allocate me the promised apartment.
I then wished to withdraw my application. Here starts the agony. They didn’t refund the money to me. They showed me this clause in the booking form that states that if a consumer withdraws the application, he will be refunded the money either after 6 months or after sale of the flat to any other consumer. Clearly, we are talking about a flat that doesn’t exist (since they did not get approvals for the same). Yet, they made me wait for 6 months.
Month after month, since February 2015, they respond back to me saying “we are in touch with the concerned department and we are looking at your case on a priority basis”. I waited (im)patiently for 6 months to elapse. Even after that, they are showing no signs of refunding my money.
The only person I can talk to is a junior employee in the CRM department. I never get to talk to anyone in the Finance Department , coz I am told that the protocol is that the CRM dept is the only interface available to a consumer. After 6 months, when I talk to the supposedly senior person in the CRM (Ramakrishnan), he speaks to me with an attitude like he is doing me a favour.
This is just harassment with absolutely no regard for the customer.
Now this is not just about the 5,76,000/-. This is about teaching these real estate giants a lesson to not play with the consumer and their hard earned money. They cannot take us all granted.
Can you pls. guide me through this?