Dutch Bangla Bank Ltd (DBBL) has already made a sensation among the customers specially the young customers by providing ATM card easily and their rapid expansion of their ATM network. People are easily attracted as they don’t have to carry anymore. They can withdraw the funds in divisional cities and in anywhere in Dhaka. In Dhaka it has more than 100 ATM booths while the total ATMs in country of other bank’s will not equal to 100.
I am one of the beginning customer of Dutch Bangla Bank’s Rajshahi Branch. The manager and the second officer of this branch are great. They are very cordial and helpful. But the remaining staffs are crap. They don’t know even how to talk formally with customers.
Later, visiting some branches of DBBL in Dhaka, I was astonished seeing that this condition is severe. No branches have any Customer Service desk. They are not professional at all. I may name Karwan Bazar and the Elephant Road branch. But also in Elephant Road branch the manager and second officer are very helpful and professional.
Few example:
They could not provide me the Internet Banking password in even 15 days where I got the same from Eastern Bank within 30 minutes.
They charge 575 tk.(500+15% vat) for a bank certificate for BO account. But for that you need to apply to them in a plain paper. They don’t have prescribed form to apply. They should have this as they are charging 500 (really a high fee) for it. Same for checks. If you need a check, you need to apply in a white paper. No prescribed application form for applying for check.
Even I applied for SMS and Alert banking. They told me it will be activated within 3 days. But after two weeks I contacted the Internet Banking desk as I did not get any confirmation. Then they told me, Alert banking is not available on BanglaLink numbers. Strange! Their branch did not tell me when I filled the form and submitted. Even they did not contact me to inform me about it.
Last time, I visited the DBBL, Elephant Road branch, I have seen a bank’s guy is in almost quarreling with a customer. The customer pointed some of these issues. “You are charging for it, but you don’t give good service for it” something like this. The bank’s guy replies “We don’t charge, it is charged by bank and bank management? We only do job here.” I was astonished hearing this. That mean he does not represent his bank. Such kinds of employee should be removed immediately. He surely representing the bank and the bank’s management. But he denied it with boast.
So I came to a conclusion, Dutch Bangla Bank Ltd. is very good as long as you don’t need to go its branches for any service. You can enjoy hassle free service from ATM booths. So a normal savings account is fine. But again, big depositors will get awesome service even with tea/coffee. So, try to avoid Dutch Bangla Bank. You can open accounts in some other banks and still use their ATMs as now many banks has singed contracts to share the ATMs.
Our Bangladesh Bank, is also a rubbish supervisory body. So, these commercial bank will not be cured, until BB becomes smart.
Bookmark:
August 8, 2008
I am leaving you a message
I am leaving you a message on behalf of DBBL. We appreciate your business with us and do sincerely apologize for the problems that you are facing.
Employee Problem
We have hired many new employees, and they may not be up to par that quickly as it takes them time to get adjusted to their new positions. And many are coming right out of their college/university. We have hired based on the strictest criteria in intelligence, which may not correlate very well with customer service. But it will take them some time to adjust.
Password Delay
Regarding the time it took you to receive your password, I am sorry that it took so long. But seeing that you are a technical person, the details are that DBBL’s online system is a full scale automated system. EBL not only uses a different type of system, but uses one that has far less components, extensions and plugins and hence it is faster for them to get your password. DBBL’s system is the only system that has a full replica that backs up your account details by the millisecond. In addition to this, the entire system is also fully encrypted in transmission. And you have to understand for a password request, we have to verify that it passes all the component and extension tests. It may seem too much of a hassle for you now, but consider this. If DBBL data center crumbles to the floor, the replica takes over that moment. All your money and account details are safe. EBL would have to hunt you down and figure out what happened since their last backup. But then its their word against yours.
Paper Forms
And thanks to your advice we will look into creating more forms for these services. The majority of our banking is done online that we have systematically and incorrectly ignored paper procedures. We will correct this.
SMS Banking
I am sorry that you had to discover this problem with SMS banking. The reality is that we sign agreements with mobile operators. But sometimes they don’t follow through. Hence from our side, we have followed through the entire agreement on our part, but they suddenly stop or refuse to move. I know for certain that SMS banking with Grameenphone works. It is hard enough to keep track of which features work and do not work and are intentionally not working. I am sorry that you had to find out in the process, but even from our side we had no way of knowing.
Charges
As for charges, DBBL charges the lowest fees if not, nothing. I can assure you that DBBL has the lowest charges because I have personally verified this (that is the reason I and colleagues working at other banks still keep our DBBL account). Unlike any other banks we do not have any hidden charges. We have had customers who come to us complaining how other banks say one thing, but through some hidden charge that no one is aware of. Also DBBL provides free unlimited ATM transactions. We charge a transaction charge of Tk 10 for other banks (to cover transfer costs, and not to make profit). But on their side they often add a larger charge.
You will notice that DBBL is never there to take something from you. We strive to make you richer not poorer. We have till now donated over Taka 100 crore in CSR activities. This benevolent approach to society and customers is what makes DBBL unique.
Checks
We have seen that due to our large scale automation and ATMs the need for cheques have greatly diminished. The cheques are not printed here (as most banks do), but are imported from Singapore (because of the security paper). We have seen that our clients use the ATMs and Point of Sales (POS) more than cheques. The number of cheque users is very small and that is why you may have some problems acquiring one. This is one of the casualties for this automation. But I will inform other staff regarding this cheque book problem.
Conclusion
We are glad that you found our ATMs to be of hassle free service. That is our intention. We also have the intention that all your business will be seamlessly done anytime anywhere through our vast network and will not be limited to one branch. But due to many other customers like you who want to take advantage of our banking technology, we are constantly trying to improve our service levels at all branches. We ask for your patience and feedback for improving our service.
August 11, 2008
Hello, I am really happy
Hello, I am really happy that someone is trying to convince the customer. Its really looks promising and professional to me. Thanks for your efforts. But I even could not know your name and designation, which could really add more value to the message.
I am glad to know that your system is extensive. Actually being a Business (Finance & Banking) graduate I also try to keep some ongoing info in banking sector (specially in IT) in BD but very often it is not possible being in Rajshahi. Anyway, I knew it earlier about your fault-tolerant system. Knowing these things, my expectation increased, logically. Its nice & pro that you have fail over data center and network system, extensive facilities in the system. But if it delays things, then I think (better say believe) everyone will raise question about it! We introduce IT and also improve it for faster/better performance but not to slow. If any improved system slows down any work, at least significantly, I think no way it is accepted. It is accepted as long as it is in tolerable state. But 15 days ( in fact it did not come by) waiting for Internet Account password is not normal at least to me, I am sorry. Later, I requested to collect it from Rajshahi branch, which also was not possible. Being internet banking and/or online banking shouldn’t I deserve to get *almost* any kind of service from any branch? So far I could know, your software (FlexCube) has such facilities. Just your intention and commitment can provide it (and also if f***ing BB does not restrict). I think it takes time to implement new concepts, techs. But we are in dark about what are coming at when!
About Paper Forms:
I think no one in country will be happiest if there is no time consuming paper work in any sector. I even don’t expect that you introduce for prescribed forms. Rather, I request try to eliminate it as much as possible. I just expect prescribed form, where the necessity as definite, common for a good numbers of customers.
About Charges:
If you look for charges, then I believe there are many other banks with low charges. Thats not a headache. I need to compare the charge against the service. I have no problem to provide charges if it is convenient, sensible and pre-determined whether it is higher/lower/equivalent with other banks. The DBBL charges for ATMs and Internet Banking is surely lowest. Even not lowest, somehow, it is no way inconvenient. So, I have not any problem with it. But again during opening account, there was no account maintenance charge or ledger fee, whatever you say, which was introduced later! Many people (including me) were unhappy on it but later they became cool (also including me) as we found it not much high, and highly affordable & sensible.
But I strongly criticize for taking 575 (inc. 15% vat) for a simple bank certificate for BO account! Bank should know it is doing business with depositors money. So providing a certificate should be its duty. Yes, they can obviously charge for any certificate after first one.
Checks:
I hate it too much. But being a current account holder for my business, I needed it. Also I got a 50pages check. But I don’t need so many. 10 or 20 pages are be enough for me. But most probably its minimum for CA.
SMS Banking & Others:
I don’t know why you said, you can’t monitor it. Okies, if you can’t monitor it yourself, then you should keep some strong complain dept, where we customers can inform you instantly and get some feedback. So far I remember about one year before I emailed to IB support but my inbox was never proud with a reply.
Also, sometime while try to login to IB, I found the error message:
Unable to login now. Please try again later.
I still don’t know why it happens, and what to do that time. Most probably, my mail was about this error.
Anyway, I appreciate your work to respond here. I believe, there is no other as best solution as discussion to solve a problem. I wish you all the best luck.
September 2, 2008
I open a account in Motijheel Branch of DBBL.But still its 15 days passes I don’t get any ATM card or Check.Ive deposited on that account.So I cant access my money.I complained about that but they don’t take any action.Shame on them.Is the professional attitude???
December 29, 2008
Yes, you are rigth that the workers like these must be removed immediately without any doubt. But you know I have never had the problems with the banks, I see that I am a lucky person.