Scent of a Scandal: When Employees GO ROGUE @ Godrej Capital

Knowledge is power and if you don’t have it, you will suffer from powerlessness. And that is exactly what I felt when they said those final words ‘Sorry Mam, but we cannot help you’!

Let me start my story from day 1.

I was sitting in the builder’s sales office, excited that I was going to purchase my first apartment. Your first house is always a big deal. Time for celebration.

Being a middle-class single mother, of course, I couldn’t pay the whole amount in one shot so I opted for a home loan. I had five options — SBI, ICICI, HDFC, Bajaj, and Godrej Capital.

Thanks to my luck, I chose the worst option thinking it was best — Godrej Capital!

WHY? Build your EMI scheme! Most attractive interest Rates! Most Amount Sanctioned! Fast Response!

Except, behind that was a game that was being played behind the curtain, invisible to a customer. Let me introduce you to the two main manipulative characters of the game

Mr. Setu, the senior and the shrewd

Mr. Rushikesh, the Sales guy desperate for incentives

In the Game of Manipulation: Math, Science, and Finance

To keep this simple, let me not quote the actual figures but use the base of 100.

As per RBI guidelines, a bank cannot issue a loan beyond 80% agreement value. However, some banks offer up to 90% loans. How do they do that? They add something called a Flexi Loan scheme under which, they add the 10% as an additional loan called FL (Flexi Loan) to the base HL (Home Loan), and the total counts to 90%.

Let’s say my agreement amount was 100 and I was committed to 90 under this scheme. Unaware of the backend processes (remember that lack of knowledge I mentioned), I was happy to receive a sanction of 90, and the disbursement started.

Behind the curtain was a conversation going on that I was not aware of.

Disclaimer: The conversation is not real but only a figment of my imagination. I turned the senior into a villain but who did what is what I do not know. But the conversations are shaped so you understand the act of manipulation they did at the backend.

Rushikesh: The customer is not agreeing to two loans

Setu: So, give her everything in one

Rushikesh: But that we cannot do

Setu: Yes, we can, just increase the total agreement amount in the cost sheet

Rushikesh: But that will get rejected and later if discovered, she won’t get the remaining amount. Can you not talk to her and explain how this works?

Setu: Do you want sales? Incentives? Then just do as I say. Add 5 as parking charges, 2.5 as floor rise, and adjust the remaining so the total amount becomes 112.5, and then 80% of it becomes 90 and guess what, the customer gets the full sanction of 90 and we get the customer.

Hrushikesh: Ok, let me ask her if she is ok with this plan

Setu: Oh come on, you know these new home owners, they have no knowledge of finance. Don’t even bother.

Hrushikesh: But what will happen when the amount reaches its disbursement limits? Won’t she face a problem?

Setu: Have you heard of something called ‘Calculative Risk’?

Hrushikesh: Yes, what about it?

Setu: By the time, the bank realizes the discrepancy, we will already be out of the system.

Hrushikesh: And what if they discover sooner?

Setu: What am I here for? Just make sure that all sanctions go through me. Relax. And Congratulations, we will get this deal.

Hrushikesh: She is also concerned about the interest rates which she is finding high.

Setu: Reduce by 1%, you will get her.

Hrushikesh: But that won’t be applicable after next week.

Setu: Yes, that is why you get this all done today. Next month, when we increase the rate, just give her the story that RBI has raised the rates so we don’t have an option but to follow. And make sure you explain to her that this could be a possibility in the future.

Hrushikesh: What if she doesn’t agree?

Setu: Why do I have to explain everything to you? Just tell her that rates will take a long to revise but you cannot really tell. Its RBI, we don’t know when they take decisions.

Hrushikesh: She is still very keen on her bank as he difference is not much. They offered 7.9 and we could get 7.5. She says that he difference is very small and she trusts her bank more.

Setu: You need to take a lesson on storytelling. Tell her that the difference is small today but when we compare it to 21 years of compounded repayment, it will be huge. Give her that picture and she will agree.

Hrushikesh: But the rate will increase for us next month.

Setu: She doesn’t know that. Just take her in confidence and make her feel that we are so helpful.

I called it the game of math, science, and finance because first, they manipulated the numbers to create a perfect match just for the sanction. Second, they used the principles of dark psychology and manipulated me into thinking that I was only getting the benefit and they were only helping me.

When ends justify means, ethics are killed. And this is what this tiny group of Godrej Capital employees. What I received was an authentic-looking sanction but the cost sheet that was uploaded to get the sanction was not the one I had shared.

What happened in the end?

In Sept 2023, my EMI was suddenly raised and the demand raised by the builder was also rejected. At the same time, I am also released from my job and I am back to business. Too many complications were arising at the same time. I got an email from the bank that there is a difference of 1.3 that they can’t pay. To save on the delay penalty, I said ok to the remaining amount while the difference would be taken care of later. Builder agreed to this plan.

The disbursement was cleared. I knew that in the next demand, the difference would spark again but I was ready to pay the amount. Next demand was raised and it was rejected. At that point, I asked them to release the remaining amount while I pay the difference as was planned. However, to my surprise, the approval never came and then, I got busy with other complications of my life. The builder said that he will raise the final demand with all amount put together and I should pay the difference before that. After talking to the bank and the builder, I could sense that the payment will be cleared in the next 7–15 days and I can get the possession so I gave notice to my current rented flat owner, who by the way is ruthless and would not spare a single day if I delayed. I knew that so kept an extra buffer of a week. The builder was to take 12 days after disbursement for the handover.

I made the difference payment as was asked and the demand was raised. REJECTED! After 3 days of wait.

And I wondered why. This was followed by a long trail of emails, multiple calls and many conversations. And what happened in those conversations? Stories were told:

Story 1: Mam, the difference is more than 1.3, we also need you to pay for MNGL, Maintenance, and Tax as they are not covered

I paid…expecting that now I will get the remaining amount.

REJECTED! After 3 days of wait

Story 2: Mam, we have not received all the documents so please send us the account statement

I shared…with higher expectations of getting it soon.

REJECTED AGAIN! After 4 days of wait

Story 3: Mam, the amount in the cost sheet is not match, please send the revised cost sheet.

While there was no change in the cost sheet, I shared it again with them to sort it out. And got a call from the bank that they have received all the necessary documents and the amount will be cleared in a day or two.

REJECTED AGAIN! After 4 days of wait.

Story 4: Mam, we need to confirm the cost sheet with the builder so we will talk to the builder. And then you will get clearance.

REJECTED AGAIN! After 5 days of wait.

I visited the bank and had a heated argument with a girl who had no idea about this worked and gave me another story.

Story 5: Mam, the parking charges are not paid by us so that difference is causing trouble. We are sending a guy from our side to visit the builder’s site and then it will get cleared.

I offered to pay the parking charges but she did not agree.

REJECTED AGAIN! After 2 days of wait.

My frustration was at its peak and I visited the bank again.

THE FINAL STORY! And it was a SHOCKER as a senior guy investigated my case and told me the truth. The game of math, science, and finance.

Total Days Wasted: 21 and I sat on the deadline. The senior guy said, ‘Mam, we cannot help you’.

He agreed that I was cheated and they could try giving me another loan but since I lost my job, their policy would not allow it. And even if that was not the case, the payment would not happen before the next week.

What could I do? Ask my mom for help and make the payment so I would not suffer more.

My suffering started with one manipulation but I am assuming that similar claims would have been made to other customers. That was the scent of the scandal in the making!

My way of venting out frustration is it different. I write. So, let me write a little more and talk about the way Godrej Capital Employees treat their customers. Here, I will talk about a girl, Nilam, who after hearing my complaint, gave me the parking story and had a fruitless discussion of more than an hour that only ended in, ‘Mam, you will have to wait till evening and I will give you a call to give you the status’.

Despite her promises, when I got no call, no intimation, I called her and blasted (as you can sense that I was already frustrated) and what she did was — DISCONNECTED!

DISCONNECTED after REJECTED + Pathetic service is the recipe for customer experience.

But that wasn’t it. The next day, she called me to give me a workaround. Mam, we can give you one more loan. And the history repeated itself.

I BLASTED. She DISCONNECTED. And that was the last visit I took to the bank only to discover that the story was not so simple. It smelled of a scandal. I was cheated from the day 1 of my engagement with the bank.

‘ Mam, we are really sorry for this happened but we were not even there when Setu got your loan sanctioned.’ was the response.

They even showed me the fake cost sheet that was submitted and asked if that was given by me. I had never seen it.

The story ended with me having a nasty fight with my owner who was willing to throw me out of the house, payment of the amount with penalties added, and a bucket full of tension that gave me a serious headache.

Whose fault was it? Those manipulators who wanted to earn more incentives. Or Mine, a layperson who doesn’t understand how finance works.

I take a lot of courses. Perhaps my next should be Insurance in India.

I wanted to write this story, not just to vent out my frustration but also so others know what could happen to them and avoid getting into traps. So, here I summarize the lessons I learned the hard way:

1. Indian banks cannot disburse a loan over 80% of the agreement amount unless, you take two loans — HL & FL
2. Whenever banks give you an explanation verbally or half-cooked information and nothing concrete in a written statement, know that there is more to the story. You could be a victim of a fraud.
3. Service on call for your convenience is a myth especially when it is about money. Visit the bank just when you smell a little trouble (My mom had asked me to visit earlier but I did not)
4. When taking any loan, do not just take details from the bankers but also, rack your brain to understand how things work and if their explanations are following the law to the T.
5. Salespersons in the area of insurance (working in comparatively new banks) are desperate to get your account. So, the moment you raise objections, and they start to give you flexibility, you could be in trouble (The HDFC & ICICI people were not so generous. I wish at that time, I knew that generosity could be a hefty cost).

#writerpoojadubey #finance #insurancefraud #learninganddevelopment #homeloans