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Kotak White Unboxing

Prologue: When the Kotak executive reached out to me for a card upgrade, initially he offered Royal Signature as LTF read more about this here (https://www.technofino.in/community/threads/kotak-royale-signature-unboxing.1754/). I was not interested in Royal Signature, instead I was more inclined towards having Kotak White as LTF. He mentioned that Kotak white comes with an annual and a joining fee and I can't have it as LTF. I mentioned that since I am a Privy league customer, I should be eligible for the Kotak White as LTF. He asked me for some time and got back to me with this image.

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He confirmed that I can get this card as LTF and requested me for the consent to proceed with the online application. Since this is what I wanted, I didn't think twice and gave him a go ahead.

Within two days card was approved and delivered to me in the matter of 5 days.

Here are the unwrapping images.

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Front.jpg
back.jpg
Open.jpg

Look and feel: The card looks premium in white and Kotak insured to follow the same theme over the leaflets and other supporting documents which came with the card.
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Hope these images were treat to your eyes.

Primary reason behind applying this card was the priority pass membership. I was not interested in their milestone benefits and other features of this card is nothing to talk home about.

Twist in the tale:
After receiving Royal Signature and Kotak White in a matter of a week, initially I was ecstatic, however, somewhere in my heart I had a hunch that something was not right and I should check with the customer care about the LTF statuses of these cards.

Surprise Surprise: Got in touch with the customer care executive and got a shocker of my life, according to the customer care executive none of these card were showing as LTF and both annual and joining fees were applicable on both of them 😵. I was taken aback with this revelation and felt cheated by the executive who processed my Kotak White application and another one who instead of cancelling my Urbane card recommended Royal Signature as an upgrade for Urbane.

I was duped by not one but two Kotak employees and there was nothing I could do against both of them. Instead of cribbing, I chose to cancel both the cards, asked customer care to cancel them. Raised a ticket on the Kotak portal and described my ordeal to them with all the evidences I could gather for these cards to prove that these cards were promised to as LTF cards.

Finally, Kotak cancellation team reached out to me and offered me a deal, they mentioned that both of these cards come with annual and joining fee, however I can get Royal Signature converted to LTF. Kotak white on the other hand can't be offered to me as LTF, hence they were compelled to cancel it.

I didn't haggle much as except the priority pass membership there was nothing which Kotak White offered more in comparison with Royal Signature.

Someone has rightly said "once bitten twice shy", just to save myself from the similar experiences in future, I asked Kotak to share the LTF status of Royal Signature card in writing with me over an email. They complied and shared the same over an email.

Finally Kotak White was cancelled, and Royal Signature remained. Though, the happiness of having Kotak White was short lived, however it was an experience in itself.

Edit: August 14th

After a lot of escalations to customer care, nodal officer and principle nodal officer, finally Kotak customer care agreed to make this card LTF for me. Thank you all for your support in this fight.
 
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Also, Axis' customer care sucks big time, I also tried multiple times to covert my Flipkart Axis to LTF but they didn't budge. I have made up my mind to close this card as soon as the yearly fee becomes due.
Yup. I am planning to storm Amex card servers with applications the moment they go live. If I get lucky to get the card, Axis Flipkart will be history for me.
 
I am waiting for the response from the Nodal officer, if he persists on not waiving annual and joining fee, I will splurge the details about the communication which took place between me and the Kotak employee.
It is recommended that you send all the details in the first mail itself. These Nodal Officers delay in sending a response.
 
It is recommended that you send all the details in the first mail itself. These Nodal Officers delay in sending a response.
I have attached the copy of Application form where it is clearly mentioned that the card was offered to me with 0 Annual and Joining fee. I guess this is sufficient enough for the Nodal officer to acknowledge my case and make the card LTF. Whats app conversation with the employee is anyways informal.
 
I have attached the copy of Application form where it is clearly mentioned that the card was offered to me with 0 Annual and Joining fee. I guess this is sufficient enough for the Nodal officer to acknowledge my case and make the card LTF. Whats app conversation with the employee is anyways informal.
That should be sufficient. However, any written record, whether formal or informal can be considered. Otherwise, whatever bank employees say , while visiting a branch, may or may not be true-if informal communation is not considered, as branch visits mostly involve verbal communication (which is informal as well).
 
An update on this thread guys, after numerous followups and false assurances, Kotak bank has finally decided to reject my card activation application for Kotak White as LTF.

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Since this battle is turning uglier day by day, I have made up my mind to fight it till the banking ombudsman. Currently, escalated this issue with PNO (Level 4) and if no resolutions comes from their side, will ultimately raise this issue with Banking ombudsman.

I am aware that Kotak white is anyways a useless card, and does not deserve such persistent efforts. However, I do not want these banks to keep on making false promises to their customers and get away with it.

By sharing this ordeal here on this forum, I would like to encourage other fellow members to not to settle for any false promises easily. Make sure to keep all the proofs handy and be ready to fight it through till the banking ombudsman.
 
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An update on this thread guys, after numerous followups and false assurances, Kotak bank has finally decided to reject my card activation application for Kotak White as LTF.

View attachment 3350
Since this battle is turning uglier day by day, I have made up my mind to fight it will the banking ombudsman. Currently, escalated this issue with PNO (Level 4) and if no resolutions comes from their side, will ultimately raise this issue with Banking ombudsman.

I am aware that Kotak white is anyways a useless card, and does not deserve such persistent efforts. However, I do not want these banks to keep on making false promises to their customers and get away with it.

By sharing this ordeal here on this forum, I would like to encourage other fellow members to not to settle for any false promises easily. Make sure to keep all the proofs handy and be ready to fight it through till the banking ombudsman.
Good luck, and keep us posted with updates
 
An update on this thread guys, after numerous followups and false assurances, Kotak bank has finally decided to reject my card activation application for Kotak White as LTF.

View attachment 3350
Since this battle is turning uglier day by day, I have made up my mind to fight it till the banking ombudsman. Currently, escalated this issue with PNO (Level 4) and if no resolutions comes from their side, will ultimately raise this issue with Banking ombudsman.

I am aware that Kotak white is anyways a useless card, and does not deserve such persistent efforts. However, I do not want these banks to keep on making false promises to their customers and get away with it.

By sharing this ordeal here on this forum, I would like to encourage other fellow members to not to settle for any false promises easily. Make sure to keep all the proofs handy and be ready to fight it through till the banking ombudsman.
Reminded me of my long correspondences with Kotak in 2018/2019 to get Privy league Signature cards. They had promised me and my wife (both privy league Prima account holders) Privy League Signature Cards LTF. However they delivered league platinum and was shocked to know from customer care that it was with annual fees and not LTF. Had written multiple emails to Kotak and at one point a bank employee had the audacity to tell me "Yes, we had promised but now we cant give. What will you do?".

After recording the multiple phone conversations in emails and talking to half a dozen reps for more than a month, Kotak gave in to the promised card as LTF. I had also got an email recorded from Kotak in writing that the card is LTF before giving consent to it. Though the card is pretty useless, in 2019-20 prior to lockdown had on numerous occasions used it of PVR Saturday 1 for 1 free offer. That was the only small benefit which made this ordeal worth it.
 
Reminded me of my long correspondences with Kotak in 2018/2019 to get Privy league Signature cards. They had promised me and my wife (both privy league Prima account holders) Privy League Signature Cards LTF. However they delivered league platinum and was shocked to know from customer care that it was with annual fees and not LTF. Had written multiple emails to Kotak and at one point a bank employee had the audacity to tell me "Yes, we had promised but now we cant give. What will you do?".

After recording the multiple phone conversations in emails and talking to half a dozen reps for more than a month, Kotak gave in to the promised card as LTF. I had also got an email recorded from Kotak in writing that the card is LTF before giving consent to it. Though the card is pretty useless, in 2019-20 prior to lockdown had on numerous occasions used it of PVR Saturday 1 for 1 free offer. That was the only small benefit which made this ordeal worth it.
I have heard similar stories from other folks too where an LTF card was promised to them by bank staff and later on the LTF was denied by the customer care. Looks like it is being deliberately done to fleece money from customer's pocket. Out of 100 customers, even if 50 threaten to cancel the card, they are still left with 50 others who will be paying annual fee on their cards.
 
My personal learnings from previous bitter experiences:

1) always take screenshots of EACH page of the card application process. i have a separate folder full of such screenshots, just in case the banks go back on their word later about the offers
2) NEVER entertain any correspondence over the call. ask then to email from their official id. after reading here that au bank is offering ltf cards to employees of select companies, i started the online application process. but then left the process incomplete because i could not find the ltf mentioned anywhere. i later received a call from their office and they asked me to complete my application. i told them about ltf concern. she asked me about my company name and said that sir, don't worry, you will get ltf. i asked her to put this on email. and she said that "plz trust me, you can even take my name and employee number", etc. but she wasn't agreeing to send an email about the same, so i declined the offer. you might lose out on some offers but at least save the hassle later.
another episode: hdfc was offering ltf cc but the conditions were unclear on their application portal. again the sales guy called me up to complete the application. i told him about my concerns. he assured me over the call that the card would be ltf, irrespective of what the website says. i asked him to put this on email. he agreed, and his email contained only this line: "your card is being offered ltf, subject to the conditions that we talked over our phone conversation." this was ridiculous, and again i stopped the process. i think that if something is official, the sales ppl should not have any problem in sending an email. but they avoid doing that, proving that their misleading claims are intentional for the purpose of completing their sales targets.
3) banking ombudsman always asks for details and proofs to be uploaded without which, they will just discard your complaint. so you just mentioning that the sales person promised on call, etc isn't going to work for rbi.
 
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A grand update guys, finally Kotak customer care agreed to offer Kotak White as a Life Time Free card to me. Escalation to Principle Nodal officer finally worked and today I can see my White Card active in the app and Website.

Special thanks to @souvikdey2002 for the encouragement to fight this case till the favourable resolution. I was about to give up on this card but your words motivated me to escalate this issue further and fight for it.
 
Hmm, I fought for Flipkart Card LTF, for a long time, but still even PNO did not approve for LTF. So, I closed the card altogether. I will close the bank account too
and sadly for you, there were giving out LTF flipkart axis for a whole month. i got it in that offer. i have also saved screenshots of their webpage in case the deny later.
 
A grand update guys, finally Kotak customer care agreed to offer Kotak White as a Life Time Free card to me. Escalation to Principle Nodal officer finally worked and today I can see my White Card active in the app and Website.

Special thanks to @souvikdey2002 for the encouragement to fight this case till the favourable resolution. I was about to give up on this card but your words motivated me to escalate this issue further and fight for it.

Congratulations for your new card!
 
and sadly for you, there were giving out LTF flipkart axis for a whole month. i got it in that offer. i have also saved screenshots of their webpage in case the deny later.
I really didn't want a Flipkart card, as my existing card had very low limit, and my I could get an addon card from my cousin. They offered me LTF, so I took it.
 
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